Do you find that locomotives (either brand new or NOS) run better after a break-in period? If so, how long of a period do you think is required?
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emrlaw posted:Do you find that locomotives (either brand new or NOS) run better after a break-in period?
Yes.
If so, how long of a period do you think is required?
I have found that about 30min to an hour, including lubeing all the running gear components, especially on steam models, produces much smoother operations when pulling trains later.
I used to think not (I was always told you can never break in something if it's designed correctly, but you can wear it out), but I have found out otherwise.
For one thing, a lot of the new models have been sitting for some time, during shipment and sitting on the shelf, the grease can get dried out.
Another thing I've noticed on my battery-powered steam engines is the newer models (ones recently bought) took a couple of hours of run time before they started getting the same slow-speed characteristics as my older engines have.
Other than my RailKing 0-6-0, most of my fleet gets little run time in reverse. The 0-6-0 is always switching cars, so back and forth is probably 50-50. It is also my best, slow runner, but it could be because of the gearing more than it being broken in "real good".
Engines have a nasty habit of picking up just about everything near the track. Pet hair, carpet lint, and loose ballast are commonly found in gear boxes and around axles. I had a tiny piece of ballast bring my Atlas GP9 to a dead stop because it got caught up in the gears.
Same as Hot...All bearings as well , roller pins.
Use to be that they ran better the more they were run but I don't notice that so much with the newer engines.
Lube em up and run um.
