black oil on track

[gthomson]

I have an old Lifelike engine that I bought on Kijijji that made a high pitched whining noise, almost a grinding, so the guy at the local hobby store recommended making sure it was well lubed. I applied a bit too much oil but wiped it down several times and waited a while for all the excess to drain out.

Now everytime I run the engine I get a black film on the track.

 

a) is the track really dirty and needs to be de-oxidized? I've wiped it several times but as soon as I run that engine it comes back

b) what is in that engine that has turned the oil black?

I've read previous posts about how to clean tracks but what makes it so dirty? It's like my steam engine is working for real at night when I'm asleep :)

Clean house, non smoker, etc...

[Medina1128]

When you lubed the locomotive, did you disassemble the trucks and clean out the old lube? That could be the black stuff you are seeing, old, dirty lube. Since you over lubed it, you should just disassemble the trucks, clean them out, then apply lube sparingly. You should use just enough to lightly coat the gears. I use LaBelle grease, myself. I use their oil to LIGHTLY lube the bearings. I dab any excess off with a cotton swab.

[riogrande5761]

> black oil on track

Call out the hazmat crew!

[gthomson]

Hi Marlon, no I did not. That could be the case. I wasn't too sure how to remove the trucks and get into the gears and I didn't want to risk breaking anything. I might take to the hobby shop for a tune up