Cleaning Method's

I'm interested in what method's railway's/locomotive owner's etc use to clean their locomotives. Myself and my father, along with the Johnny E and Clive Hanley look after GWR 4-6-0 4953 Pitchford Hall. We've looked after on behalf of her owner John Kennedy since 4953 steamed in 2004/2005 and now she is at the Great Central Railway, we leave a set of instruction's for cleaner's to clean her if no one from the group is at the railway, though we do keep her immaculate every time she's in steam by cleaning her at least once every two weeks if she is not in steam or every time before she leaves shed to work on service trains.

To clean the brass nameplate, cabside number plate, splasher's, beading on the cab's, whistle, safety bonnet, chimney cab and external pipework, we clean with T-Cut. We use T Cut if the brass is tarnished or dirt that is particularly hard to remove, but good ol' brasso is preffered if reasonably clean. If the loco is not used for several weeks in particular winter time when one steam heat bag limit's 4953's use we protect the brass work, buffers with vaseline. This may change as we may put another steam heat bag on the front of the loco, I believe during GWR day's they never had front steam heat bags fitted??

Buffers are cleaned with parrafin, if the buffer's are rusty, the rust is removed with scotchbrite, and vaselined to protect the metalwork. Smae applies to ro'd etc

We never use paraffin on the paint work on the boiler, cabsides or tender. To maintain the finish of the paint to a really good standard, the paint work is washed down every two weeks with car shampoo and water, the paintwork on the tender/cabside/boiler etc is polished once a month using turtlewax and a stud free cloth and if the loco is in service we use white spirit, leave to haze and buff with a cloth to remove dirt.

The smokebox, painted in gloss is cleaned up with vaseline to give a nice smooth even shine.

Wheels and frames are cleaned with parrafin and wiped off with a cloth. Tender frames are washed and polished as are the steps.

Metalwork, such as the reverser, regulator are cleaned with scotchbrite and the pipework is cleaned with T Cut and the backhead is polished.

Looking forward to hear what other people use on their locomotive's.