Nice 1930s set to share - Running great - Thanks to all for the help

Very nice.  good to see an older train up and running

William 1,

          She's a beauty.  Enjoy the ride.  There's nothing like pre-war tinplate especially when it has family history.

Wow Amazing! show us a vid

Here is a nice shot (hopefully) of the original ninety crossing and the tools of the trade to clean and assemble the track.  Sanding block, rag, old pair of lineman's pliers and a screwdriver in case I need to separate the rails to get a pin in.  (But, not too much...)

It's nice to get the tools out.  Simple is fun, and this is it.

Very nice. I have the same set, but I think yours is nicer.

Steve

Nice, I like it. Plan to put some Standard track down in my cold basement and run my Lionel & Ives big trains soon.

Here she goes, I hope.  First time I've tried to post a video, or even made one on my phone for that matter.  This is with one connection to the track in the far corner with an aged 1033 transformer.  Going to need some feeders to run the whole set around the loop, but as I hope you can see, she runs great.  Have to fix a wire to the one bulb in the engine.  Can do.

I think I'm in love.

Not to beat a dead horse with a dead stick on a frosty night, but I knew the set would look great in this spot so I discarded the cheesy candle display and sure enough, it fits perfect.  Three pieces of plexiglass and it makes a great display piece.  These pictures are nicer also.  

that's a beautiful set. have fun with it.

It spells character in every respect and looks fantastic.

VERY NICE! A testament to Lionel's quality and durability!

The video, was that from the new Ant Man movie?

Larry

Very nice...thanks for sharing.

Jeff Davis

I made a better video of her pulling the whole train, but it is too long to be posted.   She was chugging along, but was loud. I decided to shut her down till I got some lube.   I was out of oil.  Then I decided to make a better video one more time.  She stopped  on the track and now is pulling  very weakly, not even making a loop on her own.  Why did I do that?  You knucklehead!  I bought some oil and grease and lubed what I thought looked lube worthy, but she still is very weak.  Any thoughts?  If I can't get her running right again,  she is getting repaired ASAP.  Way too cool to be a shelf queen.

Here are her insides.  It was suggested I oil the bushings.  Any help on what are the bushings?  I fear I ran her just a bit too long without oiling first.  And I told myself to stop.  Captain Overkill strikes again.  Darn it!

I would put a drop of oil on both ends of the motor armature, which is the part that spins inside the motor; then one drop of oil on each spot where the axles go through the frame, and on the pivot point of any gears that spin between the motor and axles. Any quality motor oil would work, I use Castrol Syntec 10w40. 

Always check both ends of the Armature shaft & all 4 Axel Bushings to make sure they are not dry before running this train. The axel bushings are designed to hold oil & should never be dry. The armature shaft on both ends should be kept oiled frequently so that the motor will run smoother all of the time.

I had redone the wiring to have the transformer in the middle of the layout to shorten all the leads to the track  and replaced the 1033 transformer with a CW80 I had left over from a layout build,  She ran great, albeit a bit noisy, for a bit.  I had shut her down, then decided one more run.  What has been bugging me, and conspiracy theorists please chime in, is the CW80 transformer died at the same time as my engine lost it's power.  The green light was blinkng on the CW80 and now I can get no power from the CW80 transformer, and my engine has lost all it's pulling power.  I rehooked up the 1033 and have power to the track again, but not enough to move the engine through the curves.  I think the CW80 hurt my engine, but that seems illogical.  Just coincidence?  (remember that movie when we were younger about the Bermuda Triangle and crop circles and aliens and such, where the guy, after laying out seemingly irrefutable evidence that we are being watched, kept saying - just coincidence?)  Either that or it's just deja vu all over again.  Onward towards the fog.  Cheers.

Did you oil the loco and cars or have you been "running her dry"?

Easiest way to destroy something mechanical is lack of lubrication.

It may be that one of the car lights or wires is shorting. Try the engine alone and then with one car at a time.

W1,

   Real nice original Tin, perfect place for the display also!

PCRR/Dave

Moonman, as soon as I saw your post, a light bulb literally went off before my eyes.  It had to be the one inoperable bulb in the engine.  It has one wire to the bulb and uses the frame for the other lead.  Sure enough, the wire fell out of the harness with little effort.  I put some tape on the end and she's good to go.  See the video.  I have a couple rough spots on the track where she stalls, but that is what snowy Sundays are for.  I'm still in my underwear and yesterday's socks for God's sake.  And haven't had any coffee yet, I was too excited to fix the problem.  As you can see also, the CW80 works fine.  It was the short in the engine. Ah, that sweet oil smell...   Thanks a million Moonman!!!

I'm still in my underwear and yesterday's socks for God's sake.  And haven't had any coffee yet, 

 TMI for a simple train forum....

Here she is, front light fixed and running great.  I reasoned that the tab that fell out was held in by the bulb.  Bingo.   It took a whole day of tweaking with the track, but you guys know the drill.  Most of it is eighty years old.  Some pieces seem to cause a short when the train passes and had to be weeded out.  I'm a happy toy train guy now.

Nice that you have it running well. The bad track pieces may have worn through the insulating paper on the center rail.

You can get new track here. USA Track LLC.

As soon as I saw your post, I knew it was a short as you suggested.  Figuring that out fixed the light as well.  That was a fun weekend project that ended very well.  Thanks to all for the help and your interest.

It's a time machine back to the thirties.

Love it!

I love seeing the older tin plate come back to life!

Maybe I will venture this way as I get older..... and if my wife agrees...