4-8-4 Northern

[whitepond]

I posted a problem earlier today with no response. Can any one help me get my son's train moving ? Train was a gift 10 years ago. He comes home from college 12/18/09.

[taz-of-boyds]

Cleaning the track, and cleaning and lub the loco would be a good start.  If you have a local hobby shop they may be able to help.  To properly clean and lube the loco, you will need to do a certain amount of disassembly and get the proper lub from the hobby shop.

All the best,
Charles

[railer256]

I have the same I think (came in the Empire Builder set?)

Mine wouldn't go at all.  I manually (carefully) rolled the gears and found they were jammed to the left and eased them to center.

That let it move on its own but the motor would spin, I unscrewed it and found the inside case was screwed in too tight and loosened it just a little - then it worked.

Btw, the front and back floater wheels derail the train on standard EZ-Track I have found, even though it shipped with 11.25" radius it might be that it can only work reliably on 19"?  I ended up so frustrated I unscrewed those both off.  Now it runs but shimmies slightly (wobbles).

[jwoj69]

I had few 484, dirty contacts is number one, number two is misalign gears or wheels. Electric motor may be stopped from this trouble. If You feel that motor wants to move but it's stopped.
Look at the side bars, they should run parallel to each other, both sides should look the same,
of they don't look rite, very gently move wheels to align them,
jack