Do you lube brand new trains?

I always lube new engines.  I use lubriplate grease on all of the gears.  Just a dab will do.  The problem with too much grease is that it can sling inside of electronics or onto the track.  Also, depending on the lubricant, it can cause shorts.  Some products out there will conduct electricity.  Dielectric grease is always a safe bet.  

 

The reason that I service new engines is the fact that they come from overseas.  My local hobby shop told me stories of new trains with drivetrain problems due to the engines sitting so long in those shipping containers.  The factory grease was getting too hot and becoming hard.  

I run them a little first to see if they work, then lub them. I use Labelle oil or Lionel grease because that's what I have. I have an engine that started binding up ... I think the plastic gears were ceasing up. I put grease and it hasn't done it since. I had greased in the beginning but I guess waited to long to add more. 

Don't most locos have to be taken apart in order to lube them?

Like Yamawho, I always run the engine first to make sure it works and then lubricate afterwards, regardless if the loco is lubed or not.  Just a very small amount to make sure that there's no slinging right after on the tracks and places on the inside where lubricant shouldn't be. 

I always lube my trains, especially the worm gears and side gears. I have found that even though grease was placed in the gear box it didn't contact the gears.

 

 I use Lucas red n tacky, but any synthetic grease and oil will do. the beauty of synthetics is that the lubricating properties remain where you put them much longer than conventional lubes, so a little dab will do ya.

Usually there are instructions dealing with this. Lionel has an You Tube video.

 

The only trains I have received w/o lube have been WbB. I do routinely lubricate all new engines. As already mentioned, I'm a Lucas Red-n-Tacky fan too.

 

Gilly

I've been buying all of my MTH engines from Dave @ Mercer Junction. He lubes, oils, & tests runs them before shipping to me. Great customer service.

How is that kid turning the wheels?

I do not have a single loco that allows me to do that!

Also, my southern PWC ABA has grease on it from the factory.

It looks of medium viscosity and is easily wiped off.

Has a yellow tint to it...grease and oil mix?

It's a low end set locomotive with the motor between the axles.  It's all spur gears and  no worm gear. 

 

If it didn't turn by hand, no amount of lubrication would help it.

 

Rusty

YES, after a brief test run, all of my new locos get lubed with red n tacky in the gearbox. IMO, now they'll likely never need to be regreased.

 

Its imperative to lube the internal worn gear assembly on new diesels. I've found these to be the biggest offender when it comes to "lack of lube".

 

Its fairly easy to lube modern Lionel diesel truck internal gears, remove the pickup assemble and the the four small screws on the geabox cover to expose the worm assembly.

 

I use a syringe that was an extra baby medicine dispenser from when my kids were little. It has ml markings on the side. I believe MTH's recommendation of .5-1.0 ml of grease for gearboxes is "on the mark" for ample grease without overfilling.

 

This is helpful with steamers where you can't tell how much your adding through the grease screw hole.

 

External gears, bushings, and steam locomotive and drive  rods get lubed new and then occasionally whenever needed after that. I used labelle 102 for these areas, its a thicker "light oil" and greatly extends the time in between re-oilings.

 

I don't run my trains that often with other obligations like work family etc, but at most, reoiling gets done once annually.

 

Overlubeing just tends to make a big mess on track, wheels etc, as it oozes out of the axle shafts and onto the back of the wheels.

 

Underlubing is probably hard to detect from an operational standpoint unless the locomotive is making a excessive gear noise and/or running rough especially at slow speeds.

 

Often times folks don't realize it until the gears are destroyed and the loco stops moving. I believe this is rare, but there have been posts of this happening especially on locos run for extended periods of time  such as  widow displays and museum layouts.

 

Usually, its noticing the improvement in a loco thats underlubed, after its lubed. That shows it was needed.

I don't open a new engine.

I do lube axles and gears.

I lube the axles and gears as well. 

For sure.

Yes, I always lube a new locomotive, even when I know it's coming from a dealer who lubes them before shipping as a matter of course.

 

I open the locomotive up as far as I need to, in order to get at all the gears.

 

It's worse to have them go dry. Most of the vertical can drives have the worm gear inside pre-greased (if they're dry they'll be noisy and you need to act accordingly), but the axle gears are often dry as a bone. After running the engine back and forth a couple of times on the test track to make sure everything works, the gears get greased. Plastic-compatible grease will work.

Rick, where do yo get your red n tacky from?

Lifetime supply for $6 HERE.

On advice from my LHS techie and others here, YES!

Williams diesels have been known to have a blob of grease in there, but it missed the gears entirely. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't finally seen it myself. I believe special attention should be on the worm and worm wheel.

