Q: I have a couple of Lionel Geeps from the 1950s. I took them out of the back and ran them for the first time in a long while the other night. All of a sudden, smoke started coming out of the cab windows. Are they junk now?
A: Don’t head for the garbage cans yet!
The smoke was caused by dirty and oxidized armature and brush faces. Remove the brushplate and brushes from the motor. Then, with a fine emery cloth or paper, polish the armature face and the contact surface of the brushes. Clean out the slots on the armature face with a needle or pin, but don’t dig too deep.
Reassemble the motor, lubricate it, and run it. The smoke should be gone, and if you run the trains regularly (this burns out the carbon and oil), you shouldn’t have the problem again.
Learn more: Hal Miller rehabs a GP7 in this article.
