Running in a loco

[truckman060473]

Most manufacturers recommend running in a loco to bed in the drivetrain. When you initially place the loco on the track you will naturally want to try it out up and down the track. What sort of performance can you expect to see after a run in period e.g. say 1 hour running light engine or perhaps 30min in each direction? What I mean is, lets say the loco fresh out of the box doesn't seem to run well at crawling speeds, will that improve after the run in?

 

[Heinz57]

Personaly I have never actualy ran a loco in. I just take it out of the box and start using it as normal, I've never botherd with the half hour in each direction stuff.

I have heard that it can make a differance, but to be honest I don't know many people that do it

 

[bocaj]

I run all my locos in for 15-30 mins in each direction at about 12 O'clock on the controler. This helps the engine get all the gears and things working well in each direction. It also picks out problams with the loco if it has any.

Jacob

 

[142094]

Think the engineering term is sweetening - heard this used before. Best way to explain it is like a warm-up before playing football.

 

[truckman060473]

Ok so the new Bachmann 37 "David Lloyd George" I had, has been running around for an half an hour in each direction now, light engine. The slow speed capability seems no better after it. It is no match for my much older Bachmann class 20 which is super smooth down to a crawl. The other thing is, the controller (HM2000) needs to be advanced a long way before it starts moving. The cab lights are on well before it moves. By comparison I put my Bachmann 47 "Sir Rowland Hill" on the same track as the 37, and that loco is running nice and smoothly at a scale speed of about 20mph while the 37 hasn't begun moving yet - and when it does, it pulls off a bit sharply. I just can't understand it. The drivetrains are more or less identical aren't they?

 

[Don2912]

My Heljan locos all seem to benefit from a short running-in period. I generally aim for 30 mins in each direction at about half power.
Light engine, of course.
There does seem to be an improvement in performance over all speed ranges, but is particularly noticeable at low speeds.

There is a definite difference between the performance of Lion and the older (and much more used) Falcon - Falcon is smoother and much more controllable at low speeds, even on my antique AGW PE144 controllers.

 

[Bittern]

I give my locos about 30 mins running in each direction. For the smaller locos, such as Caledonian 123, it made a difference in how she stopped dying on the points and reduced it to just jerking slightly. For larger trains such as my Pendolino, it got me used to the motor noise.

It should be noted that my trains are all DC due to my lack of a layout.