I found a nice original paint #833 with working spark thrower, stamped wheels and original winding key for $18.......and I just found a Wind up Commador Vanderbuilt with matching NYC tender & caboose with no key for $20 ( they have a bunch of scratches &plastic wheels but I don't mind)
I'll post photos as soon as I get the second engine in the mail. :)
I am hooked on collecting more LOL!,
I was wondering if there is anything a person who is new to windup trains should be aware of before running the heck out of them? I have followed the Marx Tin collecting thread from the beginning but found nothing about maintenance or winding & running tips so far.
I'm mostly concerned about about accidentilly over winding the spring - how many turns can one of these safely take?
Is it good or bad to lube the mechanism with light weight oil? I'm used to greasing & oiling my electric trains, will it help or hurt a mechanical train?
Also can these be run on 3 rail track? I noticed the spring hangs down on my 833 when winding and rubs the center rail sometimes, I figure i can get some cheap o-27 track and pull off the center rails if I have to and build a small layout for just my marx stuff. It runs a 36"x 50" loop of O-31 lionel track about 3 times with a tender, 1 car, and a caboose before running down, the spring rubs the center rail and slows it down....if I lift it up off the track it runs a little while longer.
Thanks for the help!
- Jason Rackawack
Be careful not to wind them up till the key stops, you can break the spring that way.
I run my mechanicals on 3 rail no problem, however there is usually lots of vintage 2 rail track for sale on Ebay. Be careful with any turnouts if your locomotives have the older extra wide flange where the gear teeth are just inside the wheel flange, those require the oldest style Marx turnouts that have extra wide frogs to accommodate the thick flange. BTW regular or contemporary Lionel switches will cause instant derailment with those thick flanges.
I keep my mechies regularly oiled with Labells at the points of motion, gear teeth and axles, just a dab where any friction can occur.
jzpSJi8 QRk
Have fun with your trains
I recommend you lube everything with motor oil, 5/10W-20/30. I have used it for 50+ years with no problems. Make sure you oil the spring. Corrosion will cause the spring to break. If there is any corrosion that you can see, I would recommend you polish it off. Polish in the direction of the length of the spring. You can buy 2 rail Marx switches which will work fine with the fat wheels, or you can use the Marx 3 rail metal switches.
Plastic Marx turnouts have spring-loaded inserts in the frogs that allow fat wheels to pass:
Bob Nelson
Thanks for the replies guys,
As long as oil wont goof up the mechinism I'll give it a try, sparingly and just on the friction points
For now I plan on just using some old rusty 3 rail marx track I have, I can remove the center rail and sand blast it clean, give it a quick coat of metallic paint to get up and running, I'll worry about finding turn outs a little later, Good tip on the flanges and frogs though.
The locomotive I have now is pre 1950 and has no guard or cover on the main spring and when it is wound up it hangs down below the wheels and rubs the center rail, I think if the center rail is gone it will run smoother & maybe longer.
Kind of a fun deal to build a small dedicated wind up layout, I love the video above ,the "rail zepplin" is friggin great! No wires, no bad connections, no dirty contacts, I'll have something to do if the power goes out.
I cant wait to get started on a small 3'x4' loop on a painted board and find some toy type buildings.
-Thanks again guys, Jason
P.S. feel free to keep the small wind up layout photos coming, I love the one on youtube that folds into a storage case...I cant think of the member's name on here who built it....he was just in CTT a few months ago with his postwar Lionel layout, he does very neat work.
Jason, Congratulations on the Marx windups! I'm always glad to meet another "Springhead". The guys have given you good advice already, I'll just touch on a few points...
Winding - Marx used to advertise that their motors could not be overwound... that may have been true when they were brand new, but after decades of use, it is best to be cautious. It is usually easiest to count half-turns when winding, a Marx motor will usually wind between 14 to 16 half turns. I would suggest winding your locomotive up completely one time, counting half turns as you wind, going slow and careful when you approach 14 half turns. When you feel the spring bind, note the number of half turns, then always wind it one less half turn after that. As a side note - if you run windup trains on a regular basis, you will break a spring at some point. It's not the end of the world; most breaks are near the ends and can be reterminated. Marx windups are common, so it is pretty easy to find extra motors for either replacement or parts.
Oil - Like servoguy, I've used motor oil without any problems. I prefer synthetic because it isn't as prone to gumming up. Lately, I've switched to a non-gumming "Turbine Oil" made by Norvey - it is specifically made for fan motors that run long periods of time without oiling or cleaning, so it works well in clockwork trains, too. I'm sure Labell is good, also. As long as the motor is clean and oiled, it should be fine.
