Woodland Scenics 4561 | Roto Wheel Cleaner™ | Tidy Track | HO Scale

To keep the pads fairly clean, I put a paper towel over the top of part of the cleaner and use Goo be gone on the paper towel. That puts most of the dirt on the paper towel. On a brass steam engine, the tender has to be on the metal rail and least some of the drive Wheels on the locomotive have to also be on the metal rail, so the wheels have to be cleaned in a couple of passes. For cars, I use the paper towels on a section of spare track rather than getting the pads on the device dirty.

The unit did not work at all using the white strip, and I could not remove it due to the strong adhesive quality of the backing strip. In the meantime I have resorted to using lacquer thinner sparingly applied to a paper towel on top of portable HO track. With the track powered, I can hold one half of a locomotive in place on the track and gently lower the other wheels onto the paper towel. This has worked wonders. Next I will try using the Roto Wheel Cleaner once again with the newly cleaned locomotives.