Does anybody have a general idea how long is too long to run your trains in a given time period? I personally run them for about 1/2 hour at a time max. Usually shorter. I have heard people say that the motors can get hot and damaged if ran too long. Is that true?What I have learned is that after a 1/2 hour if my loco feels warm, it is usally a sign that I got to break it down and clean the motor and brushes. Once done, it usually runs cool. Any thoughts?
also, I might add that I only have 3 and 5 pole motors. So I really do not know anything about the coreless ones so any info about either would be appreciated.
We routinely run Marklin and MTL locos for 2 hours (minimum) to 8 hours on Z-Bend Track modules at shows. If there is just one of us there, they get run for a long time. If there are several of us, we take turns runing our trains. Keep in mind we run looooong trains. MTL's get to pull 80 car trains. Marklin trains pull as much as they can do. But we run everything at about 35-40 scale miles per hour, not 170 miles per hour. And we do a complete nuts-and-bolts teardown of the locos every 20 hours of run time, and a lite surface oiling every 10 hours. Heat has not been a problem for a loco in good running condition. I suspect frequent maintenance does more to keep one alive than anything else...assuming you also run them at some realistic scale speed. Chad has a 17 year old MTL F7, that has probably 1,000 to 2,000 running hours on it over the years. Runs fine. But you got's to take care's of them puppies...if you expect that kind of service. Bill K.
I usually run my locos for about 1 to 2 hours before changing the trains. A friend of mine was left unattended with a brand new locomotive of mine, and after 4 hours I asked him where my locomotive was at which time he replied that it started running balky so he took it off the tracks. I found it lying on it's side next to the potatoe chips and a soda spill. About that time he pulled his own loco off the tracks and said "Mine is running bad now too", as I seen him fire up one of my other friends loco's that he had borrowed, I noticed he was running them "Full Blast"until the start to seize up. Newbie Train Guys... Gotta love them. So, anyways I take my brand spanking new loco apart and see the plastic piece that holds the brushes is broken in half down the centerline of the loco, (one of those blackened driver 2-6-0 loco's with the elephant ears and tiny 3 axle tender) and upon inspecting the brushes, I seen they were worn down to a nub and had widened foil overlaps which were shorting the commutators. The slot between each commutator contact was filled with black debris, and no wonder it was running balky... it had overheated from running full blast, which made the metal loco frame expand, which cracked the clear plastic brush holder, which allowed the brushes to flop around making intermittant sparky contact, which filled the commutator with black powder, which finally killed the locomotive. It did not run balky when I tested it at home.. it just did not run at all. Well, I used a brand new exacto to cut the foil metal off the edges of the brushes, so they were the correct size again, and used the backside of the blade to scrape out all the black powder between the commutator contacts on the motor, then I used Plastruct all purpose glue to glue the plastic piece back together, and tested the locomotive running OK again. Not as good as when it was brand new, but just OK. So, what did I learn? Always watch the new guy, and never let him run trains at full blast! Especially your brand new locomotive. Also, after 10 minutes of running, touch your locomotive and if it is hot... pull it off the tracks for inspection to find the source of the trouble. Usually a good cleaning will help, but it you let it go too long, it might get ugly. -Robert
Wow, Robert. What a story. If anyone walks up to us and asks to see our trains run faster, I just tactfully point them toward the Lionel layout on the show floor. The Lionel layouts even have trains that smoke, run very fast, all of them make lots of noises...and we don't even have an illuminated, animated fish tank boxcar on our ZBT layout like the Lionel folks do on theirs. <smile> Bill K.
Good info, thanks. And what a story Robert! Well, I am with you guys about scale speed. I can't stand seeing a loco fly around the track at warp speed. Sounds like I can run longer as long as I keep up with the cleaning. Anybody know about the coreless motors?
