Recent train haul

IMHO, your Santa Fe locos don't look that bad.
You can remove the shells and wash gently.
You can use standard dishwashing soap (sink, not machine) and a soft brush.
Be extra careful around the decals.

DO NOT SCRUB!
DO NOT RUB DRY!

I like to take a firm grasp on the shell, shake off the excess water, and hang to dry.

Here is a link to the original factory service instructions for your locomotive. One of the Lionel parts dealers is kind enough to put them on line for our reference.

Lionel 200 series diesels.

If you run into issues and have questions, there is no shortage of folks participating here who will be glad to help you.

The 218 looks good IMHO. I have one that was purchased on "thebay", I cleaned and lubricated it when I got it and it ran great. Everything else looks good too. Clean em up and enjoy.

Jason, 

  You might want to check if there are other boxes maybe not found yet. Your passenger cars are from the 1940's and your Santa Fe locomotives are from the 1960's. So, your wife's grandfather most likely had at least one other locomotive from the 1940's to haul around those passenger cars. 

Tom 

  Keep steel wool away from the track period. Your motor will attact and gather tiny bits from it. Just use scotch bright, or wire brush etc. till the inside edges of the outer rails and all the rail tops shine some  Sit down with some oil and use it on the car wheels, axles, then the engine's. Wipe it around the wheels etc. Then wipe the excess.

  The wheels may have a black gunk on them that may even look like poor steel to you at first. It's literally unavoidable, but can take a big bite out of easy rolling if the aren't clean, and actually get thick enough to cause wheels to ride up over rails much easier, or wrecks havoc on smooth operations if the engine wheels get dirty by blocking power delivery. Put alcohol on Q-tips and wipe the wheel treads till the q-tip comes back clean. I poke and scape hard watching for flakeing gunk & chiping it off with a screwdriver blade, then alcohol.

  If the gearing grease is  ancient then it's time to pop the shell and learn to clean and check motor brushes, look at the spinning commutator plate, etc. Old grease can get hard like rocks, literally. While the shell is off a few drops of dishsoap mixed into some water and a soft paintbrush is my fav. 

If you do use a wire brush on the track, run a magnet over it before you assemble it. This goes double if you use a Dremel, and always wear safety glasses. Some old tubular track will be missing the pins on the ends of the pieces. There are packs of replacement track pins. If you need to put a new pin in, take a moment and a pipe cleaner to clean where the pin should do. A whole lot of what look like motor problems with Christmas trains come from dirty wheels and/or rollers and dirty track. If everything can make good contact, you'll be ahead of the game. Fast way to clean wheels once you have the old crud off and have used the train awhile: lay a paper towel, or better yet a microfiber car rag, on an old piece of track on your workbench.  Dampen with rubbing alcohol. Hand-push the cars back and forth. For the layout itself, a Scotch Brite or knock-off works. There are really good track cleaning cars that make the job easier.

Really rusty old track will be more annoying than useful to run on, but it cleans up well enough to use as displays. Rolling stock sitting on track doesn't fall off the shelves as easily. 

If there's a transformer with the set, you probably know to be really careful, especially about the cord. The insulation wasn't as good back then, and a lot of cords need replaced for safety. If you don't do a lot of electrical work, have someone who does look at it. There's a chance you'd be better off buying a new or good used one for actual operation.

Appreciate the replies thus far. I got out my bottle of Labelle oil and some newer track that I had lying around to test everything this evening. I'm happy to report that with a little lubrication, no more squeaks and I was shocked when the Santa Fe unit came right to life and started heading down the tracks; even changing directions was no problem. I think the coming week I'll work on getting everything cleaned up real good with water and mild dish detergent.

At this rate, maybe I can dig into the the rest of the boxes and get some of the other locomotives running as well.

You can flush any crap out of the bearings slowly with re-oiling often for a while "till the q-tip comes away clean" Gramps used to compare cleaning up a train to cleaning his M-1 rifle

Don't forgo the grease or gear oil on gears, and a very very small, neatly placed drop of oil on the armature shafts brush end. IMO, it's best to keep that from getting too oily as excess collects brush-dust. (though others drench that end and wipe to clean it, I think they do it very regularly)

I did assume you wouldn't clean the track on a layout... steel wool has a way of hiding deep no matter where you use it, it ends up on the motors from magnetraction and/or motor magnetic fields. Don't assume a magnet will always save you. Stainless and brass won't be attracted to anything, but can still find gears to play in, if and when Murphy the lawyer visits.

  Wire brushes are a little easier to spot simply stuck around tie crimps and to deal with in general. I assumed it was tubular too. I'd use Scotch Brite on modern track.

I did assume you wouldn't clean the track on a layout... steel wool has a way of hiding deep no matter where you use it, it ends up on the motors from magnetraction and/or motor magnetic fields. Don't assume a magnet will always save you. Stainless and brass won't be attracted to anything, but can still find gears to play in, if and when Murphy the lawyer visits.


Bits of metal, no matter what they are, can be a pain to clean out of magnetraction engines.
I start out by using pieces of duct tape to "blot up" as much of the material as possible. Sometimes I wrap the tape around a thin flat object to get into tight places. Press the tape hard against the area to be cleaned.
This works best when the area is dry, but it will work to a lesser extent in oily places.

Sometimes, I find that I have to disassemble the mechanism further to get to all the errant bits. I just did a diesel the other day that was loaded with what looked like iron filings. (who knows how they got there!).
I had to remove the wheels to get the mechanism completely clean. Not recommended to those who don't have the proper tools!