Overview of lubricants
and cleaners
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This is a short overview which lists a few quality lubricants which are
suitable for your Japanese railway models.
Conducta
lube:
This is made by only a few
manufacturers. The only 2 that I know of are
Aerocar and Atlas, they come in a small bottle with a needle for
precise application, Aerocar can supply larger quantities. It is well
possible that Atlas is supplied by Aerocar. (I am not sure!) As an
alternative you could use Peco 'Powerlube' which should be available
through most UK-based modelshops. Kato's oil is also electrically
conductive and could be used as an alternative.
ACT-3753 Conducta
lube as
supplied by Aerocar Peco 'Powerlube'
(ref. PL64)
Motor
bearing oil:
Made by Aerocar, Woodland
Scenics, Kato, LaBelle and most
model
railway manufacturers. Not oils are the same and some are more suitable
than others. A good motor bearing oil should fill the space between the
bearing and the armature shaft, this is a very small space, the
capillary effect should suck the oil into the bearing, watch out for
over-lubricating, which is often the cause for repairs. Use only one
small drop of oil per bearing (each motor has 2). A small bottle of oil
lasts for years,depending on the size of your collection and how often
you run your trains. If you have Kato models, it is best to use the
Kato oil, but other oils, Aerocar ACT-2002 and LaBelle 108 in particular are good alternatives.
Clock oil
Clock oil
seems to be a very good lubricant for model train motors. It is
long-lasting and has a good friction reduction characteristic. Dr.
Tillwich, a manufacturer from Germany has a wide range of clock oils,
of which some are of interest. These products are marketed in the USA
under the 'Etsyntha' brand. A number of clock repair specialists carry
these products. Dr. Tillwich also supplied a custom-made lubricant for the
Mars
Rovers 'Spirit' and 'Opportunity'.
Sorte 1-3 and
Sorte 3-5
Dr. Tillwich Sorte 1-3 (left) and
Sorte 3-5 (right) clock oils
These oils are clock
oils of different viscosity. Sorte 1-3 is the
lighter one, Sorte 3-5 is slightly thicker. Originally developed for
clocks, these oils are also suitable for lubricating railway models.
Use these oils only on metal motor bearings. I would recommend Sorte
1-3
above Sorte 3-5 for use on N-scale models, but Sorte 3-5 seems to work
well. Use watchmaker's oilers to apply the oil
to the
bearings. These oilers are often used by watchmakers to oil the tiny
bearings that are common in clocks and watches. I recently
aquired some Sorte 3-5 and now the stuff is under test. I can now
report that Sorte 3-5 works well as a motor bearing oil. I used it on a
Tomix Meitetsu 8800 class EMU and after a few months the oil seems to
do its work without any noticeable effects on the mechanism. On a
further Tomix model (very old C57 class steam loco) I used not only
Sorte 3-5 oil, but also B52 grease on the worm gear and on gear
bearing. The loco runs very smoothly after being stored for a few
months. An EF71 electric loco,was used as another guinea pig; I used Sorte 3-5 oil on the motor
bearings and B52 grease on the worm and gears. Performance until now is
good, with no ill-effects noticed.
Watchmaker's oilers,
very suitable for oiling model train motor and axle bearings.
Ballistol
/ weapon oil
Some German
modellers have good experience with Ballistol, a cleaner /
lubricant oil commonly used in small firearms. It is a thin,
red-coloured (like red wine) oil that has good penetrating
characteristics. It seems that Micro Ace uses something similar as
factory-applied lubricant. Available through hardware stores,
gunsmiths and some model shops.
Weapon
oil, same type
as supplied by Ballistol
Gear grease:
Supplied by Aerocar, LaBelle, Woodland
Scenics and some others. Aerocar's gear grease has a good reputation,
the stuff has a bluish, slightly transparant colour. Outside the USA
this product is hardly available, so you may have to look out for
alternatives.
