Making Lionel aluminum passenger car wheels roll freely

William B DavisOGR Forum Member

I bought a set of 1950s Lionel Santa Fe aluminum passenger cars. They are all in near mint condition and came with the original boxes. But compared to my modern Lionel passenger cars, they don’t roll nearly as freely. Is this normal or do I need to disassemble the trucks and clean and oil? I tried oiling the axles in place and noticed a small improvement, but they still don’t roll all that freely. I am assuming this will require greater drawbar effort to pull these cars in their present state than my modern passenger cars. Advice on how to perform a more advanced cleaning would be appreciated.

6/19/2211:11 PM

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Dave KoehlerOGR Forum Member

Yeah , they pull like a brick, look great but pull like a brick,. In place of oil , Here I would use a Teflon, Of Silicone based grease , apply the grease with a tooth pick as best you can, this should help

6/19/2211:58 PM

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William B DavisOGR Forum Member

Okay, thanks. Are you saying it’s either too difficult or too risky to try to remove the wheel sets from the trucks?

6/20/2212:09 AM

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Dave KoehlerOGR Forum Member

@William B Davis posted:
Okay, thanks. Are you saying it’s either too difficult or too risky to try to remove the wheel sets from the trucks?

I never liked taking them apart, and removing the truck from the floor really wont, help, you can access the axels from the bottom of the truck. They will never roll as good as the newer ones there is no needle bearings or brass bushings , nothing but a blunt axels going into a cast hole. The grease i mentioned will help but not cure the problem . You can try replacing the trucks , there is, I believe only a stud and c clip holding them to the floor, but if they are as nice as you say , personally I wouldn't change much on them

6/20/221:47 AM

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PingmanOGR Forum Member

@William B Davis posted:
Okay, thanks. Are you saying it’s either too difficult or too risky to try to remove the wheel sets from the trucks?

If these are original red stripe SF 256X cars, I suggest you leave them alone, except for some lubrication.

What are you going to do if you remove the wheel sets? Machine the axle ends? Replace the wheel sets?

Besides, there is at most a 5 car train pulled by a twin horizontal motor F-3 which won't tax that locomotive at all.

6/20/228:39 AM

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William B DavisOGR Forum Member

@Pingman posted:
If these are original red stripe SF 256X cars, I suggest you leave them alone, except for some lubrication.
What are you going to do if you remove the wheel sets? Machine the axle ends? Replace the wheel sets?
Besides, there is at most a 5 car train pulled by a twin horizontal motor F-3 which won't tax that locomotive at all.

You are assuming a lot. My cars are these. I had four. Just bought another six. Awaiting their arrival. So I will be pulling up to ten. I have many modern digital steam locomotives and many postwar Lionel steam locomotives. I don’t expect any problems with the modern big steam. I will experiment to find out how many cars each of my postwar locomotives will pull. Running these on O72. If I remove the wheels I will be able to get grease in there I could not otherwise do.