I just found my lost HO train set going thru some boxes in the attic at my parents house. I started back in the mid 80’s and when I moved out had somehow thought my parents threw away certain things that they were not aware of. Inside I found a few locomotives, box cars, belly dumpers, tankers, and several cabooses. Also included was about 40’ of brass rail track, a dual power controller and some metal aftermarket couplers. Now after 25 years I would like to get back into a hobbie I so enjoyed!!! I hooked up some track and the tried the 5 locomotives I have ( 2 empty Athern boxes), they all were getting power but no real speed. I cleaned the track and wheels on the locomotives which helped, but the setting on the power switch was almost full power. I see certain things in price has almost tripled in price…any ideas to troubleshoot??? Thanks
Open up the loco including the trucks and clean out the old grease and apply new. The grease has probably hardened.
Also Clean the track with 600 grit sand paper. 30 year old brass is probably very oxidized and will need some work to get it back to working order.
Thanks for the tips!!! I’ve been reading about the nickel silver track, I’m assuming less maintenance and is it any better? How about the power supply controller, should i continue to use it for now? Are the new locomotives any different then the older ones to be used with the older power supply?
It is possible that the brass track (including by the way the screws on the terminal strip of track), the pick up wheels on the locomotives, and the commutator on the motor all have a coating of oxidation that needs cleaning. I’d use a Bright Boy for the track, and run the locomotive over paper towels lightly soaked with Clipper Oil (actually even clear torch oil works). As for the commutator on the motors, assuming you have some sort of access a very light cleaning is in order and you do not want to do anything that would weaken the magnet or risk breaking a fine wire to the commutator. Some guys used a soft eraser as at the end of a new pencil gently rubbed against the commutator, perhaps turned by hand, to clean off oxidation. A bit of Clipper oil lightly touching the commutator with a Qtip might do the trick, followed with a second application of the fresh end of the Qtip to clean off any crud
Dave Nelson
For cleaning the commutators of Athearn locomotives I use a pair of alligator leads and a pencil eraser. Clip one end of each lead to the rails. Next clip the end of one lead to the contact arm of one of the locos trucks and clip the other lead to the frame or the headlight clip. Turn up the throttle. The motor should start running. While the motor is running lightly press the pencil eraser against to commutator. The plates should shine up like new. Once that’s done disconnect the leads from the loco and remove the contact strip from the top of the motor. This is the strip that connects the motor to the trucks. Use the eraser to clean both sides of the strip. Next clean the strip on top of the motor then clean the contact arms on the trucks. Reinstall the strip.
First, [#welcome] back to the hobby and [#welcome] to the forum!
Brass track is not so good. GO ahead and get yourself some Nickel Silver {NS} track. If you are serious about getting “back into a hobbie I so enjoyed!”, you will want/need NS track. If you get the track with the built in road bed, such as Bachmann’s EZ Track, be sure to get the gray roadbed, as it has NS track and the black roadbed has steel track…again, like brass, steel is not as good as NS!
Clean, as best you can, the motors as mentioned above. Motors in storage can get stiff with age, especially if corrosion or old grease has set in and set up…
Your power packs may also not be in the best shape either and may not be what they used to be.
If this is what we today call " train set quality" stuff you may want to buy newer stuff to start out with again. When I got back into the hobby 4 years ago, I dug out old N scale stuff {from the 80’s} and found it lacking. SO I got into HO like I always wanted with new, but cheaper stuff. Then i wanted the better more expensive stuff that was more realistic and better detailed. YOu can go that route also, starting off with some cheaper stuff and upgrade if your budget needs it.
I also decided NOT to go with the old fashioned DC track controlled layout, and opted instead to go with the new-fangled “DCC” locomotive controlled layout instead. I’m glad I did. FOr my very small layout I connected two wires to all the trackage and can control two locos, maybe 3, on my layout at the same time without electrical “blocks”. I did add a few Feeder wires to boost the signal strength per recommendations though. I like the Bachmann “DCC OnBoard” locos with built in basic DCC decoder. Diesel locos can be had for about $50 a piece. Steamers a bit more. DCC locos with sound cost a bunch more.
And the price of EVERYTHING has gone up since the 80’s…and even recently in our hobby prices have gone up… like everything else these days
While you will eventually want to upgrade to NS track and newer locos and such, there’s no reason not to have fun with what you have already.
As others have stated, a good cleaning and fresah lube cando wonders. Try it on one loco first to get the hang of it again. No reason to risk damagine all of em at once, but the risk is pretty small.
600 grit is pretty rough and would best be reserved for really nasty spots on the track, Bright Boy track cleaners would be a better place to start and even a regular school eraser would work (except for lots of pink ballast!) Don’t forget the wheel treads and if you can reach em the wipers on the backside of the wheels. Pencil eraser works well here.
I don’t want to discourage you, but I think you should know that sometimes, older engines just aren’t ever going to work as well as you’d like. I pulled my trains out of storage after 40 years. I had a dozen or so engines, lots of rolling stock, some structures and a bunch of brass track. I put a lot of effort into getting those old engines to run, with some success, but then I found a new one in the same road name for $40. It worked so much better, and ran so much quieter, that I eventually gave up on my quest to restore my “old friends,” finally settling for a single on still running.
