No-ox-id A type grease continues to work very well for me. After application I remove all that I can with a Masonite type board. What is left does not attract dust and largely prevents the black crud from forming. I only do touch up cleaning on occasion. s
This is done in combination with scrubbing all the contacting surfaces of my locomotives with a fiberglass contact cleaner which in this case was sold by Badger. I then treat the surfaces in the same way I treat the track.
I clean my wheels by chucking them into my DeWalt (lightly) and running at high speed while gently applying the aforementioned Badger contact cleaner. I also clean the needle point on the wheels in this way. The brass axle holders in the trucks have the axle sockets cleaned with a toothpick in a drill at high speed and a little polishing compound. The polishing compound is then cleaned with solvent.
As a result I can do switching operations with at most a couple of stalls and this is in N Scale with engines as small as the Kato NW2. BTW I use a single engine on the switch job.
