Any tips for cleaning Kato passenger car wheel pickups?

[Vaderta]

Was hoping someone has found a good way to clean the wheel pickup cups on Kato passenger cars? I have tried a few things to try and get the center of the pickup cups clean, but haven't found anything that works well. Normally I use contact cleaner or alcohol. But when the cups become very dirty those methods don't work. Currently I have been trying a small drill bit and spin it backwards. It cleans up a good portion of the cups but can't get the very centers of the cups. If anyone has found a good way to clean these without gouging them up I would appreciate your insight in what you use to clean them. Thank you.

[peteski]

Using steel drill bit (even backwards) will damage the much softer (brass) cups. 
In the past I used to cut up good quality 2-ply paper towels (like Bounty) into small (about 1") squares, then using my fingers, roll one of the corners into a point.  Then I would dip that pointy end into Naphtha (either Ronsonol Lighter Fluid, or VM&P Naphtha from hardware store).  I would then stick the moist point into the cup, and using sharpened wooden toothpick I would spin it around in the cup. After that I would drip some Naphtha into the cup and using compressed air, blow the cup dry.  Also, don't forget to clean the pointy axle ends. For that I also use small piece of paper towel moistened in Naphtha.


But few years ago I discovered small pointy swabs from Tamiya, so I just use them (also moistened in Naphtha) instead of the pointy end of a paper towel.


To clean wheel treads I first roll the trucks over the Minitrix wire brush wheel cleaner to loosen up the gunk.  The photos show a locomotive, but the same method works on rolling stock wheels.


Final cleaning is done using a home-made cleaning track with square of Bounty towel laid across the track. I use 99% alcohol to remove gunk from the wheel treads.

I like Naphtha for the bearing cups because it is a better solvent than alcohol for grease and oil.

[nkalanaga]

If you're cheap, and into simple solutions, carve the end of a wooden dowel to the same angle as the cup, and twirl that in it.  It won't damage the metal, and when it gets dirty, a little whittling will give you a new end.  It can be dipped in your favorite cleaner for tough jobs.

I use the sticks from cotton swabs, after using the swab at work to clean the sensors on my machine.  Any small diameter dowel will work.

[randgust]

After years of attempting to get rid of the flicker, I went to easy-peasy lighting in all my cars - but that's no longer available.   But I sure tried hard.  I don't light my train that often, and when a battery dies its a PITA to change, but when it's working, it's just magnificent to watch.

I moved the drumhead from the El Capitan Kato set to a standard coach, and fought that for a couple years - cleaned it, added more weight, everything.  I still couldn't keep it from flickering.   It had to be cleaned before every operating session....and it still flickered in spots.

Finally put in a constant lighting circuit with a capacitor, tight fit hacking up the restroom area inside, but that solved the problem.

[Vaderta]

Yes, this is the battle I fight. All my rolling stock is Kato Passenger trains lighted. I can't stand flicker. The maintenance on it is intense. My routine is I get about 3 hours runtime maybe 4 before the lights start to flicker.  Then I have to clean all the tracks , wheels, and about every third cleaning pull the trucks apart and clean the pickups. The train I have just purchased has been run for years and not cleaned because it was not lit. So the dirt and grime and micro arching is etched into the brass pickups. So I need something abrasive but not too aggressive to get a clean contact without being too aggressive.  The drill bit works to clear about 3/4 of the cup but doesn't get to the very center. I wish they made a glass or plastic media blast in a can. But obviously they don't.

Definitely would like to find a keep alive to help with the flicker,  but haven't figured that out in the tight space. I appreciate all the replies and advice

[peteski]

Maybe your layout is in a very dusty environment? You should really not need to clean the bearing cups so often. The problem is with the wheel tread and the railhead.  I can run my Kato lit passenger cars for hours on cleaned track and with cleaned treads with no flicker.

I described the tread cleaning in my earlier post. The wire brush tread scraping followed by a wet alcohol treatment does a great job on wheel tread.

Flicker of lights in Kato cars is one of the most common complains on our NTRAK layout during trains shows, and the complainers are amazed what a difference clean treads makes (yes, I clean one of their cars as the proof).  If the track is regularly cleaned (as a part of layout maintenance) the treads also should not get dirty too often (unless some sort of oily stuff is applied to the track in hopes of improving conductivity).

[randgust]

Well, somewhat as the contrarian here....

I thought Rapido had given up on the N scale version of these, maybe not.    I've got a 8 car passenger train and a spare equipped with these.

https://rapidotrains.com/rapido-bits-n-easy-peasy-passenger-car-lighting-kit-track-powered.html

Now, they aren't entirely foolproof.   If you leave them on too long, or by accident, it will require getting them out of the car and changing batteries.  Contrary to what you think, this is a standard watch battery, nothing weird.

Now, where I have had trouble on these (after several years) is that like anything with batteries, they will corrode.  On all of them, I've had to periodically taken them back out and clean up the battery contacts.  Maybe like every two years or so.

