Scattered Thoughts . . .

The nine feet of used track that I had ordered online the other day arrived today so I was finally able to run this large Fn3 scale steam locomotive on some track for the first time.  A couple of days ago, I spent a little time cleaning and lubricating this old steam locomotive.  I had tested it, running, while it was lying on its side but I had yet to run it on any track...  until today.  When the track arrived, it was in need of cleaning.  The rails were a solid dark brown color indicating they would not conduct nearly enough of the low voltage electricity needed to power any locomotive.  The rails appeared to be completely oxidized.  Actually, it appears as though this track was barely used and probably spent most of its life on a display shelf which is likely what its primary use will be at our home too (along with occasional test runs).  After a few minutes of cleaning, the tops of the rails were nice and shiny again. I didn't clean any of th...

A bout twice a year, I try to put aside some time to do some maintenance on my model locomotives.  They accumulate dust and grime so that is the first thing to address.  They also could use periodic lubrication.  After some cleaning and lubrication, I look the entire locomotive over to see if it needs any other work.   Yesterday morning, I worked on some of my O scale locomotives as well as a couple of HO scale locomotives.  One of these O scale locomotives could still use some more work so I might try to tackle that tomorrow morning.  It is one of my older locomotives so I'm thinking there is some caked up grease on the gears.  It is not running as smoothly as I would like and the likely problem is some old, hardened grease on the gears.  Hopefully, that will be a fairly simple job.  (See the edit added at the bottom of this blog entry for more information on what I thought would be a quick and easy task.) This morning, I pulled out my ...