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Tim Warris of Fast Tracks uses a metal-bristle brush to keep
the soldering iron tip clean. My background is in electronics
soldering, and I’ve used a wide variety of tip-cleaning
techniques, starting with the Weller sponge/water combo.
Eventually I ran across the Hakko (4) tip cleaner “metal
sponge.” The metal of the tip cleaner captures dirt and flux,
keeping it out of the work area, and in general is neater. You
simply plunge the tip of the iron into the coils of the cleaner,
and out comes a clean tip which you can then tin, and get back
to work. It has the advantage of one-hand operation, so you’re
less likely to burn yourself by accidentally touching the iron.
The Hakko cleaning system is fairly inexpensive, too.
One source is Amazon.com:
– John “Steck” Stoecker
Instruction sheets
I use car cards and waybills for operations. I have color-
coded blocking for my trains and provide the yards/stations
with blocking sheets so the operators know where the cars
go in the trains. I had been putting them flat on the fascia,
4
4. Hakko's coiled wire
cleaning sponge for solder-
ing iron tips minimizes heat
loss and allows one-hand
operation.
