I do have white lithium out in the shop but I also have Vaseline to hand. I’m referring to the drive gears on my Atlantic which are dry. Trying to locate a slow running glitch acompanied by a slight rattle/clatter.
I have the loco stationary but running, held up off the rails with Lego, there’s a lot of smoke coming from below as well as from the stack, is this okay?
My intermittent power supply problem was cured by switching contacts on the underside of the FastTrack. having checked continuity, resoldered all suspect looking joins and been getting good connnectivity readings everywhere I finally pulled off the clips and put them back somewhere else, now it runs fine.
Also I discovered you can reset the reverser by simply turning the control knob to zero and up, however many times and it goes forward, neutral, reverse just like using the button.
any lubrication is better than no lubrication. the white lithium is better, but i think i have more vaseline on my axles than anything else. i just happened to find that jar first.
if it is the atlantic from the lionel starter set, you have a breached smoke box. technically it’s broken, but that smoke coming out from underneath is prototypical. the “bellows” on the smokebox has cracked.
when this happened to me; i called lionel and they sent me a new one; no hassels or questions.
Not necessarily so, Rick. My Lionel Lines atlantic has smoked from under the boiler since day one, and there is absolutely nothing wrong - I’ve checked it.
Mike, I have never reversed any other way. When I was a kid, I had only Marx transformers that had no button; so that is the way I learned to do it. Now I use a couple of Zs, which also have no button. I tried an American Flyer 30B for a while, but could never get used to lifting the handle to reverse, which it forces you to do.
Chief’s right about the lower melting point. Another potential problem is plastic compatability, as it is oil based. Bottom line is it could make a mess under the wrong conditions.
Had to fend for myself this evening, she spent the day with her sister at the pet expo. I went out and played poker at a local bar. It wasn’t THAT cold, the truck started every time. [;)]
Next weekend the WGH show is in town. That, we’ll do together. I’m just not into pets. I had more fun working on the layout.[swg]
Thanks to everyone who answered. I ended up doing nothing and packing it in for the night because it was too cold to go out to the shop having spent all day out on the motorbike in single digit temps, driving the missus around, she’s a visiting nurse. Brrrrr.
My main concern about Vaseline was not so much its attacking the plastic as getting across a couple of conductors and causing a short, because I believe its conductive, otherwise why would it work on battery posts?
I once turned one of my Lionel steamers over to lube the rod connections and check grease. I forgot that I had some left over smoke fluid in the stack. When I turned the loco upright, I noticed some fluid on the frame of the loco near the front wheels. I cleaned that off and ran my loco with the smoke unit on to test. Smoke did come out from the bottom for a short while and then stopped.
What is the number on the side of the cab and what roadname is on the tender? Do you know what year it was manufactured (i.e. did you buy it new?)?
Lubriplate 105 is what I use. I thought it was lithium based but it is not. Used to use it for auto engine assembly as it was considered superior for maintaining bearing and cam shaft lobe lubrication for initial startup before full oil pressure came up.
Cautions about petroleum based lubricants on plastic gears is good. I use an RC hobby teflon based grease for plastic gears.
On the side of the cab and the tender is printed W.E.Disney. The loco has smoke, an electronic reverser and a whistling tender. Its roof is a red color. I believe it was made last year and was a Limited Edition set.
I have one of the starter set 4-4-2s. About a week or two after I bought it, it stopped cold in the middle of the tracks. I called the store I bought it from and was told it needed lubing. Not having any grease, I used a small dab of vaseline. The train ran fine. No ill effects to this day. I did go out and buy a tube of Labelle’s grease and a bottle of their oil. That’s what I use now. The vaseline can be cleaned off with tv tuner spray if it’s really bothering you. Buy one that won’t harm plastic.