Well, that was interesting. Never to leave well enough alone, I decided to go ahead and replace the brushes. They were both very worn, so it was time.
The replacement brushes were far too "fat" in diameter to slip into the brass tubes. I didn't want to force anything but had to install something. I looked into my stash of stuff and it turns out the "shouldered" brushes for the later American Flyer S scale locomotives fit. 🙂
They are overall a bit smaller, but due to the large coil springs they work just fine. This sure is a smooth runner... 😊
Mark in Oregon
PS: I could add here that the Gilbert coil springs are indentical to the Lionel original/replacement springs...FWIW.
