Re: Lionel Polar Express questions

Tony Rice wrote:

David Nebenzahl <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:475c68e1$0$30686$822641b3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

On 12/9/2007 8:01 AM Tony Rice spake thus:

My Lionel Polar Express locomotive and tender have had some quirks
since unboxing it last Christmas.

You have to take the throttle nearly to 100% to get the locomotive to
move. Sometimes a gentle push is needed to get it going. My 6 year
old loves starting and stopping the train so this is a bit annoying
and I'm worried we might be damaging the motor.

With all due respect to others who answered here, they missed the most
likely cause: dirty track or wheels. It's that simple.

Since the loco depends on an electrical connection between the wheels
that pick up power and the track, any dirt or corrosion is going to
cause problems like the ones you're experiencing. So the first and
easiest thing to do is to simply clean them.

I assume the track is either nickel silver or brass. If it's nickel,
it will be silver colored (it's not actually silver), and will be
easier to clean. If it's brass (looks like brass), then you may have
corrosion you'll have to remove.

So assuming it's nickel silver, take a clean cloth and some solvent
and clean the track. I recommend alcohol (denatured alcohol, shellac
thinner, methanol, methylated spirits, stove fuel: all the same stuff;
NOT rubbing alcohol, which contains a lot of water). You should see
black gunk on the cloth.

Clean the wheels too with a Q-tip or similar device and the same
cleaner. You should notice a marked improvement in performance.

I seriously doubt that the lubricants in your loco have gunked up in
such a short time, at least enough to slow it down that much. Clean
the track first; if that doesn't work, then you can start looking at
lubing the loco.

But the headlamp is lighting up and the locomotive just sits there until I
apply full power and give it a little push,

Would dirty track still cause this and not something mechanical?

- The full brightness headlamp and lack of motion indicates that track
power is reaching the loco, but not the motor.
- If the headlamp dimmed and the motor hummed then power would be
reaching both the headlamp and the motor but the problem would almost
certainly be mechanical. (binding of the mechanisim)
- if the headlamp is at full brightness without motor hum but the loco
starts with a push then the problem is _probably_ in the motor, with
suspicion falling on the brush/commutator or one pole of the armature
windings.

Greg.P.
NZ
.

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