Track - They run fine on 3 rail track. However, I like two rail track, so I use any and all clockwork track I can find. Marx made two rail in O27, along with straight track, switches and 90 degree crossings. You will also occasionally find track from Hafner, American Flyer, Ives, etc... most of which is in the O27 size range. On my layout, I use original Marx windup track on the inside Figure 8 / reverse loop, Marx O34 with the center rail removed for the middle oval, and Lionel O42 with the center rail remove on the outside mainline. I've modified the plastic Marx O34 switches for a crossover between the outside and middle loops, and they work fairly well. The clockwork trains run really well on the larger O42 loop; less friction = longer run times. :>D
This is my layout in action, first video is an Ives windup running point-to-point and also around the mainline:
watch?v=KoBDgP6aypU
This is a second, slightly older video of just running lots of trains with my friend Rick... it was before I rearranged the engine terminal track:
watch?v=Vn wecRRhko
There are other windup train videos on my channel, and you can see more clockwork trains (and repairs) on my Clockwork Train Website.
Looking forward to seeing photos of your trains!
- James
Duplicate Post (Darn Computers!)
I recommend you guys oil the springs so that they are covered with oil from one end to the other. Spring steel is more corrosive than regular steel because of the high carbon content. Corrosion will cause the spring to fatigue and break. The oil will prevent corrosion.
OK, I took the above advice I cleaned all the dust, fuzz and junk out of the mechanism and oiled the spring and gears and it ran much smoother and quieter,
I used automotive gear oil because it is supposed to "cling" or stick to the metal better, it was a little bit too thick, but it helped get the parts moving again, I then wiped off all the excess after running it on the workbench a few times. After wiping all the oil off I could and recleaning the dirt, I used a light weight machine oil that is for small gears in digital printers or photocopiers, after testing on the bench it unwinds much smoother with the light oil.
The above videos are great, I cant believe the run times...almost 3 min! Man I'm jelious my loco only runs about 30 sec with a stop watch....it seemed longer untill I actually timed it.
One more question, did marx have different spring lengths? or is it possible my spring broke and some one shortened it. Is it possible to replace the main spring without major dissasembly or restaking the chassis?
I can only get 7.5 to 8 half turns of the key and about 25-30 seconds of unwind time on the workbench. If I count the clicks of the ratchet it is about 23-24 clicks before the spring is tight. Does this sound normal for a Marx with stamped wheels and a spark thrower?
As soon as I get my other package in the mail...and figure out what they did to my Flickr photo account I'll get some photos posted, I'm back to fixing up my track to run this on.
-Thanks for the help guys! Jason
Jason, as far as I know, all Marx windups used the same length of spring, so I suspect yours has been broken and shortened. The ratchet will click 6 times per turn, so your 24 clicks = 4 complete turns, confirming your 8 half turns. It should wind almost twice that, and your run time should be almost twice as long. A stock Marx windup motor in good condition will normally run around 50 seconds or so, depending on the governor's speed, and should travel somewhere in the neighborhood of 100'.
I don't know of any place that sells a new mainspring that is an exact replacement for the original Marx spring, but the motors are pretty common, so I would just find an old non-running motor cheap and reuse the mainspring. It can be replaced without taking the motor apart, but it does take some care and patience. I do want to caution you that even a small mainspring can store a enough energy to hurt you, so it pays to be careful - the end of the spring can whip around and give you a painful cut or worse. Anyway, I like to use a vice to hold the motor, being careful to tighten it just enough to hold the motor without bending the sideplates. The mainspring will have to be unhooked from the crossmember, then pulled out... since yours isn't broken, the drivers will be spinning as you pull on the spring. I use vice grips to grasp the spring. The hardest part is the last little bit by the hub, and unhooking the spring. The new spring is hooked to the hub and the spring wound in using the key.
Here is a video I made of repairing a Marx motor, sped up to 4x real speed. It wouldn't wind, so I removed the spring thinking that it was broken... but it had a broken hub, so the motor had to come apart anyway. Regardless, it will give you an idea of how to remove and replace the mainspring. Sorry about the music, I just couldn't pass up a song title, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
watch?v=NvuyE3odQvc
Hope that helps...
Jame P. THANK YOU! The repair video is a HUGE help, the trick of stuffing the spring down a pipe is awesome. Actually all the videos you posted on you tube are great...the live steam is friggin' awesome WOW!
