Try turning the wheel by hand (run your finger along the bottom). If it hasn't run in a long time it's probable the oil in the locomotive has turned thick (almost glue like). You might need to pull it apart, clean and relubricate.
It could be the motor brushes need adjustment or replacement as well.

Edited by moderator 27 December 2012 21:35:37(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Thank you both for such a quick reply. I will give it a try and let you know the outcome. Thanks again.

Ok. So I gave it a try and to nobody's fault but my own I probably did more damage than good. A few extra pieces, springs and things, came out of the train while taking it a part. Although I got most of the pieces back where they belong (I think) I'm still not able to clean or move anything that will allow me to get the wheels to move.

Here is a picture of the loco before I took it apart;



and here it is taken apart;





I think it might be time to take it in somewhere. Anyone know of a place in Phoenix, AZ that deals with Marklin sets?

Hi there, (presume Jaraz is your preferred name?),

In the 'taken apart' state, can you confirm that turning the motor armature by hand also turns the gears and wheels?

With the armature also out, the entire gear-train should be very free and turn easily.

The fact that right at the start you said the lights come on and it 'sounds' like it's trying to do something generally indicates the electrics are ok and I too would have opted for gummy oil in the gears/wheels.

Just this week I have been servicing about half a dozen locos of varying sizes (including a 3000 like yours) and every single one of them was seized, hardly surprising as they had all been packed away and not run since the early 60's. All were very clean, and the brushes in good order so I felt a full strip-down to be an overkill.

Symptoms were identical on all, place on track, apply power, lights on, motor hums.

Put a small drop of oil on the armature bearings, gears and axles, and then by hand just slight turned the first gear off the armature, quite a bit of resistance initially then freed up.

Placed a non-driving wheel onto the track, and slowly lowered down until the pickup shoe made contact and the motor very slowly started turning. Within probably 15 seconds or so the oil had circulated, the motor had picked up speed, brush sparking had reduced considerably and after about 30 seconds I was able to run around the layout reliably and smoothly in both directions.

If your wheels are now free, but you still have no motion, are you still hearing it 'try' to run?

If so, it 'could' be pointing to a possible motor fault and your degree of technical skill will determine whether you can tackle this or not. There are further checks you could do but you'd really need a multi-meter to do them, and the more handling you do of the motor the higher the risk of one of the delicate wires breaking and then you really do have a problem.

Regards from 'down-under'

Steve
Wellington
NZ

Sorry, always used the screen name Jaraz but you can call me Jared.

For one I am so grateful for all the support. What a great community.

In response to Steve's post I was finally able to rotate the gears and wheels by turning them manually by hand but they do not move easily or very freely. I looked through the box of stuff I have and I don't have any of the oil the german manual says to use so I could try the WD40 unless that is not recommended by others.

Meanwhile, it looks I have broken some of the soldering. Is this something I can fix quite easily?

I should probably take this one step at a time...

First, is it ok to use the WD40 to get the gears and wheels to move more freely or should I purchase some special oil?

Next, is it ok to attempt to solder the wires as illustrated in the image below or am I in over my head now?



Thanks again for everyone's help. I feel like I'm getting so close.

Ooops, just what I was afraid of, those wires are quite delicate.

Unless you are practiced at soldering and have access to a good soldering iron, I'd cut your losses and send it off to Gordon for his very kind offer. We can understand your enthusiasm and eagerness to get it going, but unfortunately it seems to be getting more involved at each step.

Those reverse units are easily damaged (sometimes beyond repair) if the solder pads are overheated, and you also run the risk of the wires snapping at the other end (field magnet) which is also double-plus ungood.

Not meaning to under-estimate your skills of course, by all means give it a go if you feel confident, after all, even if the reverse unit does get damaged, it would probably be cheaper to replace it with a Digital Decoder and then you open up a whole new world of fun.

But it does seem all along that your problem was simply seized gears/wheels save for a drop of oil and persistence in freeing them up, and would only have need the loco body removed, nothing else. Sadly, sometimes the temptation or advice to just take it all apart is a bit extreme, especially without first understanding what you are aiming to achieve.

As for WD-40, this has been discussed a number of times here before and personally, I'd avoid it for this purpose. It has its uses, but does tend to leave a residue of its own. If you can get some sewing machine or other small/light machine oil it would be fine for that little loco.

If you do intend to proceed with repair, I would strongly recommend you download the Marklin Service Manual and have a read. (The site is in Italian, the manual is in English). Look for this icon...

Great to hear Jared, I guess if there was to be a 'sacrificial cow' in your learning curve, you could not have picked better than the 3000, they don't come much simpler than that.

And 2 out of 3 ain't bad and if your boys loved it then that's what it's all about

Steve