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Hi everyone, I bought a Lionel U.P. starter set (6-81262) from Nicholas Smith Trains about 4 months ago. Everything works as it should except the locomotive will get warm and eventually hot after only using it for about 30 minutes. I removed the shell to look at the motor and when I touched it and it was pretty hot. I am worried that I am doing some sort of damage as I use it while it is warm/hot. Does anyone have any ideas??

Thank you, Hayden

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No Hayden, it is not normal for DC can motors. Yes, after running for a while, they will get warm, but they shouldn't be getting hot to touch, especially after 30 minutes running. Unless as Billy suggested, you are running too long a train with that loco. I know with the 4-4-2 starter set locos (which have a larger, different type DC can motor) Lionel recommends a 10 car maximum limit.

The one time I had a similar circumstance with a DC motor getting hot from a K-Line engine, it just stopped working entirely, shortly thereafter.

Hopefully you registered the set with your Lionel warranty card. You could call the dealer and see if they are able to fix it, but you may have to send the loco back to Lionel. Out of curiosity, I checked for it under Lionel parts and the motor is unavailable as a parts purchase, though it's possible (??) the service department may have some set aside for their use. Or maybe some parts dealer might have one, but then that purchase would not be covered by warranty.

https://www.lionelsupport.com/...8f-85d9-a6bc20bdf5cf

Actually I should add that I'm not sure how long Lionel's warranty covers new old stock items. That set was from the 2015 catalog.

Last edited by brianel_k-lineguy
@BillYo414 posted:

It seems odd that the motor would get that hot. Are you running it under heavy load or as fast as possible?



I have the engine pulling 7 cars, 2 of them are the metal heavyweight cars. I did not think that that would be an issue because I have the U.P. starter set (1923040) and I have that locomotive pulling 14 cars, none metal heavyweight. I also have it set to slow/medium speed.

No Hayden, it is not normal for DC can motors. Yes, after running for a while, they will get warm, but they shouldn't be getting hot to touch, especially after 30 minutes running. Unless as Billy suggested, you are running too long a train with that loco. I know with the 4-4-2 starter set locos (which have a larger, different type DC can motor) Lionel recommends a 10 car maximum limit.

The one time I had a similar circumstance with a DC motor getting hot from a K-Line engine, it just stopped working entirely, shortly thereafter.

Hopefully you registered the set with your Lionel warranty card. You could call the dealer and see if they are able to fix it, but you may have to send the loco back to Lionel. Out of curiosity, I checked for it under Lionel parts and the motor is unavailable as a parts purchase, though it's possible (??) the service department may have some set aside for their use. Or maybe some parts dealer might have one, but then that purchase would not be covered by warranty.

https://www.lionelsupport.com/...8f-85d9-a6bc20bdf5cf

Actually I should add that I'm not sure how long Lionel's warranty covers new old stock items. That set was from the 2015 catalog.

Interesting, thank you. I will call Lionel and ask what I should do. Thank you again.

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