How often do you lubricate your locos?


Night Train

Night Train

Member
I have a mix of Atlas and Kato locos. They are relatively new...bought my first one a couple of years ago and my newest ones 2 weeks ago. At what point should I put a little lubricant on those little gears at the bottom of the wheels? I run my locos fairly often...I operate them all at least 2 to 3 times a week for maybe 20 minutes or so.

What's your lubrication schedule?
 
I usually lubricate my locomotives about once a year. Most of them are operated on a regular basis on the layout. I do have a few brass locomotives that I custom painted almost 20 years ago that normally live in their box, and they are also lubricated about once a year. I have a few large articulated locomotives that wouldn't show up on a railroad like mine, plus the turntable size is way too small for them. With periodic lubrication, these all still operate flawlessly.
 
I don't operate any one of my locomotives more than perhaps a full hour a year. I tend to rotate them. It's not that I have boxes and boxes of them, just that I don't run my trains more than perhaps 20 hours a year. I am still building the layout.

I lubricate my locomotives after about two hours of running-in. I don't run them hard or fast either. Once I figure they're keepers, I invert them and lube the pivoting or rotating surfaces with a drop of Dexron III Mercon auto-transmission fluid. I haven't done it more than once in ten years for all but two or three of them. They run smoothly when I remove them from their storage and go to run them after a year or more has passed.
 
Since over-lubing is almost as bad as underlubing, I do my locos "as needed". Which means they have to give me a sign they need lube (like squealing). If I need to diassmble a loco for cleaning, I'll lube it as I re-assemble it, but again, I clean them "as needed". If it ain't broke, don't fix it pretty much sums up my maintenance schedule.
 
I usually clean out the excess of lube the factory puts in Proto 2000 diesels. It's a bit silly on Nylon or Delrin gears since those are "self-lubricating" materials. A tiny bit of oil on the points where the axles turn in the side frame bearing is all I need.
 
I usually clean out the excess of lube the factory puts in Proto 2000 diesels. It's a bit silly on Nylon or Delrin gears since those are "self-lubricating" materials. A tiny bit of oil on the points where the axles turn in the side frame bearings is all I need.
 
Not very often. Of the locomotives that get run often and frequently maybe once a year, but usually closer to once every two years. Usually I wait for them to tell me they need a little something like squeak, running slow, sluggish, or hesitantly. The most often thing that squeaks seems to be the side frames where there is a bearing that picks up the electricity. I use electrically conductive lubricant there.

When I do lubricate my favorite is a tiny drop of bearing lubricant on the motor bearings. Over all, I consider the most critical thing to be lubricated is the valve gear of the steam locos.

I have one set of Stewarts I run on the modular units at the shows 8 hours a day for 2 or 3 days, five or six times a year. I can't remember EVER lubricating them in the past 6 years. I believe they have those slick plastic gears (derlin?) that theoretically don't need any lubrication.

Night Train said:
I run my locos fairly often...I operate them all at least 2 to 3 times a week for maybe 20 minutes or so.
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That is less than an hour a week, or 52 hours a year. The museum trains run 7 hours a day 3 days a week in winter and 5 days a week in summer. The locomotives are on a 6 month maintenance schedule, but that doesn't mean they get lubricated every 6 months. They are just looked at and work is done as needed. I would guess if you really want a schedule, considering your operations, once a year would be more than sufficient. If one considers maintenance every 100 hours then that would be once every two years.
 
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About once every twenty years whether they need it or not! :rolleyes: Seriously, there was a twenty year period where my locomotives, both steam and diesel were in storage boxes. When I pulled them out, most ran just fine without much maintenance except cleaning wheels and electrical contacts. NOT saying you shouldn't lube at all, but over-lubing will collect dirt. If a loco is squeeking or running rought for reasons other than poor electrical contact, then LIGHT application of compatible oil or gear grease (LaBelle's in both cases), should be applied SPARINGLY.
 
I do my locos once a year. But I do disassemble them, clean out the old, and sometimes dirty lubricant. I also use this time to check for loose or missing details and repair those. Paint is also touched up then.
 
I clean and lube mine when I am performing a repair, or when it makes a noise like dry bearings.
Some people I know use the Penn Central maintenance schedule: Run it until it stops, then act surprised and band-aid it back together.
 
I use mostly Bachmann diesels, and they usually start "telling"* me they need some lube (particularly motor bearings) at about 45 hours of run time.

* The engine's motor and maybe worm gear bearings start slightly squalling a little bit, and/or sometimes the engine does a little jump-starting.

When I started model railroading with American Flyer S gauge trains in the late 1950s, I really liked their steam locos' method of lubing the rear motor shaft bushing: Every engine came with a round felt piece about 1/8" diameter and 3/8" long that fit in a hole on the top rear of the motor housing over the rear shaft (which was slanted downward toward the front), and the bottom of the felt piece pushed against this rear motor shaft. Keeping the felt piece oiled was EASY - and was easily accessible. (Manufacturers of horizontal mounted motor shafts - hint! hint! hint!) I vaguely recall the front drive shaft was hard to get to: I might have had to remove it from the shell, and of course the shaft was angled "wrong" for gravity lubing.

DougC
 
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