DC loco idle on DCC, how long until the motor burns out?

[jeffrey-wimberly]

It's been three hours so far and the motor isn't even warm.

[loathar]

Your doing it all wrong! First your supposed to have eveyone place their bets THEN start the burn down....

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I've got a box full of Athearn motors, so sacrificing one for this experiment is nothing. The main thing is, I want to know about how long it would take. The one back in June took 2 1/2 hours. This one has already gone beyond that and isn't even warm.

[selector]

Seems a waste of a perfectly good motor?  Is this just a personal study, Jeffrey?

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I tried this back in June of this year with an old analog Athearn loco. The motor lasted 2 1/2 hours before the brushes burned out.

Now I'm trying it again. The subject is an old MDC RS3 that has an Athearn motor in it. I've placed it on a spur and flipped the switch to power that spur with the DCC current. How long can the motor last while sitting idle with the DCC current flowing through it? It's already been 2 hours and the shell isn't even warm. I'm guessing the loco I used before had a bad motor to start with, because it got hot after an hour, but never hot enough to melt the shell. Well, we all know how tough Athearn BB shells are. At 1:50 pm it will be 2 1/2 hours. How much longer can it last? Anybody care to speculate? Maybe this is an especially tough motor.