When I first got into this hobby, I asked the dealer I used, at the time; if, over time, the wheels on my new locomotive would wear down/out; and, would they have to be replaced. I think he replied, that probably wouldn't happen... something like that.
Have you ever worn down/or out the wheels, the motor(s) and/or the electronics(locomotive) or your track rails?
Rick
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When do you consider something worn out? When it needs repair due to ware? When it can no longer be repaired? We have a member in our club that will take an engine and run it for hours on end until it finally gives up. The local service people hate to see him comming. He has worn out gears, motors, and other parts but never wheels. What is worn out?
Al
I have a few prewar Marx & Lionel with drivers worn with big concave grooves in them. They had been well used and loved.
Steve
I consider something worn out when the cost/hassle of repair is more than the cost of its replacement (or doing without)
The only O-gauge thing I have ever worn-out in this regard is my Lionmaster Big Boy, which over the course of perhaps 4 -5 years ran nearly every day for an hour or more. It finally succumbed toan electrical failure than renders it completely unresponsive, but I imagine that can be fixed - but its gears and bearings have a lot of play and slop in they, etc., so it sits on a shelf while I wait to find another. In the mean time, I have come to run only true scale locos in its place: while scale articulated locos are generally too big to look good on my layout, Legacy Northerns, Hudsons, and Pacifics are now my favorite locos anyway, so I'm not sure replacing it is a high priority any more. On the other hand, it was one fine looking loco . . .
Seeing I basically run trains in the same direction on my layout, the wheel flanges on one side are a bit thinner then the other side. Other than that, not much. I do wonder what the wear on the rails are like, since I just run in the same direction and the same rails take the most force from trains.
At the beach (Southampton NY, Long Island is "The Hamptons"), there was a small toy store in town that had a circle of LGB track in the window with a small G gauge train. I remember the caboose having plastic wheels and those wearing out completely...everything was GONE. It ran for 10-12 hours a day, 7 days a week. The track also had severe wear in it (brass track). I remember the owner showing me the wheels on everything one day and amazed and how they were worn to the point of nothing being there anymore.
Thanks for your contribution, guys.
You always hear about old Lionel equipment still running well, after all these years.
I was wondering if, in this hobby, high usage = worn out, and certain parts eventually need to be replaced. After reading your responses, that seems to be the case.
In the past, years ago, I posted on another forum a thread titled "built to fail"... specifically, were the electronics built to fail after a set period of use? Older Lionel equipment seemed to have been built to last?
Obviously, model train manufacturers benefit if their products need to be replaced...
Guys like Ben and his group, probably rack up the mileage and the hours of operation re: their equipment; I wonder if their newer products have held their own and proved to be hearty, durable...
Rick
I bought a used Wabash steamer off the bay a few years ago...owner said it was only run one Christmas. It sounded awful...a bucket of bolts. Oil and grease helped alot but I think it's worn outish. They must have run it 24/7. The best oil place for quieting was the bushing on the top of the motor (Pulmore?).
Thanks, Chuck. Your post brought to mind - there's a big difference when it comes to longevity... having been abused or well cared; both have the potential to wear out.
My interest lies in things well cared for... regardless, do they wear away...
Probably takes a lot, though... many hours of operation.
Rick
At a yearly Christmas display we wore out the wheel flanges on a MTH ready to run set steam engine. We had to have all 6 drive wheels replaced by MTH. That engine did run for 4 years of operating about 175 hrs. a year before we had to have the wheels replaced. And that was running on RealTrax.
That was the only engine out of 6 sets of MTH trains that we started with. We started to change over to just use MTH engines on the display in 2000. When planning for the display I would try to put in as many loops of track as I could. At one point I had 20 trains running at one time. And over the 25 year time frame that is the only engine that I ever saw with it's wheels worn off. The wheel flanges were so bad that you could use them to shave with.
I ran a 402E standard engine until a motor winding burned out. The engine was run on my platform for 4 to 5 hrs every day for many years. It ran when I was doing homework or cleaning track or working on other stuff in the basement. I loved the sound of it running around the platform .I was addicted to the smell and sound of it running. To be fair the engine was already 40 years old and had been run by my father as a kid and then run in his store window for ten years and then by me for another ten or so years.
The engine was serviced about once a month, Oil, Lionel grease, brushes and springs and pick up rollers and a couple of sets of wheels. We even had to replace wires from all the movement of the motors on occasion. I remember one time when he was servicing one of the motors, the comutater was very worn and grooved and the brass pick up rollers where worn down to the pins. My dad would take it and replace the parts and it would be good to go again for months. Just before I moved out of the house the engine started to run slower and slower and it started to run hot, we found that the rear motor had lost a winding and was dragging. So I stopped running it any more and packed it away with the rest of my stuff to move to my new house.
