Charlie that exactly like my 773 lionel 38015 .. I was told here on OGR from a member how to use a tooth pick to check and add some red grease that mine was dry (three screws under chassis get removed )
Also as a tip I opened up my smoke puffer and put a 18 Lionel ohm resistor and used @4"inches of tiki rope pulled apart and put in that little bowel . I made sure just to put a little behind the resistor and leave the other side with out a sleeve.. pre primed it.. and You won't believe the difference! Holds a lot more fluid than the 4-8 drops it says in the manual..
I oiled the motor bearings and linkage
Last thing for my 042 curves I got rid of the center traction tires got a new set (lionel says in owners manual they supplied them . (I used blue lock tight on linkage when resembled ) My L/N 773 didi not have any in box. But once I got em it crawls around my curves perfectly compared to the traction tires ones..
Last thing I did was gently removed the Lionel men on the firebox and for me at least makes it more realistic on the rails....daniel
