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Tune up

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  • Member since
    November 2013
  • 2,775 posts
Posted by snjroy on Thursday, August 29, 2019 8:05 AM

I can't help you about the online stuff... are you into steam or diesel? The first thing to learn is how to clean the wheels and how to lubricate them. Is this too basic for you?

 

Simon

  • Member since
    October 2001
  • From: OH
  • 17,574 posts
Posted by BRAKIE on Wednesday, August 28, 2019 3:23 PM

Overmod

In the meantime, we BADLY need a post here that quotes the 'erroneous' videos by name and specifically discusses where they are mistaken, and what the 'correct' approach in each case should be.

 

Here' the rub..The majority of those guys are correct. We all have different ways to clean and service our engines.. 

My method dates back to the 60s and its still a great method since our engine basic drive remains the same---motor,gears and wheels.

To be sure I shunned the so called "experts" latest ideas on cleaning a engine. 

My engines gets service once a year if they need it.

Larry

Conductor.

Summerset Ry.


"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt  Safety First!"

  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Heart of Georgia
  • 5,406 posts
Posted by Doughless on Wednesday, August 28, 2019 12:00 PM

RayG8

Anyone know of a YouTube video on cleaning and lubricating HO scale engines, or any thoughts on doing this?

 

I don't have any videos to link, but I do have some thoughts to share.....since you also asked about that.

As far as diesels:

If its a modern locomotive where the plastic trucks are made from Delrin or someother slippery smooth plastic, the best bet is to CLEAN the locomotive from all of the factory lubricants, and then apply very few, if any.  Its simply collects dirt and gunk.

I use a product CRC electrical part lubricant found in the big box stores, and just a small drop on the worm gear and adjacent bearings to lubricate the trucks.  Same goes for the motor bearings, where the shafts head into/outfrom the plastic motor housing.

I dont clean the loco, other than the trucks.  I remove them and take them apart, then wash with 90% rubbing alcohol found in drug stores and a stiff brush to remove the gunk.  Then soap and warm water.  Then rinse and let dry on a paper towel.  Then assemble, install, and lube with the CRC.

I do that immediately upon purchasing any loco, then never do it again unless I perceive its operation has changed.  I dont have a routine lube schedule.

 

- Douglas

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, August 28, 2019 11:27 AM

kasskaboose
Instead of debating whether this or that video is erroneous, perhaps we ought to approach things differently: have people view the topics with fresh eyes and not dwell on historical mistakes.  Just a thought.

I said what I said, and suggested what I suggested, for a very specific reason directly related to the original poster's concern.  You are, of course, welcome to make just such a fresh-eyes post, in its own thread; in fact, I would be particularly delighted if you would do so.  But don't correct intent before you understand it, please.

The OP wasn't looking for current best practice, he was looking for YouTube videos he could watch -- perhaps for the TL;DR version that did not involve reading through a buncha threads and postings and palaver.  That was the reason for my specific concern: any 'recommendation' of a YouTube thread is going to have to involve correction of misinformation in it, and I think (based on the way YouTube's algorithm works) that the 'likeliest' videos any newbie gets by searching via Google or any other search engine will be among those, shall we say, rife with 'the things that were not'.


Precluding the chance of someone here going to YouTube and possibly or probably being misinformed as a result was my primary concern in asking for the review-of-practice I did.  That's a very different thing, and intended as a very different thing, from yet another best-practice post that has to be searched up (as noted, using dubious tools or a Great Big Drink from a search-engine firehose) by itself.

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 2,360 posts
Posted by kasskaboose on Wednesday, August 28, 2019 11:14 AM

Overmod

In the meantime, we BADLY need a post here that quotes the 'erroneous' videos by name and specifically discusses where they are mistaken, and what the 'correct' approach in each case should be.

 

 
Instead of debating whether this or that video is erroneous, perhaps we ought to approach things differently: have people view the topics with fresh eyes and not dwell on historical mistakes.  Just a thought.
  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Vancouver Island, BC
  • 23,330 posts
Posted by selector on Wednesday, August 28, 2019 10:48 AM

Yikes, Overmod.  I think it might just be as well to deal with all the self-effacing newbie questions ("This is probably a dumb question, but...") because the search function at this site....ummmm.....blows, and because new responses will be more current with the latest 'learning' and tips.

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, August 28, 2019 9:51 AM

In the meantime, we BADLY need a post here that quotes the 'erroneous' videos by name and specifically discusses where they are mistaken, and what the 'correct' approach in each case should be.

  • Member since
    March 2011
  • 1,950 posts
Posted by NVSRR on Wednesday, August 28, 2019 6:52 AM

I looked for those a while ago.  Most of them if tou

do as they say, you will ruin the engine.  They are that bad.  Marklenofsweden has a decent one, but it is european models.  

I am working on a comprehensive video. But it wont be published until early october at the earliest.  I decided to do it based on the number of extremely poor vids out there

A pessimist sees a dark tunnel

An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel

A realist sees a frieght train

An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space

  • Member since
    December 2014
  • 443 posts
Posted by Wolf359 on Tuesday, August 27, 2019 1:14 PM
  • Member since
    December 2015
  • From: Shenandoah Valley
  • 9,094 posts
Posted by BigDaddy on Tuesday, August 27, 2019 12:56 PM

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

  • Member since
    October 2007
  • 82 posts
Tune up
Posted by RayG8 on Tuesday, August 27, 2019 10:59 AM

Anyone know of a YouTube video on cleaning and lubricating HO scale engines, or any thoughts on doing this?

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