During our first show it was realised that some of our trains were suffering from motor squeak. After we got back I opened the motor unit casings to inspect inside and found that the internal electric motors have a date of manufacture on them, the oldest motors in our trains were 57 years old, and the newest were 46 years old. They were entitled to squeak after all this time!

I then dismantled them all and did some research – the company who made the motors originally are still trading and are still making motors! After an email conversation with them it became apparent that when they stopped producing the motors they had returned all the designs and couldnt help source any replacements, so it was decided to see what could be done to alleviate the issue!

The oldest motors actually were in better condition than the newer motors – just goes to show that the older something is the better it was made.

After cleaning the contacts inside with electrical cleaner and some fine emery cloth the motors themselves got some attention. I have stripped and rebuild record decks in the past and I wondered if the oil/grease in the bearings had solidified like in decks. A small amount of contact cleaner followed by some multipurpose light oil was applied and the first motor ran silently. I put it back in the housing and it became apparent that the gearbox was rather loud too. Some special plastic safe silicone grease was applied and then I had a much quieter motor unit.

The process was repeated for all the motors and now we have fully working trains with plenty of spare motor units!