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Cleaning a LS loco


Screwy Nick
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   After many years of running and only having the running gear cleaned the rest of the loco was looking pretty bad.  I've herd of others cleaning with Simple Green.  I didn't have any of that but did have Greased Lightening.  WOW, it even removed the burned on oil from the smoke box.  I like clean looking locos.    LiG

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That came out excellent Nick.  I know electric powered engines I have seen that were run on Live Steam run tracks were often completely soaked in live steam oil and in such a mess makes you wonder how to get it clean....  I'll give this a shot next time, thanks!

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  Ray, Yea, live steamers can spew that steam oil out all over if the driver doesn't do anything to control it.  Most of all limiting the amount of steam oil that it uses.  That can be a balancing act.  I also made exhaust diverters and in some Chuffers which helps some. The only other place I use it is cleaning my stove top so I don't know if it will attack non metal products or the finish on an electric.  Let me know if you try it and how you fare.   I should have taken a BEFORE pic, but I didn't really expect the results I got.  LiG

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yes steam oil has a viscosity reminiscent of Molasses at room temperature, and many live steamers spray it around the track. My solution to this is to run steam just when a rainstorm is coming, as steam oil is water soluble, and that most often gets rid of most of it.

Now concerning getting it all over electric locos that must be because they were next to the loco just when it was started and the steam engeneer had put too much oil in the oiler. You should not top up but have the oil level in the lubricator about a mm or two under the level of the cap screw pipe. Otherwise when starting from cold a steam locomotive will have a considerable amount of condensed steam inside the cylinders (thus cylinder drain valves) and this will make the locomotive work hydraulicly for a few feet. This water in turn will pump out all the oil in the oiler in one gulp, spraying it all over the nearby equipment! Other inconvenience is that since the oil in the lubricator will have been flushed out you wont lubricate your cylinders...

I have been running steam and electric for years its perfectly feasable, even with DCS.

 Most of my friends who are into collecting, use WD 40 on their locos after shutting down since a few minutes. I prefer to rub it down when hot with a cloth (paper will scratch the paint) as this won't carry dirt into the bearings which a solvent could. When you rub off with the engine still warm the viscosity of the steam oil is like regular oil. Leaving an oily film on a steam loco gives it good protection from rust. One should carefully perform this around the stack as this is where a lot of oil stagnates, around the front truck and under the cylinders also. At worst you may have a bit of dust sticking onto the oil next year, easely cleaned off as the loco warms up. I rarely clean the oil off the motion as that is where it is most useful; would you remove all the lubricant from a gear box, I will pick out with tweasers any grain or twig that gets caught up in there though.

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On 6/13/2018 at 6:06 AM, du-bousquetaire said:

I rarely clean the oil off the motion as that is where it is most useful;   Quote. 

Most people that I know do clean the running gear as the oil has a tendency to collect and hold dirt, especially if the layout is ground level, Not just my opinion, I learned from those more experienced than i.  When I had a ground layout I cleaned my running gear with either CRC or WD40 after each run and saw the dirt in the pan when I was done. Of course adding new oil before each run. And a gear box is usually just that, an enclosed box where the gears and lubricant are protected from the elements.  Having said that, I have changed the lubricant in the gear boxes of my Catatonk Heisler as the gears are metal.  Probably less likely to do that to non metal gears. LiG

 

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  After replacing a defective jet (just wouldn't reverse blow clean) and an excersize on the track another spanking clean locomotive is going back on display.  Notice the LED's are lit on the ends of the little switcher.    LiG

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