Lionel polar express trolley pickup rollers sparking

Clean the track, clean the wheels, clean and lubricate the pickup.

I've successfully used the following (but there are many other opinions/experiences to be found)

• GooGone on a rag for wiping down track and wheel cleaning
• Labelle 102/107 or Mobile 1 Synthetic 5W-30 for lubrication
• CRC 2-26 for cleaning and lubricating the pickup roller itself
• Labelle 106 or Red N Tacky #2 for greasing gearboxes (not applicable to y our inquiry)

sometimes when you reverse a train the motors don't run good in the opposite direction which can be caused by poor brush contact when a brush wears on an angle instead of flat, you can just change the brush and that cures the problem. it is a good idea if you take the other  guys advice and clean rollers wheels and everything associated with contact pickup of voltage form track!

Alan Mancus posted:

sometimes when you reverse a train the motors don't run good in the opposite direction which can be caused by poor brush contact when a brush wears on an angle instead of flat, you can just change the brush and that cures the problem.

The Polar Express Trolley has a can motor - no brush maintenance required.

If they were dirty it would spark in both directions 

just to try 

I did clean and lubricate to no avail

incidentally on fast track with 036 curves no sparking in either direction- now it’s even more perplexing 

The D16 is probably adding a lot of drag/friction.  Even some of my superstreets cars stall if going too slow on the D16 curves. I assume the wheelbase is much less on the cars compared to the trolley.