Well, it figures every time I buy something...I end up having to fix it - no big deal. I'll find the parts and I'm handy with tools and fabricating parts. I don't have machine shop tools so I hope its just a spring length issue.
I wonder if an old clock / watch repair shop would have spring steel to use in these locomotives? I would expect to have to cut & bend the ends, as long as width & tension of the steel is the same
I will probably keep the 833 engine together for awhile until I acquire some more wind up marx stuff, I plan on hitting the local hobby shop for their "Junk box" also the auction house around here is also full of marx "junk".
Once I find another loco that runs well I'll try working on the 833, I dont want to mess up the only wind up I own right now, I hope the CV I have coming in the mail runs longer than this one.
I starting to really love these little wind up trains they are simple but cool and after looking at the prices of some them compared to the postwar lionel stuff I have been fixing & running...well I better keep that secret to my self. ;^)
Once I get some experience with the cheaper low end marx wind ups, I'd love to own an American Flyer prewar passenger set some day.
Thanks for the great advice and I promise to get the photos up soon!
-Jason
Jason, you can check with a clock repair shop for a spring; they may have something that will work. The Marx mainsprings I have measured are about 65" long, 3/8" wide and .024" thick. Marx actually used a couple of different thicknesses - depending on the application - but the majority had a .024" spring. The thicker the spring, the more torque it has. The longer the spring, the longer the run. I've bought springs from Clockworks before, they have a good selection of mainsprings on this page. However, their 3/8" mainsprings are a bit shorter and thinner than the stock Marx mainsprings, so the loco won't perform as well as it does with an original spring. You can remove the temper from the end of a spring with a propane torch, just heat it to a dull red and let it cool down slowly without quenching or blowing on it. Then you can drill it, bend it, etc without problem. I usually do any sharp bending with the spring cherry red to avoid breaking it.
BTW, when you get ready to work on the loco, shoot me a PM - I'm sure I've got an extra mainspring that I can spare.
James, I might just take you up on the offer for a spring, I'm the kind of guy that if I buy a parts engine sooner or later I'm going to try to fix up the parts engine...I hate to see anything go to waste.
I'm going to check my local sources this weekend for a junker chassis, hopefully I come up with something I can use, would you know off hand if the later plastic body steam wind up locos would use a similar spring? I remember my LHS had a plastic one with a busted up body If they still have it I might pick it up to use for parts or experimenting on, it was pretty rough with cracks, glue & paint all over it.
My other thought is that maybe the spring is stuck together in one of the middle coils with rust or something I might try soaking it with wd-40 to see if it pops loose, the entire chassis is rust free but who knows maybe I'll get lucky....probably not. I noticed the spring does not wind "on center" like the end was not formed like original....we'll see.
Just for curiosity what makes the governor work on one of these later marx? I saw on your website how the wheel mounted governor works, will getting oil on or near a later unit it hurt it?, I do not see any friction points like the wheel mounted drum has, just a weight and spring.
Thanks for taking all the time to help out and thanks for the great website about clock work locos.
Have a good weekend!
Most of the plastic body Marx locomotives use the late model "riser gear" motor instead of the earlier ratchet motor, but both motors use the same basic mainspring. Sounds like that locomotive would be a good donor, since the body is in such poor shape. Hope you can get it cheap!
The Marx governor is simple, the weight moves further away from the gear as centrifugal force overcomes the spring when the speed is increased. The weight then contacts the hub surrounding it, introducing a source of friction that limits the speed of the motor. Oil won't hurt it, but it will run considerably faster. If you happen to get oil in the hub and it runs too fast, just use a Q-tip and alcohol to clean it out.
Here is a picture of a modified Marx governor I put in an Ives clockwork:
At the bottom of the picture, the hub is on the left and the governor assembly is on the right. The hub is stationary, attached to a motor sideplate, and the governor spins inside it. You can see a ring inside the perimeter of the hub where the weight rubs against it. Of course, when the motor is running slow or is stopped, the spring should retract the weight so it isn't in contact with the hub.
This is the same governor installed in the motor:
The offer for the spring still stands if you need it - I'm always glad to help out!
Yep. Gotta love my Marx, Hornby, Schylling and Hafner clockworks when the power goes out!
Becky
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Becky - You stole the words from my mouth! Last November while we were without power for many days, due to Superstorm Sandy, my wife said "what will you do now that you can't run your trains?"