Yes, brand new, top-of-the-line engines are more expensive now, but then again, what isn’t? For the money, though, you get a lot more. With DCC operation and sound, and smooth, quiet motors, these highly-detailed engines far surpass what we grew up with. And, those quoted prices can frequently be beaten by shopping at train shows and online. If you can find what you want at www.trainworldonline.com or www.modeltrainstuff.com, you’ll save quite a bit over MSRP.
On the other side of the coin, I’ve brought most of my rolling stock back. I’ve replaced all the couplers with Kadee knuckle couplers. For some cars, that was all that was needed. I am slowly upgrading to all metal wheels, and sometimes the entire truck has to go, but when I’m done I have a car that rolls as smoothly as a new one. I’ve put a few of my old structures back in service, too, but many were cardboard kits, and the years were not kind to them.
So, welcome aboard, and may the fun continue.
Hi and [#welcome]. I just got back into it as well like yourself. I am in the dreaming stages of starting a layout. This is a great forum and people here are knowledgable cause one of them have run into the same thing at one time or another.[:D]
I wasn’t expecting so many responses but it looks I received some great tips. I took the family out to the local hobby shop to purchase cleaning eraser for the track, lube for the locomotives and to see what new things they now have. Well the family got involved as well and came out buying a new set. It was a Life-like x-mas holiday 5 car set. We ended up buying a few model homes that I now have my hands busy with putting together and painting for a winter theme and I figure this can be something just for x-mas every year with a new start on restoring and replacing my old train set. Once again thanks for all the great tips!!!
To work well after that long, the brass track will need an abrasive cleaner. I would suggest a “Bright Boy” from Walthers. Nickel silver track is slightly less conductive than brass, but the oxidation that forms is actually electrically conductive (weird, huh?). Your brass track will work perfectly fine as long as you maintain it.
What brands are all your engines (locomotives)? It sounds like a couple of them are Athearn, which are easy to tune up and get running well, but what about the others?
The locomotives are Athern - 1) SD-45 Santa Fe 5 diesel ??, 2) Santa Fe 3 diesel ??, 3) Burlington 3 diesel?? and a Bachmann Santa Fe. Looks like all the box cars, tankers, and flat cars are mixed between Athern and Atlas. Recommend any good model train books for layouts, power supply, and accessories???
For layout info check the local library. They usually have a good selection of model railroad books.
Welcome back to the hobby. On the new train set Does the box or Engines say Proto 1000 or Proto 2000 any where? If not, more than likely you bought the Cheap version of Life Like. Life Like makes 3 grades of Engines and cars.
1 Life Like, cheap pancake motor’s and cheap cars.
2 Life Like Proto 1000 Lack detail parts, but great running engines.
3 Life Like Proto 2000 Lots of small detail parts and great runners as well.
On the newer engines, they take way less power than the older engines you have now. Older Athearn’s could pull 1.5 amps, newer engines run at around .5 amps.
Good Luck and have fun.
Cuda Ken
What is the make of that dual power controller? If it’s Model Rectifier Corp (MRC), you are probably in good shape**. I have some MRC power packs from the 1960s and they still work good.
** That is until you start thinking of getting into DCC, which is another whole learning curve! [8-|]
A mid-eighties Athearn engine should run OK after cleaning and lubrication, but isn’t going to be as good as recent ones. You could pick up powered chassis for the Athearn engines and put the bodies on them. The Life-Like one probably isn’t worth fixing up except for possible sentimental value.
Brass track is best left in the box, buy nickel silver. If you’re starting out fresh, start with track-and-roadbed like Kato code 83 Unitrack and save yourself a lot of hassle.
p.s. it could be some of the old engines have brass wheels or contacts that might be causing trouble. Wheelsets can be replaced…but I’d probably just opt for new powered chassis.
The 80s Athearn diesel locos had sintered metal wheels that did not pick up power well, but the rough surface did pick up a lot of gunk. I replaced a lot of the wheel sets with Northwest Shortline (NWSL) plated wheelsets; that improved things alot.
Down here brass track is collectible. Put it out by the curb Monday evening and it WILL be collected Tuesday morning.
Your new journey has begun!
LifeLike is most likely what we call “train set quality”. It is great for kids to learn with/play with, And the Christmas Theme will be great for under the tree at xmas time and if the kids or dog break it {or Santa} you won’t have lost much. See how well or better your older trains will run on the NS track, if they run better at all.
Train set quality is a great place to start back in the hobby, but I think you will find yourself moving up to the more better stuff as your interest grows. That’s just how I did it when I got back in. I bought a set, Then I bought 2 more DC locos, but by the time I started my layout, I quickly found out I wanted DCC. DCC has fewer wiring headaches than DC does. I could basically connect two wires to my whole layout and run up to 3 locos at the same time in opposite directions if I wanted, without DC wiring electrical blocks to do so. I added a few feeder wires later and my small HO pike runs like a charm! You can read more about DCC {sometimes frustration with it} on the “electronic and DCC” forum here. There are numerous books on the subject, too. I would read up on it and decide if you want to stick with DC or go to DCC.
AS was mention by I believe, Mr Beasley, You may find your old locos not wor