To run or not to run (a locomotive)?


PMW

PMW

Well-Known Member
While I build my layout it will be a while before I have a continuous loop. Should I let the engines sit for a month or two (maybe more) or should I run them periodically at slow speeds on my program track and later on the track I begin to lay on the layout? What do you think is best for the engines? I wonder how long they sit on the store shelves before someone buys them 🤔

Thanks!
 
As long as they are maintained, they will be fine to sit for a period. It is a good idea to run them tho more to find track faults as you built out the track plan. makes it easy to find electrical issue. Or just unfriendly curves or other track issues.
 
I rotate my 30+ engines over a two-three year period, meaning some of them sit in their boxes, in a cupboard, for a year or more. Only two of my decoders have ever failed over 20 years, one a QSI, the other an ESULokSound, and none of the drive mechanisms have failed, not on my steamers, of which I have maybe 20, and not on my diesels. Atlas, Genesis, BLI, Rivarossi, Rapido, and Lionel HO, they all start up and run like clockwork.
 
I only have 11 diesels. 6 are on the layout at any one time. Every practice op session I have all 6 scheduled to run. I have been rotating them every month.

I’ve let diesels sit though for months and then started and run them with no issues. I do maintenance on them every couple years where I check the gear boxes for any grease build up. Other than that I rarely have a diesel issue
 
I’ve recently taken locos out of extended storage. In my case, some sat for well over five years. Given my previous maintenance and lube types, only one had stiff grease. You’re more likely to have electrical contact issues. So I would say the storage time can be measured in years.

That said, I am in process of resurrecting the RR and converting to DCC. Part of the conversions is an end-end service. I check couplers, trucks and wheels, gearboxes and bearings and motor function. I also check exterior cosmetics, as the pieces have been in storage and I find couplers and details broken off. The damage wasn't bad, considering it all got packed and moved.
 
I had a life-like 0-4-0 tank loco that sat for 6 years without running. I cleaned the wheels and put it on the track, could not believe how well it ran! Way better than I remembered, esp for such a short wheelbase.

Of course, the track was very clean. I was thinning out my loco collection and had second thoughts about selling it after the test run. It took up so little space, I should have kept it.
 
Thanks for the responses, all! That question produced some anxiety for me but I'm not so concerned now. Hopefully get them running sometime in the spring 🤞
 
I try to "rotate" the locomotives I have in service by roadnames.

For example, from New Haven to New York Central to Penn Central to Conrail, and then in reverse.

I even have a few Milwaukee Road engines which I'll "convert" the layout over to, from time to time.

The idea is to give just about everything a workout now and then...
 
I’ve started storing my locos upright in the boxes and not on their side, I found that a couple had grease dripping from the trucks onto the side frames.
 
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