You should have seen the look on her face when I set up my American Flyer Clockwork on a towel on the kitchen table! Priceless!
Ray
Bayville, NJ
Life is what happens to youWhile you're busy making other plans - John Lennon
about running clockwork trains on 3 rail track, ... the only locomotives i find that have chronic problems are Hafner frames with the bell ringers (fixable, without modification) and cast iron American Flyer locomotive motors, some of which will literally bounce the engine off the rails if not caught before their final burst of energy (more of an operations fix). as you have noticed, clockwork motors under load will typically not wind down completely, and i'm not doubting a Marx motor spring might meet the center rail when fully unwound, but again, this shouldn't be a problem in normal operations (ie. pulling a train).
i definitely agree with James in that you are somehow being shortchanged in your spring winding. i usually limit Marx to about 12 half turns, but after a time you will likely get proficient enough to know how many turns/ clicks it will take to reach the next station or to stop in front of you after 'x' number of laps.
be careful with the CV. unloaded, on O27 curves with a full winding, it will likely hop the tracks the first chance it gets and unlike an electric engine that derails, its not going to stop until it hits the wall, a furniture leg or your cat.
I was amazed at how far a Marx clockwork would go on one winding. I brought one to our modular club once and it nearly made a full lap on a layout roughly 20x40.
J White
that sounds just about right. the last large layout i ran on was a little over a scale mile (110 ft). it was a stretch to get a full lap in a single winding, but since the loop pinched in near the center, ~8 half turns (a little more than half wound) would easily negotiate a half lap, slowing nicely as it pulled up to my position.
Well I had a busy weekend chasing arround for marx stuff in the "toy train off-season", Sometimes I get lucky and the stuff is cheaper when people are not thinking about Christmas trees & hot choclate.
I struck out at the local antiques mall / auction / hobby shop, the only marx tin items were a few common 6" cars with real bad dents, scratches & rust with $10-$20 price tags....antiques people always think tin litho cars are "rare" at least at the train shows the high rail guys consider them "worthless". The Plastic clockwork loco was gone at the hobby shop, he only had a corroded & rusty cast body electric 999 that was not worth the $25 he wanted even for parts it was also missing the tender .
The auction had a neat looking tin plate electric Marx UP M10005 stream liner 6 car passenger set in off white, green & red trim , but it was at $50 with a one more day to go so I passed, the cars had some dents and the loco was scratched pretty bad, its my favorite color combo of that set but it needed a bunch of work to get it presentable it also had alot of surface rust on the underside. I figure I'll save my money for the train shows and look for a good deal.
The antiques mall had an electric Unique Arts tin litho steam/freight set with no box, it was very cool, cars had beautiful artwork, good condition, transformer that looked like a switch tower, untested they wanted $100, I was on the fence about jumping into another brand toy train to collect and availability of spare parts if I could not get it to run so I let it there...man it was cool looking though, cars were about as big as the Marx 7" tin. I can see why Louis Marx was worried when this set came out, the printing designs are really nice. Anyone know the actual value of one of these sets? Is $100 high, low ,or right where is should be? How rare are they I was kind of upset I let it there, but I've been trying to focous on getting what I already have up & running on a layout someday instead of just collecting large ammounts of trains.
I did get my Marx CV set in the mail friday....I forgot the camera was not charged so I'll get the photos up tommrow I hope, it looks better than it did in the online photos and it runs great ,no spring issues, it even has a spark unit that just needs a flint, I lucked out on that one. Really neat train.
James P, I think I'm going to need a spring for my 833, I'll shoot you a PM to work out the details,thanks for the offer.
I have had a lot of hobbies over the years and even a few different scale trains I have been interested in, but all you Marx & Tinplate guys are the nicest most down to earth people I have even met, thanks for making this hobby enjoyable again!
-Jason Rackawack
Marx CV Locomotive by rack776, on Flickr
Marx CV NYC Set by rack776, on Flickr
Marx CV Wind up Chassis by rack776, on Flickr
Marx 833 UP set by rack776, on Flickr
Marx 833 Chassis by rack776, on Flickr
Well, not too pretty, just a bunch of plain janes, with no added trim or side rods, but I love them. neither engine has had the paint over the holes for the handrails poked open, so I guess they never had them.
If anyone can date or I.D. these Engines let me know ,as soon as I have an accurate description of what I have I'l post them in the Marx thread.
The CV runs great, and came with the tender and caboose for $20 shipped to my door. I had more than $20 in fun running it already so it was a good deal to me.
