Lionel post-war steamer suddenly speeds up?

[Leverettrailfan]

Mostly just echoing what other folks have said, yes, many of my trains with the 'old school' open frame motors (ie not a can motor) tend to speed up a little after they've run a minute or two. And like others have said, I mostly attributed it to the heat from the motor causing the metal to expand, and make the mechanism run a little bit more freely. 
One thing that I find is helpful though, to locomotives that, even after a proper servicing, run slow and unevenly at a low throttle position, but way too fast for one's liking when you crank it up, is to run them at full throttle, in both forwards and then reverse, for 45-60 seconds each direction. This seems to help loosten up a mechanism after being reasembled. It won't universally do the trick, but it has often yielded good results for me, and there's no harm in it!
One 'nightmare' train of mine, is my 1940 Lionel 1684. It either hangs up and runs too slow, or it rockets so fast as to tip it over (I find it to be a rather top heavy loco). I'm still working on getting the troublemaker back in shape 

[emdmike]

Some of it is the vintage engine warming up and things loosening up a bit.  One sometimes finds once they get nice and hot, they slow back down a bit.  If the steamer hasn't been fully serviced in a long time, ie removeal of all old greases and oil, regreased/oiled, E unit cleaned and polished, motor communtator cleaned and polished and brushes checked, brush tubes cleaned ect.  It might be time for that to happen.  The differance between how a freshly serviced engine runs and one that has not had this done for awhile, can be quite dramatic.  It used to be a yearly ritural for my grandpa and me to take my fathers vintage Lionel 1655 steamer down to the local train shop to be cleaned and serviced while we visted over the Thanksgiving weekend.  He would pick it up a couple weeks later and the train would be ready when we visited with them at Christmas time.  The vintage stuff needed care and feeding, unlike the throw away motors and designs we see today.  Those old trains were built to last several lifetimes, even if that was not the original intent back then.     Mike the Aspie

[Flintlock76]

ADCX Rob

 

 

Flintlock76

...Anyone besides me remember TV's,...going through a warm-up phase?

 

 

And here we are back to that point again. It takes forever for our new TVs to come on.

 

 

Really?  Jeez, what kind of TV do you have?  We've got a Panasonic, and it only takes ten seconds, if that long, to come alive after you press the button on the remote.

[ADCX Rob]

Flintlock76

...Anyone besides me remember TV's,...going through a warm-up phase?

And here we are back to that point again. It takes forever for our new TVs to come on.

[Flintlock76]

I concur with KRM, I've seen the same phenomenon with the post-wars I've got.  And as KRM says, I figured it's just the locomotive warming up and "hitting its stride,"  kind of like a racehorse or long distance runner.  As such, I don't worry about it. 

Anyone besides me remember TV's, radios, and other electronic appliances from the 50's going through a warm-up phase?  Maybe those post-wars aren't too different!

[KRM]

Michael6268,

I have also seen that same thing with several of our post war steamers and even diesels. Even units made in the 90s without can motors. I never cared much about it and just figured it was a result of them warming up and becoming freer to roll.   

 Maybe someone has a long scientific explanation but think about your car when it is -10 degrees and how long it takes to feel normal and apply the same logic to your train. JMHO. 

 

[Michael6268]

Trying to figure out why a Lionel post-war steam engine would run at a set speed for a minute or two and then suddenly speed up and then hold its speed at that level.  It's a simple 1130 that's been cleaned and serviced, running off of a 1033 Transformer on a simple loop of of track.