Most of what can ail an older locomotive, particularily one that has sat unused for a year or more, can be fixed by taking the locomotive apart, cleaning all the old grease out of it, polishing electrical contacts until they shine, and putting it back together. Simple hand tools, jeweler's screw drivers and needle nose pliers are about all you need. Take care not to loose tiny pieces. Clear and dust off your workbench, vacuum the floor, this makes it easier to find dropped parts. Have some small containers to hold pieces. Take notes and photos as you disassemble the loco to aid you getting it back together. Try the hoseeker.com website for illustrated parts breakdowns.
Some don'ts. Don't take steam engine drivers off the axles. The two crank pins must be aligned at 90 degrees to each other (quartered) which is difficult to do without special tools, which you probably don't have. Don't take electric motors apart. The older Alnico magnets will loose strength, there is little to fix anyhow, and brushes and springs can go boing into another dimension and never come back. Don't oil motor commutators. Clean them with Goo-gone on a Qtip. Don't mess up hex heads of bolts when turning them with needle nose pliers. Don't mess up screw slots or phillips heads by using the wrong size screwdriver. Screwdrivers are cheap, buy the needed size if you don't have it.
Grease dries up and hardens over the years. Take the gear box[es] apart and clean all the old grease out with solvent (alcohol or paint thinner or charcoal lighter fluid, avoid the more active solvents like MEK, acetone, lacquer thinner because they will eat plastic parts) Remove any flash from gears or U-joints or other rotating parts. Wipe each tooth of each gear with a pipe cleaner to remove any bits of plastic flash that may be floating around inside the gearbox. Re assembly and lube. Gear teeth want grease, everything else wants oil. I get along with 3 in 1 oil, and either Vaseline or white lithium grease although there are specialty suppliers like Labelle.
While its apart, check the motor by giving it some juice. It ought to spin right up. If it doesn't, inspect the armature windings. Sometimes they break off from commutator lugs. This can be repaired by soldering. Use some ordinary paint remover to strip the varnish insulation off the wire.
While it's apart, washing the shell in hot soapy water and scrubbing with a toothbrush will improve the looks.
It's worth running on a test track before you put the shell back on. Make sure the rotating parts don't rub on the shell.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Don't be real hasty on the old pancake motors. If you feel inclined to save them, completely tear them down. Beware losing the brush springs. Take out the brushes. Remove the center piece that has a brass gear on it and magnets on both sides. Take your wire wheel on your moto-tool and polish the metal surfaces of that piece (it's where the brushes touch). Next clean all the gears inside the truck with dish soap and a toothbrush. Denatured alcolhol can help also when you're done washing. Now when putting this thing back together, look at the brushes (assuming they haven't been lost in your carpet). If the brushes are worn badly, just turn them over and put them back (yes upside or backwards whichever way you prefer), then the springs and then the power leads. I personally like "high temp disc break wheel bearing grease" on my gears, it only takes a little and make sure you take the time to get it into all the teeth of every gear, don't over do it. Now you can hook up your motor to some alligator clips and a few drops of contact cleaner and a few minutes of running in each direction will get this motor back into good shape. These locomotives were built for kids to beat the crap out of. They can really pull with their traction tires. That makes them worth saving for some special experimental project.....personally I'm sending a couple up to the roof during the next lightning storm to see if that direct-to-brain DCC controller headset works...
If you can't get one of the bad ones to run, you could use it for parts to keep the ones in better condition going (you could use the bad one for a engine that is sitting by the shop being cannibalised for parts if you want to be really prototypical).
Gidday, for the reasons cacole has mentioned I certainly wouldn't be spending any money to get them running but I would suggest that it would be a good opportunity, for starters for you, to open up the non runner to gain some experience dismantling, cleaning and, at the very least, just have a look. May even get it running.
