Model Railway Wiring and Dust Cleaning Techniques

When it comes to model railway wiring, Lee Nicholas, owner/operator of the Utah Colorado Western, prefers to keep it simple. He shows Allen Keller his method for hooking up his bus and feeder wires.

Lee has two bus wires of different colors running beneath his layout, but when it comes to attaching feeder wires, he opposes using a soldering iron in the cramped crevices beneath the benchwork. Instead, he uses 3M Scotchlok 567 tap connectors which make the hookups easy and they also look much neater and orderly. And who doesn’t want that instead of a spaghetti tangle of wires? Other modelers have their own favorite methods for model railroad wiring.

Cleaning Model Railroad Parts

With operations being such a high priority on the UCW, flawless running of engines and rolling stock is a must. Lee doesn’t use a cleaning car, nor does he like putting liquids such as Wahl oil on his tracks, as he finds that it seems to add to the formation of oily gunk. The best way he knows to keep his track clean is simply to run the trains more often. Occasionally, during dusty construction work, black grime on the wheels is unavoidable. Lee turns turns each car over and uses a Dremel abrasive wheel to clean each wheel independently. Otherwise, on rare occasions he’ll use WD-40 on a cloth to wipe down a problem area, but in most circumstances a Brite Boy track eraser keeps the tracks clean and the whole operation rolling smoothly.

Here are other tips on how to clean model train wheels.