@gunrunnerjohn posted:If you go to the trouble of opening it up, put a new fan motor in it!
The only reason I suggest trying the oil is because theres no guarantee that a replacement from Lionel won't fail in the same manner. I've had replacements get noisy and fail just the same as the original.
I also have had an out of the box problematic fan motor that was oiled, and has run without issue for a decade.
IMO. Its a crapshoot as to whether you'll get a reliable replacement since all the fan motors come from the same source.