Maintenance of the locomotives

Certainly not the top of my do list, but since we are sheltering in place, why not.  These are the locomotives for my N scale layout.  The blip is my temporary work surface for cleaning the wheels and making sure the consisted locomotives are well speed matched.  The gray plastic thing in the background is a speedometer.  I run the loco around the track to get it warmed up, and then read out the speed (N scale speed is shown) at full speed.   I can adjust the CVs in the decoder to make it go faster or slower at that throttle setting.  I aim for 80 mph at full throttle, and 40 at half.  That way when I join several locos together (a consist) they all move the same speed at a throttle setting.  A bit fiddley but part of the deal.

The home made thing in the middle is what I use to clean the wheels.  I wrap some paper towel strands over the rails, and wet them with 90 percent isopropyl alcohol.  Then I attach jumpers from the DCC system to those screws on the left end.  Put a loco on the track, enter the address, and run up the throttle and hold it on the paper to clean the gunk off the wheels while they spin.

The extras are my locos - the diesels have passenger locos and consists at the top, and freight locos and consists at the bottom.  The other extra is my collection of steamers.  All have sound and it is fun to listen to them.  I have been collecting for over 30 years and like most of us, have to many.  I do sell off a few now and then ti thin the herd but usually see some new locomotive that strikes my fancy. That is model railroading.