butrood Locomotive maintainance

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To keep them in the best shape, your precious locomotives need a little maintainance from time to time. With a little effort they perform better, consume less current and produce less heat and more tractive power. This also applies to MU power cars.

Locomotive maintainance can be devided into several subjects:

Running in
Running in is about the first thing you should do when you have opened the box after purchase. First thing to do is to check if your loco runs, and if all extra functions like lights etc. are working correctly. When you buy your models in a shop, it is usual to test run your new loco on a test track in the shop. I recommend you test run your new loco again when you returned home. There are many opinions on how to run in new models but this one proved to be very good:

Lay a circle or oval of sectional track if you don't have a permanent layout, Tomix or Kato track is preferred for stability, a passing loop is handy but not necessary. Connect your controller to the layout and put your loco (or MU) on the track. Then the most important part: open the controller and turn up to the slowest speed that your new loco smoothly runs. Let your loco run for about 30 minutes, then change direction and repeat for another 30 minutes in the opposite direrction. From time to time you should adjust the speed down a little. Check if the lights are working properly. This method can also be used for DCC-decoder equipped locos, run these on a DCC-controller or DCC-system. It's even better to run in a loco before the decoder is fitted, run in the loco on a normal DC control as described above.

What you should avoid: I've read somewhere that there are modellers who take a new locomotive apart and lubricate the mechanism with 'Clipper oil' which is a lubricant / cleaner made for hair clippers. This stuff contains an abrasive that is meant to keep the cuttting surfaces of the hair clipper sharp. This stuff is poison for your loco and use of it voids the warranty. In short form: avoid any abrasive to get into the mechanism of your model locos. Abrasives cause excessive wear on the gears. Apart from that, you also void the manufacturer's warranty. New models are lubricated in the factory and running-in spreads the lubricant to all moving parts.

Wheel cleaning

During operation the wheels of the locos (and your wagons as well) pick up dirt and grease which builds up on the wheels, usually first where the flanges connect to the wheel threads. This build-up usually does not conduct electricity, resulting in poor electrical contact and poor running. To maintain optimal performance you should clean the wheels of you locomotives and other rolling stock from time to time. As the build-up contains grease, you should use a solvent to clean the wheels. Use a plastic-safe solvent on and nearby plastic surfaces. I recommend alcohol, denatured alcohol or isopropanol, the latter is often used to clean audio and video recorder heads and mechanisms. Some modellers have good experiences with lighter fuel, but this has the drawback of being very flammable, it ignites very easily by sparks. Tomix offers a special wheel and track cleaner which effective, but a bit on the expensive side. When clean, the wheels of your model should look as if they are new, without a spot of dirt, grime or oxidation.

To make wheel cleaning easier, the modelling industry and individual modellers have designed a few little tools:


Motor cleaning

Motor cleaning is a bit more difficult, you may have to take the motor out of your loco to reach a few awkward spots. You need to know that a model locomotive motor (nearly always a permanent magnet DC motor) is made up of a few parts:
Only the follwoing parts need maintainance and some care:
If your model is made by Kato please obseverve the following:

Perhaps one of our most common causes of parts replacement and repair is improper lubrication. KATO locomotives utilize sophisticated engineering plastics in all wearing surfaces of the drive train. These parts require only a very, very thin film of lubricant. And if a "little" is good, "more" is not better! Excess lubrication attracts "gunk" (a real technical term) which will jam gears and result in motor failure.

New models are lubricated at the factory. There is no need for additional lubrication at time of purchase. Generally speaking, you should be able to enjoy approximately two hundred hours of operation before any further lubrication is needed.

Your local hobby dealer should be able to recommend an appropriate and safe brand of lubricant. Do NOT use general purpose hardware-store oils and greases!

[ Excerpt from Kato USA website]

The above applies to all brands of Japanese model trains and could be used as a general rule.


Lubricating

To reduce wear your model needs a little lubrication on the wheel brearings, the motor bearings, the gears, the pick-up wipers and motor commutator (see above).  You need different lubricants for different wearing surfaces.


Normal maintainance

You should observe the maintainance instructions provided by the manufacturer of your model. These can usually be found in the catalogue of the manufacturer. I will list them in short for the most important makes on the Japanese market:

The lubricants mentioned can be found in the product overviews, by application or by manufacturer.
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