The engine has been repaired with a new armature and for 30 years now has run every year at Christmas time for days on end some times when we are decorating the house it will run for 24 hours at a time non stop because I have probably fallen asleep on the couch with a light set that wont light. She sparks a lot and grunts and grinds but still proudly pulls her four 400 series passenger cars around the tree. I have noted that the flanges are very thin and sharp on the wheels. They where last replaced in 1980 with factory Lionel wheels from a steam engine. She could probably use a few new ones. I run the stuffing out of all my standard gauge trains whether new or old but its still the go to engine for comfort. It’s a real testament to the Lionel legacy.
I would say that the things that could be most susceptible to the most wear (besides wheel flanges) would be bushings and gears that should be periodically lubed anyway. Of course it helps to reduce wear by occasionally reversing the direction of any equipment to equalize any wear. I collect and occasionally operate American Flyer, and so far all is well with my equipment. That's why the Big Two offered service kits! For the amount of time any of us might run trains, the wear should be negligible compared to a club or promotional display constantly running. Like anything else (or your vehicle), lubrication prevents wear. Somewhere I read that Gilbert Hall of Science AF locos definitely had to be rebuilt for the work they saw operating on that display.
Phil
Thanks for the input, Paul.
Not bad, just one engine... after all that time...
rick
Blue,
Great story... sounds like a keeper.
Rick
Thanks, Phil.
I've got all can motors; so far, you guys have confirmed the reputation for the older equipment. Some good testimonials on here.
Could my modern stuff equal that...
Rick
My first Lionel train, a 224 set received in 1947, saw some heavy mileage on the 4 x 8 layout. The motor needed repairing sometime around 1953 or 54, the pick-up rollers developed great grooves and one stopped rolling, so both were replaced. A valve gear rivet took a hike and the e-unit needed service somewhere around '58 or '59. The front truck has two large holes burned into the casting where the center rail would arc fiercely when the truck would derail. The old type R transformer could pretty much act as a small arc welder.
The freight cars have trucks that, for all intents, are simply worn out. They have the electro coil couplers and half of the shoes are missing, but they still hold closed. The wheels are so loose on the axles that the track gauge can be increased by an 1/8" - if the were 2-rail scale, they would never stay on the track. I even put a loop of copper wire around the caboose axles to keep the wheels reasonably straight. It would take ten "modern" cars to equal the drawbar pull needed to move one of those old cars.
Today the old train set is relegated to display duty - but I'm quite certain I could put her back on the active rails and run her around again!
Neil
Wear well earned, Neil. Thanks for sharing...
Rick
Lads,
I never expected the good stuff being posted, here. Thanks!
This thread has a good feel to it.
Rick
The only Lionel item I can recall wearing out was a gear on my 2026. Of course, that was the year I celebrated its 60th birthday. I did buy a 1688 that had deeply concave grooved drivers. It still ran fine, but I replaced them just to look better.
Id probably do the same, Trains... making it look good...
Thanks,
Rick
That 1946 #726 is a real pig! Noisy and rough-running. The porcelain insulators on the roller plates are hard to work with. I suspect the Atomic motor would be easy to swap for a flywheel DC motor, since, as I remember, all it has is a spur gear on its shaft.
Good to the last drop. You guys are squeezing every drop of action out of them; and, then some...
For a moment, I thought I saw the year 1946 mentioned... I did...
Thanks guys,
Rick
Groundhog: How did you get rid of the gear noise? Mine sounds like one of those old trolley cars when it runs.
Instead of considering a later Lionel motor, which as you note is for a slanted mount, have you considered a DC motor, which would be usable if you install a full-wave recrtifier aboard, and could still use the current E-unit?
My dad got for Christmas, in the 30's a Lionel 224e freight set. He ran it all the time. He eventually made a Christmas layout for it that gets setup every year where it pulls its original freight. With he and I both running it at the holidays, we wore the original motor out in the 70's. The center rollers were deeply grooved. The axle bushings were elongated, all the gears were so worn that they no longer meshed together and finally, the armature was so badly worn were it went through the brush plate, you could see a huge groove cut into it. At the time Madison Hardware was still around and they had an original replacement motor for it. We put that motor in the shell and that one it still running today. My dad passed back in 1995 but I still setup that same layout around the tree and run his freight set every year with my son. The old 224w whistle grunts and groans, the freight cars show plenty of wear but the the newer motor (now 30+ years old) pulls its freight without any issues and is going strong. Of all the trains I now own (Legacy & Tmcc), this is still my favorite.
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