Hi all! Long-time forum reader but infrequent poster here... After several years of being somewhat dormant in the train hobby I decided last year to pick up a couple of O gauge engines to display in my apartment. I have a Williams 726 Berkshire reproduction and Lionel 6-18000 B6 Switcher that live on a shelf and come down at Christmas to run on a small loop around the tree. Today the Berk exhibited some bizarre behavior after several hours of perfectly fine operation on this and the previous year's Christmas tree layouts. While pulling three modern-era freight cars on an O-36 Fastrack oval with an MTH Z-1000 transformer, it would slow down noticeably in one area of the loop. I suspected mild voltage drop on the opposite side of the loop from the transformer hookup, and boosted the throttle accordingly going through that section of the loop to compensate. The B6 behaved similarly in that area of the track, but needed generally higher voltages overall due to the AC motor. All fine. Then, for variety's sake I turned the train around to run the opposite direction and put the Berkshire back on. The slowdowns were noticeably worse and in completely different locations, some of which were right next to the transformer hookup. In a couple spots the engine would come to almost a complete stop, and would required nearly full voltage from the transformer to get it going again. I suspected the track was getting dirty, and went over it thoroughly with an MTH track cleaning pad and fluid. No luck. The stalling behavior persisted in the same locations, and got worse to the point where no amount of juice would keep the engine moving. At this point I detected a faint burning odor and, lo and behold, the can motor in the cab was very hot to the touch as was the shell of the engine in that area. Subsequently I noticed a thin coffee-colored liquid dripping from the locomotive in the area of the rear driver axle, enough that a few drops had pooled on the track under where the locomotive was sitting. At this point I was baffled. At no point since receiving my first Lionel train set 29 years ago have I seen anything like this. I'm not so concerned about the engine. It was a bargain, and worst case it goes back to being a shelf queen, as that's where it spends 90% of its time anyway. I'm curious as to what might have caused this though, as I've taken various long-dormant engines out of storage at my parents' house for Christmas layout duty and run them for hours with nothing more than a couple drops of fresh oil on the side rods. Previous Williams engines I've owned (GG-1, U33C, SD90MAC) have been great runners and given no trouble at all. Any thoughts on where I might have gone wrong? Thanks and Happy Holidays!
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