Aerocar
ACT-1111 gear grease. This stuff has a good
reputation amongst US modellers.
As an
alternative you could use LaBelle 106 grease, a white grease with
Teflon (PTFE) added. I used this grease successfully on Kato, Tomix and
Minitrix model locomotives. Another grease with PTFE added is offerd by
Woodland Scenics, which seems similar to LaBelle 106 grease.
.
B 52 grease
This grease is
made by Dr. Tillwich, a German manufacturer of precision
lubricants. Dr.
Tillwich's normal range is mainly aimed at clock and watch repairers
and
a few lubricants have been successfully used by railway modellers. This
product is marketed in the USA under the 'Etsyntha' brand. The
manufacturer recommends this product for use on worms and gears and
claims great reduction of wear and friction. I
hope to report on this product in the near future. Recently I found
this stuff at a modelling fair and I bought some. The stuff is now
under test, but is promising to be very good. I used this on 2 different olderTomix models: with good results.
B 52 Grease as
supplied by Dr. Tillwich
MT-coupler
graphite lubricant:
This is a dry graphite powder that is
used to lubricate magnetic-action
knuckle couplers as offered by Micro-Trains, Kadee, Accurail, Atlas,
Bachmann, Life-Like, McHenry and Kato. Lubricant offered by Kadee,
Micro-Trains and Woodland Scenics.
Micro-Trains
graphite coupler lubricant. The same product is offered by
Kadee.
Woodland Scenics
graphite lubricant for knuckle
couplers.
Track
and wheel
cleaners:
Denatured alcohol: available from
supermarkets and hardware stores.
Lighter fuel: available from supermarkets, chemist's shops and (more
expensive) tobacconist's shops.
Goo Gone: through Centerline Products and Centerline dealers. Hardware
stores and supermarkets in the U.S.
Aerocar Track Cleaner and Conditioner: through Aerocar and Aerocar
dealers.
Tomix cleaner: through Tomix dealers. Supplied with Tomix track and
wheel cleaning kit (contains wheel cleaning rail, track cleaner car,
cleaning fluid and some spare cleaning pads). Available through Tomix
dealers.
Rail cleaner could be applied with a clean cloth or with a rail cleaner
car with the option of wet cleaning, like the ones offered by Tomix and
Centerline. Wet cleaning is best be done before or after operating
sessions. Please leave enough time to let the cleaning fluid to
evaporate. Use adequate ventilation!
Aerocar
6116 track cleaner
Tomix
track and wheel
cleaning fluid.
Links
to
manufacturers and suppliers of lubricants, cleaners and cleaning
equipment
- Aerocar offers lubricants,
conducta lube and track cleaning fluid.
- Woodland Scenics offers a
range of lubricants.
- Tomix offers cleaning fluid,
track cleaning cars and wheel cleaning devices.
- Kato
offers a special motor bearing oil. Use only with Kato
motors.
- LaBelle makes an extensive range of maintainance products, now used ex-factory by Sanda Kan, producer of Micro Ace model trains.
- Centerline offers a range
of
track cleaning cars.
- Aztec
offers track cleaning
cars as well.
- Micro-Trains
offers
buckeye-coupler lubricant (graphite powder)
- Dr.
Tillwich makes B52 grease, several clock oils and other precision
lubricants. German text.
- Ballistol is a brand name
and supplier of Ballistol weapon-oil and other oils. German text.
- LocTite
is the web portal for LocTite products. Datasheets of many products
available to download.
- Robbe
supplies a few lubricants as well, mainly aimed at R/C modellers, but
also useful for railway modellers. Lubricants seem to be made by Dr.
Tillwich.
- Super Lube makes the lubricants
with PTFE added, and these are available under several brands.
- Peco
supplies 'Powerlube' and a handy foam servicing cradle.
- Uhlenbrock offers a foam
servicing cradle as well, to a different design as Peco and also
available in a special 'XL' size for larger scales.
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