I go way back with lionel trains but I picked up a HO train set years ago and since I was in the military and on the go a lot, I never opened it. Well being Christmas, my wife suggested I put a train under the tree. This is a @1974 southern Pacific daylight that is hitting the tracks for the first time and a newbie trying to figure it out.
I saw another thread suggesting alcohol to clean the tracks and I will try that tomorrow. I figured out all the connectors for the tracks (a circle has been made) and hooked up the transformer and I did get it to run 1/4 of the way around. I’m used to O/O-27 guage and they way the trains ride the rails.
Here the trains seem to be rubbing the ties as it goes over them. Is this normal or am I just not getting the wheels all on the tracks… Yes I brought in extra lights and put my glasses on but after I got the 1/4 trip it didn’t want to do much more. lights come on but movement, not so much.
Well before I run down to the train store for enough O-guage track to make a circle for a 1953 A-B-A NYC to go around is there something else I can do that would make this run smoother?
Thanks ahead of time for a HO newbie… (I hope this is the right spot for this) [;)]
Welcome to the forum. Yes, that is quite possible, although there are other possibilities. Some inexpensive train sets from that era came with wheels not in proper gauge, so that is another possibility. Do the cars without the loco roll smoothly when you push them by hand?
It’s easier to get all the wheels on the rails until you get the hang of it if you have some straight track. So you might want to pick up a few sections of straight track if your set came with all curves.
It’s also possible to slightly “kink” the connections between track sections – which could also cause the train to jam, especially on the extra-tight curves typically included with train sets.
If you post the name and maker of the set here, it’s possible that someone may know something about it.
On an engine that long in storage the wheels may be dirty. Try cleaning the wheels on the engine. I prefer electronic contact cleaner for this. Or you can wet a paper towel with the alcohol and run the wheels of the engine and the tender over that. Also an engine that old may have bigger flanges that may catch on the ties with code 83 track. If you’re using code 83 try code 100.
I started model trains with Lionel. Way back. Also way back, I changed over to HO.
HO is MUCH less forgiving than Lionel. When I dug up my old Lionel (from way back, remember), everything worked. You are talking about HO that’s been sitting for 40 years. And which was probably not exactly high end to start with. I’m not surprised there’s problems.
If you want to keep with the HO, you will be facing learning an awful lot more about maintenance than you probably want.
But I’m still in HO. There’s an upside. For me, anyway.
Patience. Perseverance. And a delicate hand. All will get you far in HO.
If it’s a 1974 HO train set, it almost certainly came with brass rails on the track. Brass tends to oxidize in a short period of time, after 40+ years I wouldn’t be surprised if the track wasn’t green! In the long run, you’ll be best off to go get new HO track. I’d go to a local hobby shop and get some Kato Unitrack, maybe enough 19-1/4" radius tracks to make a curve, one 9" power connector straight, and a 4 pack of 9" straights.
You can get also get similar “click” track (track that comes with ballast attached) made by Atlas or Bachmann. I’d advise not getting regular track or ‘snap track’ without the ballast strip.
You’ll find the nickel silver track needs much less cleaning, and carries power from track section to track section better. Once you get that set up, and get all the train’s wheels on the track, it probably will run with no problem. I’d advise starting with just the engine; once you get it running, let it run maybe 10 min. in one direction, then run it in reverse for 10 minutes. That will do a lot to get the engine ‘broken in’ and running smoothly. A new engine that’s never been run can be a little balky at first.
But also figure out why the equipment goes “bump” on the ties. Especially whether the flanges are hitting. If the flanges happen to be too deep, the Unitrack may be a poor choice.
No idea what this one was thinking but never push a loco around by hand. The last three years I have read two or three doing this for whatever reason and ruined a gear. They also had old locos from storage.
Put the loco on the track and connect the power pack. Turn up pack slowly and see if any response. If none, possibly power pack or loco. Much of the time, the loco.
I have read many times that much older train sets were made to run fast. Bachmann were noted for that. I had some many years ago.
