As luck would have it, my 4-4-2 started making some noises recently. All the gears (plastic) look to be ok. The loco runs strong pulling a 10 car consist, and it doesn’t get hot. The wheels spin freely. But it seems to be getting noisier every time I run it. I’ve oiled the axles and lubed the gears. Still noisy. Kind of a squeaky sound, but getting louder. Anyone have any ideas about what might be the cause and what I can do to fix it?
I’ll try that tonight, Prewardude. I did put a spot of grease on the trailing truck’s axle. At first, I thought the sound was coming from there. As far as I can tell, the first time I heard the noise, it was while pulling a 15 car consist. To be fair, our other 4-4-2 makes similar noises, but not nearly as loud. Maybe the sound is being amplified since I screwed the FasTrack to my foamboards? The only other thing I could think of was that big plastic gear that meshes with the drive wheels. It seems like it might be just slightly bowed outwards, but again, no binding and no damaged teeth. Are those gears easily swapped out?
Jim, I’ve never replaced one, but I can’t imagine they’d be easy to replace without the proper tools. You’d definitely need a wheel puller for that job. I can’t imagine that gear would be “bowed out.” Anything that looks like warpage on that gear is probably just the natural shape of the gear, itself. The center does stick out a little more. If the teeth aren’t damaged, I think I would look elsewhere for the source of the noise.
I lubed the front wheels’ axles and pivot point, and the siderods. I did notice a large buildup of crud on the front trucks wheels, so I cleaned ALL the wheels with alchohol. The loco ran much quieter after that. I’m pretty good about cleaning tracks and wheels, so I don’t know how so much crud built up on those wheels.