Carey,
Nice m10000! Have fun with it. My JAD Hiawatha (same McCoy motor, I think) was pretty stubborn/stiff when I first got it -- Arno advised me to lubricate it and run under zero load for about an hour in each direction to break it in. I just placed in a service cradle and ran it upside down for a while. It was much more "super" after that!
How well are the vestibules staying together on the cars? My Hiawatha only makes a few revolutions before consistently coming apart at one section. I think the spring that holds the vestibule latch needs to exert more force. I might try stretching or replacing it -- something to tweak before running the Hiawatha again.