My 0-27 Lionel steamer in 1951 would not run very well slow but back then, did not care.
A volt meter connected to track, power pack is a good indicator. Even a auto 12 voilt light bulb is a good indicator.
Brand of train and power pack?
Brass track, steel track or nickle silver track?
I have used a pink eraser many years ago for cleaning track but a light vacuuming after.
If we are really talking about a 42 year old NIB train set, the lube may be hardened in the gears.
The rail connectors may not be transmitting the electrons if the rail beneath them has 40 years of oxidation.
If a loco is not on the tracks to begin with, it is usually obvious in the 1st six inches of travel or less.
A SP Daylight was a steam loco 4-8-4. Although Ebay lists some F2’s. What is the engine and what is the manufacturer. Is this track that came with the train set? My thought is that they wouldn’t package a steam loco with a radius track that is too small.
Or too small of code for the equipment. A good cleaning of the wheels of both the locomotive and tender is in order. As long as the locomotive ran some for you tells me likely it and the power pack are ok. As has been posted already though, that 40+ year old probably brass track…may be more work than it’s worth to save. New code 100 nickel silver track would save you many headaches and be tall enough track to be certain to clear the flanges of your equipment. Good luck!
I doubt that you are facing just one issue here so you will have to take it one step at a time.
The first thing I would do is lubricate the locomotive. None of the other tests will show you anything if the locomotive doesn’t work to begin with. The original lubrication is probably pretty much dried out and very sticky. If there was grease used on the gears it might be almost as hard as rock. Ideally you should take the locomotive apart and clean out all the old lube with alcohol and Q-tips. If you don’t want to take apart the side rods that’s OK. The light oil will loosen them up just fine. Make sure you put a drop of oil (singular) on the motor bearings as well as the axle bearings and the connections on the side rods and where the rods go into the piston cylinders. Don’t over do the oil, and don’t lubricate the motor brushes even though Labelle says you can. Clean the commutators with a regular pencil eraser.
LaBelle makes a suitable line of lubricants but you really only need light oil (Labelle #108) and grease (Labelle #106).
The next step would be to clean the track. People will immediately say “No, you have to clean the wheels first”. I say clean the track first because if the track is dirty it doesn’t matter if the wheels are clean or not. You need clean track so you can run the locomotive to clean the wheels. If you have brass track the buildup of oxide will be pretty significant. You can clean it with an ink eraser, and you will have to clean it regularly. If the track is brass it will have an obvious yellow colour to it. If you have nickle silver track it will still need to be cleaned first but it won’t require cleaning as often. Using an abrasive cleaner is frowned upon by some but we are talking track that will only be set up for a few weeks and likely won’t find its way
After checking to see if all the wheels are on the track and the wheels still rub the ties then they are either horribly out of gauge or the flanges is to deep for the rail size.
A point about track cleaning that I have read on the forums and from other sources, is graphite sticks…
Use a soft one like 2b or 4b as the hardening is from clay thus your introducing another issue… once youv’e cleaned your track use the graphite stick over the rail lightly to maintain it… too much graphite is no good… can source from art stores…
Your issue with the loco is definitely from storage, and a good strip down and service will fix it… Beware of the brushes and motor and make sure they run well before installing it back into loco…
I had my models in storage for 12 years, they ran like clock work before storage and well protected for storing away… After taking them out earlier this year, I have 3 loco’s going out of 14… No steamer survived storage but an Athearn and 2x Proto 2000 LifeLike’s do still run, albiet not like they used to…Motors seem to dislike being stored for long periods, all the mech’s are going fine without the motor, but alas that is a problem…
Out of the box stuff(never ran), stored and travelled will be a lot worse than my gear…
If you just want a train for the Christmas tree then display the HO on the mantel and run the O27 around the tree. O27 is much better suited for the tree train.
If you want to get into HO as a hobby then put this one aside and buy a new train set for the tree and post Christmas hobby. Later on you can come back to your HO train and trouble shoot it.