The 883 was $13...it needs a longer spring but I already had the tender from my dads train set from when he was a kid, I found a UP caboose last year for $4 , I was looking for the later plastic body loco to complete the early 1950s set, I think this style tender is too new to have come with this loco, but they look good together so thats what will pull it.
I'm not a total purist collector but I went to the National toy Train Museum in Straussburg 2 weeks ago and they had a wind up 833 with handrails and side rods set up with this UP tender behind it....so I felt a little better about the mismatch.
James P. - I tried to send you a P.M. about the extra spring you have, let me know if the message did not go through, I'll post my email here if I have to.
Thanks for all the advice to get these little guys running good again. (I now wish I had tried to win that marx electric UP streamliner set at the auction.....oh well I'll keep looking for cheap tin)
Jason, thanks for posting the pictures, those are some good looking Marx trains! I sent you an email concerning the mainspring, be sure to check the spam folder in case it got misdirected. If you didn't get it, please send me another PM.
It isn't unusual for the Marx windups to not have handrails or siderods - Marx made inexpensive toys, and often left off such details in order to meet a price point for a retailer. The windups were the lowest priced trainsets, so it wasn't unusual for cost cutting measures to be implemented on them. I don't believe any of the single dome CV's were ever shipped with handrails, but some have siderods and some don't. Of course, never say never with Marx!
Both the 833 and CV are post war items. Let's start with the CV first (they are my favorite, after all) - I believe they were made until 1948. Marx didn't produce trains in 1943 - 1945 due to WWII, so that would put your locomotive from 1946-'48. However, it has black wheels, which I believe didn't show up until 1947, so that would put it in the 1947-'48 time frame. The black stamped steel drive wheels are the definitive clue to it being a post war CV. As a side note, I spent quite a bit of time researching Marx windup CV's using period literature, orginal examples and observations from experienced collectors. The result is a 5 page document that I call the "Marx Commodore Vanderbilt Mechanical Locomotive Timeline". I'll be happy to send you the file if you would like to read it.
The 833 was produced between 1947 to 1953 from what I can determine from period catalogs. Again, yours has black stamped steel drivers - a hallmark of postwar Marx. Some 833's were shipped with the later 17 spoke diecast drivers, although I haven't pinned down a definite year they were introduced - I believe it to be in the 1951 - '53 timeframe. That being said, I would think your 833 would have been made sometime between 1947 through '51 or '52. I can't narrow it down more than that - they just didn't have any distinguishing characteristics from year to year other than the drivers. Incidentally, I have two original examples of 833's - one with stamped drivers, one with 17 spoke diecast drives - and both have handrails... go figure!
Hope that answers your questions... Marx can be a confusing subject at times!
Well this is kind of cool, I have concentrated on collecting early postwar trains from 1945-1950 to go with the 2 sets my father gave me....I had no idea these 2 Marx fit in to that time frame when I bought them. I got them cause they were "cheap" I just figured they were newer than late 1940s early 1950s.
Thanks again for the info James, I'd love to read the article you wrote about the CV, you have my email address in the PM. Thanks again for the help with the spring.
Could you post any photos or catalog images of the type of sets the CV would have pulled? I'd like to track down the proper freight cars to go with it. As of now I'm happy running the only 6" gondola I have with it.
I guess I should get some better photos and post these over in the Marx Collectors thread. If the info is better preserved in that thread I guess its better to post them over there. In case anyone has not seen it or is interested in more Marx here is the link to that thread. http://cs.trains.com/ctt/f/95/t/207544.aspx
Wish me luck on the spring swap, I hope to try to post photos of the repair, I never tried to write a post on a repair before, or even take the time to shoot photos while I am fixing something. I hope it works out good.
I've been slowly converting a pile of rusty & dented marx 3 rail track into cleaned straightened & painted 2 rail track, I found a 32"x48" sheet of plywood, hope to make a small windup layout out of it soon. I got a lot of inspiration here with David Smiths small layout http://cs.trains.com/ctt/f/95/t/216469.aspx
PrAtaFallERI'm new to forums, and looking for advice on Am Flyer clockwork Hiawatha that needs new spring. Sources?
Is part of the spring still there? If so, you should be able to measure the width and thickness... and if the entire spring is still there, the length. I've had good luck getting some springs from www.clockworks.com - you will want a hole end mainspring, and be aware that you may have to modify one or both ends to make it work. Also, you probably won't find an exact match, but it is likely that you will find one that is close enough to make it run. Take a look and let us know what you find, always happy to help get another clockwork train back on the rails.
