Hi all,

First a little back story about myself. My name is Rob, I inherited my father's train collection a few years ago. After the shock of his passing and life getting back to normal, I've decided to sell it. There's a lot of N scale stuff and a small handful of Z scale stuff. My father had too many hobbies (I'm guilty of the same problem), so a bunch of the newer stuff was never used. Some of the stuff he bought in the 80s was used, and I remember as a young child being told to keep my hands off it!

Anyhow, the first thing I've done is test out the locomotives. Four of them don't run, they just light up. I found this site that talked about reviving locomotives. Based on the table, and the age of some of these locomotives, I would guess the oil has completely congealed. http://www.zscale.org/articles/revival.html

I started with one of the ones I thought would be the easiest to take apart, 8863 Burlington Northern F7. Sure enough, the oil was very gummy and sticky. I would not be surprised if he hadn't used this locomotive for 20-25 years. I tried to rub off as much as I could with tweezers and lubed up the axles and gears per the instructions on that site. It seems to run well now, although the trucks had more resistance than I had expected. It makes some noise when running too. Since I'm not familiar with model railroading I'm not sure what to expect as far as noise. For reference I have a working steam locomotive from kit 81466 that seems quieter. I also have a triple locomotive 88321 that seems to be as noisy as the 8863 I revived.

So, my first question is: how much noise is normal? Aside from the congealed oil the locomotive looks really clean internally. It's hard for me to tell just how far to take the cleaning and reviving process.

Second question is: should I get some sort of degreaser for the congealed oil? I'm using Labelle #108 to lube these locomotives.

Final question is: he has a turntable kit that was never taken out of the box. I'm guessing he purchased it around 2004. Is there any maintenance I should do to it or can I sell it as new with a good conscience?

Thanks for reading!

Hi and welcome to this forum. Yes, the lighter fluid will do the trick, and so will dry cleaning fluid. You will have to re-oil the locos once you've used either of those fluids, or any other.

Dr Dirt's comments on noise are right on, but bear this in mind - the real ones make noise when they're running too ;-)

Electronics cleaner spray to clean the loco, but what type of oil for lubrication ? Can I use ATF-oil or oil for sewing machines ??


Any equivalent oils with the Labelle 108 ? available in sweden ?

why not Märklin oil ?? What about baby oil ? lubricants for roller skates ?

here: http://www.railroad24.de...senbahn/forum.php?id=132

some person wrote that synthetic engine oil 10W40 will do the job, he also claims that Märklin's own oil is a poor choice.

The problem is to find the right answer while the Märklin company is more interested in marketing their own products than giving information on alternative lubricants.

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss and I do not want to circle like a vulture but I am looking for a turntable and if you want to sell it let me know the price and maybe we can make a deal.

Thanks,
Vinnie

OK, I know a retailer selling the Fleishmann oil. Is it the 6599 Fleischmann Spezial-Öl 20ml bottle ?

Not the 3-pole 8800. It runs poorly even if it's cleaned, espcially if running it slowly.

Interesting topic this since I got my old Z gauge stuff out of the loft last year to see whether it had survived or not.

I used to run a couple of exhibition Z gauge layouts and the last time the locos were run was around 1991 so they hadn't been run for 21 years and spent all that time in a box in the loft.
There are around sixteen locos or so ranging from the smallest 6 wheel tank engine and diesel shunter up to BR01 and Crocodile with a selection in between - steam, electric and diesel. They all have the three pole motor as the 5 pole hadn't come out back then I don't think.

When I got them out of the loft I set up a medium size oval of track with a couple of turnouts as a test track. Each loco I gave a VERY SLIGHT oiling and put them on the track. All but 1 run ran ok. After a couple of laps they were running as smoothly as they ever had done. The current consumption was the same as it used to be and they seemed no different to when they last ran all those years ago.

The one that didn't run was gummed up (a P8). I removed the plate under the chassis and gently moved the gears to and fro and applied a tiny bit of fresh oil. It then ran fine and smoothly pulling six coaches just like it always had done.

So, that was 100% success rate without having to do much after 21 years storage in the fluctuating temperatures of a loft.
Marklin certainly built them good eh?

Not sure what to do with them now - I suppose I should build a small layout really.

So you may not have to do as much fiddling as you think - I had thought that mine would be completely dead but they seemed no different to when I put them up there.

Paul

Märklin used oil that hardens for a while - I guess in the '90s.
My H0 stuff hibernated nearly 30 years and there were no problems with hardened oil. OTOH I had sets new from a dealer where the oil had glued the motor (one of them was a 1996 one-time series).

The oil is the problem, not the time that has elapsed.