My Lionel Atlantic, from about a decade ago, has developed a squeak in the trailing truck that is the loudest "squeak" I've ever heard. Oiling not helping. Anyone know what's going on and how to fix it?
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Try Red and Tacky Grease in the bearings and on the swing area where the trailing truck mounts to the locomotive!
Is this what it looks like?:
If so, check that the offset copper ground strap isn't rubbing the backside of the wheel when the axle slides over to one side.
Loosen the screw and reposition the ground strap.
Squeaks can be a bear to find and are usually in a non obvious place. I recently got a new PS3 steam engine that all had all kinds of noise coming from the pilot truck wheels going around turns. Finally traced it to some metal flash on the detail pieces on the sides of the truck. You could see where the wheels had been rubbing. I used a Dremel to remove the flash and all quiet.
If you have a really loud squeak looks for signs of wear on metal surfaces. If the trailing truck is the source you can verify it by removing the trailing truck and running without it if that's possible.
Rick, that's the truck! I am glad I got off work today early so I could check it. It is indeed the grounding strap that caused the awful squeak! I pushed it with a screw driver and no more squeak. I should have thought of that, am getting dumber as I get older...always thought I'd get smarter.
Thanks, and thanks for all the replies.