Thanks James. There's no remnant of the spring, although the rest of the mechanism looks ok, ratchet works, etc. It's quite small, only 5/16" width available for spring, and less than 1 3/4" space for the diameter. I don't see a pin for the outer end, and similar AF Hiawatha's on the web may have it looped in a slot at the bottom of the frame(??). I bought a bedraggled AF clockwork on eBay, but it's spring is larger (3/8" x 2 1/8" diameter), and it does have a pin end. It's probably from one of their little cast steamers?
I'll keep an eye out for another smaller AF Hiawatha clockwork, and I think I'll get a 5/16" x 0.20" x 40-50"(??) with a loop end from your clock source. Any advice on this order, or on installation?
Thanks! Bill
Bill, the loop end spring will work, but you will probably have to cut the end off and reterminate it... not a big deal. It might be a bit easier with a hole end spring, but on clockworks the strongest 5/16" hole end spring that I see is 0.016" thick and 54" long (CMH 121). It is quite possible that the outer end of the spring looped around a frame member or through a slot in bottom of the motor. AF seems to have a lot of variations of motors - just like the many variations of their cast iron body steamers! If your motor has an enclosed bottom and there are two slots in it, that is where the outer end of the mainspring will terminate. You will just need to take a propane torch, heat the end of the spring cherry red, and bend the end into a hook shape. Let it air cool naturally; don't quench it in water or oil, or blow air on it. If you get the loop end spring, there are a couple of ways to cut the loop off. You can take a sharp chisel and give a good whack across the end of the spring where you want to cut it... since the spring is hardened, it will only leave a score mark. You can then flex it at the score to snap it off. Wear leather gloves and safety glasses! Or, you can remove the temper by heating the end cherry red, let it cool naturally, then cut it with a large pair of diagonal cutter or chisel.
Installing a mainspring can be a challenge. Each motor is a little different, but basically you will need to figure out which direction the spring winds, get the inside end hooked on the hub, then wind it into place with the key. For motors that have the slots, I leave the outer end straight until everything is in place and the tail of the spring is sticking out the slot, then bend the hook shape into the end as described above. After it cools you can finish winding it into place and run the motor.
If you have any questions, let me know. Also, if it isn't something you want to tackle, I would be happy to put a spring in for you.
Good luck with it!
Hello James -
I finally got to the Hiawatha, and managed to install the new clockspring per your instructions.
As you can see, it now works, but it takes a lot of twist to get 10-12 half turns, it doesn't have much range (perhaps 30-40'), and it has no pull up my gentle hills. Is that likely the small spring in a small space, or are there other factors worth exploring?
Thanks, Bill
(sorry, the site doesn't seem to accept my brief iPhone video)
Bill, there are a lot of factors at work that determine how well a windup motor will perform. Things such as the width, thickness and length of the mainspring, the amount of room available for the spring to expand as it unwinds, the gear ratio and driver diameter, as well as the type of governor. To be honest, most motors with a small spring like this won't have a lot of power or run time.
However, there are things you can do to optimize it. Drag is the enemy of the clockwork train. Everything needs to be oiled and spin freely. This of course goes for the motor, but often times the undriven wheels and siderods of the locomotive are forgotten. Also, pay close attention to the wheels and axles of the tender and any cars the locomotive is pulling. Just a small amount of drag can make a big difference in performance. Finally, windup trains - due to their limited power - work best on a level track with generous curves. The manufacturers of windups here in the states usually intended them to operate on a just a small, level oval of track... they were mostly thought of as a child's toy, and so performance wasn't a primary concern. The English, however, marketed high-end clockwork locomotives to adult enthusiasts, and offered robust mechanisms with powerful mainsprings. Some manufacturers even offered a choice of gear ratio - a taller ratio for less pulling power but more distance, and a shorter ratio for better pulling power for grades and longer trains, albeit with a sacrifice to the distance travelled.
Regardless, inspect every moving part to make sure it isn't binding, including all the wheels and axles. Make sure there isn't any carpet fibers or pet hair wound around the axles & shafts. Lubricate everything. See if that helps...
For comparison, a typical Marx motor, running on my level O42 mainline, will usually run somewhere between 100 to 120 feet on a winding. However, they have a larger mainspring - 3/8" wide, 0.024" thick, 60" long. I would think your Hiawatha should run further than it does, but the lack of power isn't too surprising considering the size of the spring.
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