Richmond 4-4-0 question

[Trainman203]

I have several of these beautiful engines.  All run beautifully but one is cranky when starting up, like me first thing in the morning. 😂

This particular engine came as DCC only, but I swapped tenders with another to give it a DCC / sound unit.

At first start up, with slow increase of steps, the chuff begins but the engine won't move.  After about 15 seconds or so of this, the engine begins to haltingly jerk ahead, slowly smoothing out after another maybe 10 seconds of this.  After that it runs fine but when you stop the engine, after 5 or 10 minutes of inactivity the condition begins to slowly return.

The engine hasn't always done this.  The condition has evolved into existence.


I have surgically cleaned all wheels and wiper contacts , no effect.  I suspect something has oxidized in the motor.  Bachmann wheel sets notoriously oxidize very easily in our Gulf Coast climate, but this appears to be something else.

[DCCDon]

Just a guess, but sounds like old dry grease somewhere in the gear train or maybe dry motor bushings.

I purchased a used 0-6-0 tank engine recently and had the opposite problem with the motor - seems somebody thought lubing the motor meant dipping it in oil! Or maybe dipping the entire chassis in oil since it oozed out of every opening. Eeek!