 

No Da........always.

 

Steve, Lady and Tex

Absolutely!  And regardless of the manufacturer, I might add.

Lucas Red 'n Tacky in the grease well and on the gears; oil on the axle bushings and conductive oil on the roller pickups.

I also enter the new locomotive number in my maintenance log and note the in service date and the work I performed.

Curt

Yes

At Robs link or any local auto parts store should have it.

It is also important to check wheels on cars.  On occasion I have found wheels that barely move initially.  Freely move after lubing. 

 

mikeg

Last Christmas a friend brought over two engines he "won" in the bay. He asked me to service both. Both engines were from the same time period (late 20's early 30's). It did appear as if neither had ever been serviced. Lionel's assembly lube had caked and cooked until it was almost black. Both engines were guests on my workbench for almost a week. My point is... Never, ever run a new engine without checking everything. The folks at Lionel made mistakes back then, also. My buddy was lucky this time.

You guys are such a big help, I cannot thank you all enough!

How are you applying that red n tacky?

 

The bay has a good deal on the Lucas Grease also.  Even better than Amazon.  Same price as Amazon and free shipping included.  See link below.  Thanks for the tip on which grease to use.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/311109...e=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Where do you get conductive oil at?  Where?  What is it called?  Brand and part Number?  I never heard of conductive oil.

When greasing gears should you try to remove the old stuff first?  If you have two different types of grease is it possible to have some kind of bad reaction like the two setting up and getting sticky or hard?

 

I also had a bad experience with a Williams engine.  I bought a new old stock set that came with a GP-9 and it wouldn't run.  I could barely get the wheels to rotate by hand.  I opened it up and the grease (it looked cream colored) was hardened.  I clean as much of it out and added new grease and it ran great.  It was a valuable lesson learned.

 

 

John.

As I stated above, I use a baby medicine syringe. I pull out the plunger and pack the grease in the syringe with a plastic butter knife.

 

The larger diameter of the syringe itself as well as the outlet opening( as opposed to a needle point syringe) makes these work well for grease. The ml markings allow you to know how much your putting in.

 

They can be found at the local pharmacy or dept. store for a couple bucks.

 

Yes i do lube my new engines and the gear on the motors too.They come from the factory not greased much at all and also i even had to oil the wheels on some of my cars. 

I always oil the axles (and the valve gear on a steam locomotive). Some leading and trailing trucks may have nylon bearings, which do not need oil. I grease any external gears. I don't usually take the gearboxes apart to grease the worm gears, but if it is an older, NOS (new-old stock) item I will do so to make sure the grease hasn't hardened. I've had the same experience as others who posted above that Williams engines may arrive dry. I just opened one the other day, an NOS item I picked up from an online auction, and what little grease was in the worm drives was hardened. (I also once got a brand new Williams locomotive that had a machine screw in the gearbox.)

 

Also, it pays to keep an eye on the forum for tips on engines where a whole production run may have been shipped out with dry gearboxes. If memory serves me correctly, there was a rash of postings a couple of years ago about the Lionel Conventional Classics GG-1. Not one owner reported finding any grease in the gearboxes. 

 

Checked all, never had a dry set. I think the LHS used for new stuff pre-sale checked them all. But since they're gone, and I still run conventional, I haven't bought new for a long while. I've never had a dry gear on a used train either. I did get one worm shaft boss on a PW switcher that wore out, but it was always lubed.    

I use white lithium grease on the gears and synthetic oil on the wheel and pickup roller axles.

 

LEGACY locomotives have non-locking gearboxes so the wheels can be spun by hand making it easier to grease the gears.

 

I've never had to grease a worm gear on any of my locomotives.

       
       


The product is called DeoxIT Fader F100L.  Part number is F100L-L1.25C. I've been using this for a while (a little goes a long way) and can't remember exactly where I bought it but, if you Google the name, you should be able to find a merchant or two that carry it.  And don't let the part about conductive plastics throw you.  This stuff works great on metal pickup rollers too.  It was recommended to me by one of our club's electrical gurus and he was 100% spot on about this stuff.

Curt

I always lubricate my engines and rolling stock. I use Red N Tacky on worm gears and lately I've been using "Excelle" lubricants from Megasteam with good results. Good quality oil that seems to stick better without flying off. 

 

 

 

There is grease I can see on the gears, and I applied a very small amount of MTH red grease, which promptly "plopped" off as soon as the engines were placed back on track...lol

if I want to check the worm gears on the Pullmors, I am gonna have to remove the shell correct?

Also, those kids in the video put much more grease on than I ever did to any of my trains.