Good morning all.
I was running my new Atlas GP 40-2’s last night and started wondering about lubing the drive gears. I have only run these about an hour. Based on your experiences should I…
Just run it with the factory lube?
Lube it myself before I run it?
How often should the locomotives be lubed? I have alot of locomotives sitting in boxes (no room for a layout). Every once in a while I’ll take a couple out and run them for about 2-3 hours. Thanks.
Mike Kingsbury
Less is more. If the loco’s been sitting in a box for 20 years, then, yea you might want to take it apart and lube it.Too much Lubing often creates gunk and that picks up dirt and then you have a real problem.
I would leave the Atlas engines alone. I have several of them and the factory does a nice job.
I’ve never seen anything in print from the manufacturers, however, I’ve never really looked either. I’m assuming that you are talking about lubing exposed gears, bearings etc. I try to lube these once a year after purchase but that usually gets stretched to 2 or 3 years. I repack gearboxes every 5-10 years. Also, I’ve never had any issues with the factory lube.
Like I said, this is just what I do and it works for me. Your best bet is to go to the manufacturers web site or look at any literature that came with your locos.
Mike,I inspect clean and lube all new locomotives before they are place in service…Why is is? Simply put just because a locomotive is new there is NO guarantee that the locomotive has be properly oil and lube.I have found some has been over oiled/lube to bone dry-this includes all brands of locomotives including Atlas,Athearn and Kato.
As far as routine inspection,cleaning and oiling/lubing that depends on the run time of the locomotive.I inspect,clean and oil my locomotives every 90 days due to heavy club use.Other then that every 6-12 months of normal run time should suffice.
Remember,with proper maintenance a locomotive should give you a life time of enjoyment.
I like to clean and inspect my loco’s every fall which is the start of my model railroad season. Rarely do any of my loco’s need to be lubed. Every 100 hours of use would be a good baseline to inspect them.
Brakie, every 90 days??? Do you live at the club or what, lol.
LOL! Seems that way during the 9 day open house during the fair.
My engines sees excessive running at both HO clubs that’s why its every 90 days…
My N Scale locos see more normal club running and they are service every 6-12 months.
Another thing…I pride myself in having 99.9% trouble free operation…That’s my trade mark.
When do I lube my locomotives?
When first assembled. Yes, Matilda, I assemble locomotives from kits - and I have unassembled kits that are old enough to vote for President (and one old enough to run for that office…)
When returned to service, as part of the complete inspection they get at that time. I still have locomotives in moving boxes, waiting for the day when there will be enough track space to accept them.
As needed after 90 scale clock days of operation (which has taken a lot longer than 90 days in recent times!) Later, when I see just how much a given loco runs in scheduled service, I may customize this to equal 100 hours of actual operation for each locomotive. That will shorten the scale clock time for the Tomikawa yard switcher, and stretch it for the DE10 that only runs a single freight on days when a certain passenger train doesn’t run in that schedule slot.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
For those of mine that are run occasionally (two or three times a year) I lube them only when they need it. For my heavy runners with delrin gears and worms once every six months, once every three months for the heavy runners with delrin gears and brass worms. For the others once a year is sufficient.
I have lubed any steamer after its initial first hour of use. After that, I wouldn’t estimate I have more than two hours of total running time on any one of them…so I should be good for another couple of years or so. I use ATF (Dextron II or III) to lube the outer bearings and rods, and crossheads. So far, my three diesels seem to be in good order, none with more than an hour or two of running, and I don’t have plans to deal with them any time soon.
If I were pressed by someone wanting a definitive figure, I’d say lube an engine every 10 hours of running. That’s a lot of revolutions on drivers, slides back and forth of valve gear and crossheads.
I plan to do it once every six months, or whenever something isn’t performing as it normally does.
I have a piece of paper that has all my locos on it (like a roster) that shows when the last time I lubed them was.
Guys,
Thanks for all the input on my question. I guess I’ll try to figure out what will work best for me. I’m just afraid of breaking off the fine details on my loco’s (Already broke off the little wind deflectors on my Proto 2000 F7 putting the couplers on). Have a good week.
Mike Kingsbury
"How often should I Lube my Locomotives "
When ever they need it
In large scale, Bachmann had a video tape included with every engine. This tape showed where to lube and grease a “brand new engine”. You would actually clean out the dried white lube/grease they put in at the factory and then you proceeded to lube/grease the engine.
I do not know if Bachmann included the video and had the same policy for the smaller scales (HO and N gauge).