Sluggish F3AB. Should I be concerned?

Nope. Something is dragging. When you say "lubed" did you separate the motors from the trucks and clean out any hardened grease before adding new grease? Does/do the motor/motors spin quite freely by hand when grasped by the worm? Do the trucks/motor back-drive properly? That is, can you push the drive-wheels with your fingers and have them, and thus the motor, turn? In good condition this should be the case.

Oh. I went with the basic lube/oil that's depicted in the owner's manual. I didn't separate the motors from the trucks. The drive wheels don't move so ... 

Thank you.

The set you have has Pullmor motors. If has been sitting since 1998 you're going to want to remove the motors from the trucks. Remove any grease from the worm gear and re-grease it. Also re-grease all the gears on the side of the truck and oil all axles. You're also going to want to disassemble the motor and re=grease all the thrust bearings, make sure the commutator and brushes are clean, and oil the top and bottom of the armature. That should make everything run nice again.

I have a F3 from the same era (Santa Fe from 1996). It doesn't move till around speed step 8 or 10 on it's own and step 13 when pulling a train. Warmed up and pulling a train it uses about 2-3 amps of power. But that's pulling a 7 or 8 car passenger train and a couple dummy units. 

Thank you both for the information. I've looked on line and elsewhere, but do not know how to do the needed disassembly. Is there a service/parts manual available on line or in print? 

To remove an F3 shell first remove the (one) flat-head Philips head screw found at the front of the frame accessible by swinging the front truck to the side.

The screwdriver is pointing at the screw.

Gently lift the front of the shell about 1" and then gently pull/push the shell towards the front, thus releasing the two tabs holding the rear of the shell.

You will need to unplug the antenna wire from the circuit board as it is attached to the shell. Now you can remove the  (two) screws, one from each truck, which secure the motors to the trucks.

Location of the motor mounting screw. Black-on-black so you can't see it in the pic but it is there. 

The motors and trucks will separate providing access to the gears.

Once you do the above, I suspect it will still take a bit to get moving.  This is why Lionel has the "stall" feature in Legacy and TMCC.  This actually ups the starting step to the engine because the Pullmors do take more voltage to get moving.  It's the nature of those motors.

Check out page 29 of the current Legacy manual.

What you will find inside.

An F3 Pullmor motor power truck:

The truck-frame can be separated from the gear-block by removing this screw:

This is what you then see:

The gear-shaft can be lifted out.

Wow! Did you do this just because of my post? Thank you very much. This is extremely helpful and much appreciated. 

You are welcome and I'm happy to be of some help. Easy-peasy, actually. Whereas some people collect trains I evidently collect motors:

And trucks:

Let's hear it for GEYSERGAZER...he is what this hobby is all about....

That was it. The instructions were great and the engine now runs with no unseemly noises, groans, or creaks. Thanks again to everyone.

Lew,

You should start a thread titled "Servicing LIONEL Pullmor motor trucks" and simply copy and paste your excellent text and photos.  Add anything else you can think of, e.g., type of grease, oil, tools required, etc.

Doing so will make it far more available on the web to all interested persons.  I know that would be a thread I'd book mark.