# Introducing the third generation to Lionel



## timmymcg (Jan 28, 2013)

Hi All!

Just a quick note of introduction here: 

I’m the proud inheritor of a good bunch of O-27 trains, tracks, and accessories.
Having had kids, and moved out of our 768-square-foot apartment, my parents have passed on my share of the family trains. were mine as a kid and before that, my dad’s when he was a kid (the engine is from the 1950’s, the cars and accessories mostly from the ‘50s and ‘60s, and the ‘80s).

I’ve got a couple of questions about layout, and getting things cleaned up and ready to go again.

We have a pretty ideal space in our attic for a layout of about 54” by 65”—with a bonus that there’s a storage space behind the wall at one end (it’s under an eave) into which we can run a tunnel. I laid out the track we have on the floor, and with just one more curve (my mom is going to pull one from my brother’s box and I’ll trade a straight or two). I should specify here that budget’s very much on our minds; we want to get started with what we’ve got and get running trains. 

Linked here is a pic of the layout as I put it together to fit the space. The space is basically inaccessible on three sides, so there would be a cutout for the operator between the shipyard and the town. Does this make sense? Looking at it now, I’m realizing that there’s no route that can be run continuously without switching; I suppose that’s a downside. (We’ve got a couple of buildings and a coaling station for the set already.)


What should I be doing to get these trains (run once around the Christmas tree in the past, oh, 20 years), running again? I set up the transformer, one lock-on, and a little loop of track just to see if we could get things humming – and, basically, nada. I haven’t pulled out the multimeter yet to see where things are going awry, but I figured I’d throw out the question of where to start troubleshooting and what are the obvious things to look at here before poking around more or less blindly. 

Cleaning tracks and getting going: I was thinking of running a wire wheel on my drill to clean ‘em up (and saw that mentioned in another thread). (There’s some surface rust, not much. More darkening/corrosion than rust. Is that a plating?) 

How about the pins? I was thinking that I’d pull the pins, put some electrically-conductive lubricant on them, and reinsert them. 

Thanks for the help in advance, and I look forward to posting more pics as we get rolling!

Tim


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Welcome to the forum, Tim ... nice to have you and your trains onboard!

A basic O setup service guide is here:

http://www.thortrains.net/manualx.htm

Some extra tips from me and our gang ...

Old trains/locos will have caked-on grease/gunk that has to be removed. GooGone works great for this ... remove the motor from the shell (to protect paint), and then clean the gears, axles, brushes, armature face, e-unit drum, etc. with GooGone via q-tips, pipe cleaners, and a light/soft ScotchBrite pad.

Afterwards, oil all moving parts (with the exception of the e-unit plunger) with a drop or two of 5W-20 or 5W-30 motor oil. Many of us here recommend that you do NOT use grease or other "sticky" lubricants ... they dry out over time.

To clean track, go again with GooGone via a ScotchBrite pad. Wipe down with isopropyl or denatured alcohol afterwards. Do NOT clean the track with sandpaper or steel wool!!! And unless the track is really, really rusty, I'd shy away from a wire wheel on the drill ... you run the risk of removing the protective surface plating on the track.

Clean the track pins with the scotchbrite pad. You could use a wire brush on the pins, perhaps, too. If possible, use a wire/brass pipe cleaner to derust inside the ends of the track tubes a bit. When assembling the track sections, bend the center pin slightly to the right, and the left pin slightly to the left ... this will induce some extra friction when you join two pieces of track together, and help improve electrical conductivity.

Hope that helps a bit. Ping us back with specific questions.

TJ


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Tim,

Your photos didn't link, probably because you didn't have three posts. I kicked your post count so you can try again with the photos.


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## timmymcg (Jan 28, 2013)

Whoops; I flubbed the copy-paste on the URL. Here's the tentative layout, with the missing curve piece at the bottom. 








. 

Looking at it again (after a couple cups of coffee!), I see that I (or the kids) can do a continuous run without switching (the layout is a figure 8 with one branch).


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## timmymcg (Jan 28, 2013)

And thanks for the tips on Goo-Gone (and to avoid the heavy abrasives!)! I'm super-excited to get these guys going again (and I'm only about half as excited as my son)!


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

At first glance, that looks like a steep grade (slope) to me for the crossover. Have you done a test pull to see if your loco can pull those cars OK?


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## timmymcg (Jan 28, 2013)

Oh, right, I'd forgotten how hard it was for the loco to make the grade when we had a 4' x 8' setup. Have to ponder that one.

Edit: just doing some back-of-envelope sketches and calcs, it looks like I can get the grade down to ~1%--if the whole layout is contoured from lowest point at the underpass to highest point over it. Then the challenge becomes doing that well, and making it look good!


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Yup.

Or put that crossing to better use, and keep things as a "flatland" setup? Just a thought.

A lot of Lionel O guys face this very same challenge, given the spacial limitations of a typical 4x8 O setup. Hard to get a decent grade / overpass in that space. Doable, but tricky. Need a good pulling loco, too.

Regards,

TJ


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