I have to agree with Bill on this one. I have purchased four or five
M?rklin steamers off the shelves of hobby stores. They were sold as new but
from my examination of them, they had all been sitting around for anywhere
from 5 to 9 years!
As you can imagine, the lubrication had evaporated and the resin that was
left made burning out a motor practically a sure bet. In fact, I found out
the hard way with the first one that I bought. Fortunately for me, M?rklin
USA replaced the motor under warranty.
Subsequently, I cleaned out the old muck and lubricated the engines before
putting them into service on the Val Ease Central. The locos on my layout
run continuously for 2-3 hours at a time so they do tend to get hot.
However, with proper cleaning and lubrication they have given me solid
performance over the years. They will be running some more at the National
Train Show, July 23-25 in Saint Paul. (Am I repeating myself enough yet?)
P.S. I have also added weight to all my motive power, except the MT's in
the belief that every little bit helps. To hedge my bets, I also use Relco
high frequency AC track cleaning units on the layout.
P.P.S. Thank you Simon for adding the SAR of Hong Kong to our list of
Countries. That brings the total to 11!
Cheers,
Jeffrey
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I'd be the first to agree, that with PROPER maintenance, Marklin and
MicroTrains locomotives will last forever. The concern we have for
ourselves
(and our guest runners), is that someone will put a poorly
lubricated/maintained loco on the track, and watch it die before their
eyes.
Or make the same "assumption" I did.
