Great youtube material. It's amazing how far motors have moved on. I suspect the new "rare earth" magnets are a main reason. One issue which causes ropy running is that everything wears, so some of the gear shafts start rolling around and stick. And of course everything picks up dirt. grit i the berings doesn't promote smooth running. Another issue is that the motors run on a few volts - almost never 12V - so the 3 v or so supply has to push through greasy contacts, oily rails. The contacts push on the wheels and give the motor more work to do. Locos with no compensation - or even looseness - will spend a lot of time on three wheels due to uneven track. Four coupled locos are probe to stall on insulated rail sections. It all mounts up . . it's amazing the old timers got anything running.
I am sure a lot of us have similar locos and good to see tips on how to get them running again. There was a lot of muck on some of those so they had obviously seen some action in the past.
