I did a search of the forum, vaguely remembering a mention of it previous but couldnt find it, apologies in advance. I have 5 of the latest gen Intermountain F-7's doing laps and fighting a dirty wheel issue. I've been running them for weeks to the tune of 5-6 hours per day so definitely broken-in and polished the treads. The behavior is, I typically have to clean the lead units a couple times in a daily session. I don't see this behavior in other manufacturers locomotives, after the initial break-in clean they run for months without issue.
Just trying to make sure I am not nuts and its true that Intermountain geared wheelsets collect dirt for some mystery science reason? Also wondering if the solution is to switch to an Atlas geared wheelset?
Thanks,
The S.