So it depends on what you want to maintain.   For all they cost, I'd recommend trying one.   After I put one in, I was all in and did the entire fleet.  I do have the one track-powered drumhead still though with a constant lighting capacitor.   I think Jim Hinds still sells those too, on the Richmond Controls website, for passenger cars.  That's likely the ultimate fix, and because I have....hmmmm, nine cabooses equipped with his caboose lighting boards with maybe an annual wheel cleaning and they REALLY hold a charge (like in minutes) that's the other way.

I really went all in on the cabooses - upgraded everything to Centralia/Intermountain CE-1's, pickup wheels and axle wipers, and Jim's boards, to illuminate interiors and rear markers.   That's one thing I found was really necessary on night operations (where the heck is the back of the train?)  So that's an endorsement, and no, they don't flicker at all.  What's really odd is that even after all room power is shut down, the caboose markers are still on for another few minutes.

[Lackawannae8]

I use a cheap ultrasonic cleaner for real nasty gummy train and shotgun parts I got off amazon A few years ago. Works great

[Vaderta]

Peteski, I appreciate your feedback. Yes I would say my track gets dusty fairly quickly. My track maintenance after a couple nights of running is to run a tomix vacuum car over the tracks several times and it does pick up a good bit of dust. Then I run a cmx cleaner car with 91% alcohol over the tracks several times until I can wipe my finger over the track and it has no black lines on it. I have tried mineral spirits in the past but the odor can get to be too much. I know some people frown on alcohol as it has water in it. But it's what I have been using. Maybe a different cleaning solvent would have better results, not sure. I also clean the wheels and pickups with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol. The current train I purchased is a run from I believe 2000. The pickups look like they have never been cleaned so for this I need something a bit more aggressive.  I found the solution and just tested it now and it seems to work. I used a 1/16 drill bit with my hand spinning it backwards lightly until I get a clean surface. Minimal material removed as I am scraping and not cutting.  I just purchased a Hobart #770086 welding tip cleaner. It has bits from 54 to 72. Doing the same process as described above with the smaller bits gets the center of the cup and makes a like new surface and good contact. The ultrasonic cleaner mentioned above may be a good option, although I have never used one. I appreciate everyone's responses and hopefully people that run Kato lighted cars maybe got a few good ideas on what will work best for them. I appreciate all the help. Thank you

[peteski]

I would still highly recommend against cleaning the bearing cups with anything harder than the brass they are made of. Scraping=damaging.   Soft cleaning methods wit solvent (like Naphtha) do perfectly good job on those cups.

Which version of Kato lighting kits do you use?  They made 3 so far. 
1. Incandescent light bulbs.
2. LED with a current limiting resistor.
3. LED with a constant current diode. This (the newest one) one uses different light diffuser.  IIRC, both 2 and 3 are called "Version 2).

[cfritschle]

I cleaned the cups and axle ends on my lighted Kato passenger cars about 3 years ago with a round toothpick dipped in a little bit of DeoxIT D100L-25C.  It is still working well at keeping the flicker to a minimum, that is as long as the wheels and track are clean.

I am not sure which N scale forum had a thread about using DeoxIT, but I did not find it with a search of TRW. 

[mmagliaro]

I "splotch" some alcohol into the cup (dab of a soaked QTip or a small brush) and then spin and scrape around in the cup with a pointy wooden toothpick.  The wood won't scratch the phorphor bronze cup, and it gets the gunk out of the very tippy tip of the cup.

[Vaderta]

I am using the 11-214 on the current train without a diffuser. I have used the 11-212 on other trains. But instead of using the diffuser I use a litte Tamiya yellow or orange x26 and x24 on the led to get a bit different glow than what the diffuser puts out. I even have a couple boxes of light kits with the old bulbs but never used them. Accidentally bought them thinking they were something else.The Great Northern Empire Builder was the last Kato train I didn't have for passenger.  I should say that I want as I am not a Metra or Am Track fan. So I have most that they produced is a fair statement, at least for the American market.

[Jimbo]

If you are looking for lighting kits with capacitance to reduce flicker, I use these lighting kits that I found advertised on the ‘bay a while back, and they include capacitors for flicker reduction.  They also have a three position switch to adjust brightness.  And 14 (!) LEDs along their length for nice even light.  No diffuser necessary!

They’re not perfect; I think they could use more capacitance than they have.  I have one car that still occasionally flickers, so I need to see if I have a contact issue with that particular car.  Build quality isn’t exactly top-notch either, but they all work.

I’ve been happier with them than with Kato’s lighting kits.

And I’ve never cleaned the axles or axle cups.

https://www.khahostore.com/en/products/%E9%89%84%E8%A3%BD%E6%89%80-kato%E7%94%A8%E9%80%B2%E9%9A%8E%E5%BD%A2%E5%AE%A4%E5%85%A7%E7%87%88n-scale-interior-led-lightadvance-version-for-kato-7pcs/

PS:  Don’t freak out about the price; the company is in Hong Kong so the prices shown are in Hong Kong dollars.  $1 USD = $7.76 HKD.

Their old website used to be a lot better; they had options to show prices in other currencies.  And, with the old site, when you selected “English” the pages were ONLY in English.

Not sure if they still sell them on eBay…

Jim

[Vaderta]

Jim, those look like a nice light kit especially for coach cars. I will have to try and find them on ebay. Thanks for showing those.