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
I have rescued many engines that didn't run or ran poorly. The first thing I do is test the motor with DC current directly to the motor leads or brushes. If it doesn't work then I have to see if the brushes are any good and the commutator is clean. From there you are looking at a motor replacement and most likely with cheap engines it isn't worth the effort. Just my experience with this. Good luck.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
You can't post photos directly to these forums, but from your description of them being Bachmann and LifeLike, I suspect you have some really early, cheap models from train sets with what we call "pancake" motors; i.e., only one truck is driven by a vertically mounted motor, with plastic wheels; usually the front truck. The other truck will have brass wheels and picks up power for the motor and headlight.
These types of engines are usually not worth the time and effort to try to get them running, especially if you smell something burning.
Open house visitors occasionally donate engines such as these to our club. We strip out what few items may be salvageable, and may even run across one that actually runs, but they still aren't worth the effort in most cases.
Unfortunately, none of your photos work. But the ones that are emiting a smoky smell, are already burning up, due to brushs, bad commutator, armature Etc. Would not waste time with them right now, they may work with a real heavy duty cleaning, maybe replace brushs, but I would start getting the ones running that show some life first.
Frank
file:///Users/ZachariaD/Pictures/Penn%20Central%201 - file:///Users/ZachariaD/Pictures/Penn%20Central%202 - file:///Users/ZachariaD/Pictures/Penn%20Central%203 - file:///Users/ZachariaD/Pictures/Amtrak%201 - file:///Users/ZachariaD/Pictures/Amtrak%202 - file:///Users/ZachariaD/Pictures/Amtrak%203 - file:///Users/ZachariaD/Pictures/Amtrak%204 - file:///Users/ZachariaD/Pictures/CSX%201 - file:///Users/ZachariaD/Pictures/CSX%202 - file:///Users/ZachariaD/Pictures/CSX%203
These are photos of 3 of my engines that are having problems. The Penn Central and CSX engines are Bachmann and the Amtrak is LifeLike. I hope these photos help, I couldn't get any closer without ruining the quality.
The Penn Central engine does not work at all, except for the front light. The Amtrak and CSX engines are very rough and emit a smoky smell.
To really clean an old or highly used locomotive well requires that it be disassembled. You need to get in there and clean and inspect everything, all the moving parts. That means removing and checking the trucks, gears, U-joints, electrical contacts, wheel bearings, and everything else. Then relubricate everything as you put it back together again, and use the proper grease and oils.
As you take things apart, you may find broken parts. Replace them if you can, make new ones if you have to. Use parts from other locomotives that couldn't be repaired if you can. Sometimes gears get cracked or dirt gets into things. Cracked gears are hard to see, but a missing gear tooth should be easy to find. Take your time and do it right. Do not rush.
If this is your first time for this, search the Internet to see how things come apart for your particular locomotive. You may be able to find the instruction for the locomotive too. This is something that you should learn how to do. If you are not willing to do this, always buy new stuff or find a Hobby Shop that has a repair service that will do it for a fee.
Sometimes you can get away with minor cleaning and adjustments, as you have done. But cleaning the locomotive - you did not.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
Much more information would be helpful, such as any markings on the bottom showing who made them, what type of engine they are, whether all the wheels are powered or only those on one truck, whether the wheels are brass or something else, whether they have (or had) traction tires on one truck and plastic wheels, and other details. Photos would also be helpful, especially of the mechanisms with the shells removed.
If these items are Tyco, Bachmann, or similar "Train Set" quality, they may not be worth the effort.
Gidday, to the forum.
Some more information like who made them and what type of locomotive (s) you're having problems with would help.While you say you've cleaned the wheels, what about the contact areas on the actual wipers? For instance on the Athearn BB locomotives, if in storage for a long time, the contact from the trucks to the motor contact clip could gunge up, I've even had to give the commutator a clean to get rid of the tarnish.
This site here has a lot of diagrams for HO locomotives for reference if you need it.........
http://hoseeker.net/lit.html
I recently picked up some used engines and many of them have problems. I can't seem to figure out the problems and was wondering if I could get ideas. Some of the engines run really rough. I have cleaned the wheels on them and it helped, but they still run rough. The other engines don't run at all; however when I hook power up to them, the lights come on. It would help to have some ideas as to what the problem is, and it would be great to have ways to fix it.