Loco burning/heat smell

[Ifan]

Hello everyone,

Just looking for advice regarding my son's Dapol loco. Was cleaning its wheels with one of those cleaners you place on the track which makes them spin on brushes. Have done this a few times and it seems to work well. But this time I notices a smell of burning/heat come from the loco. Nothing seemed hot to touch. I left it for a the day then put it on the track. It's working fine but the smell remains. It seems to come from the tender where the motor is located. Have read that it could be oil on the motor? Or could the motor itself be the problem?

Any thoughts would be very welcome as, like I've posted recently here, my son and I are new to the modelling game.

Thanks

[OwL]

I had a similar issue with a newly bought Dapol class 73 (Diesel Loco) whereby a resistor that controlled the lighting circuit was sub-standard. This resulted in the resistor overheating and melting the plastic body shell of the loco (hence burning smell)

This was sent back to Dapol who replaced under warranty as it was new.

If you are able carefully remove the tender body and see if there is anything obvious below it causing the smell, such as a burnt out resistor.

If you could include what class of steam loco this is (loco box has this info on it) someone may well have encountered this fault before.
Alternatively take a photo of the loco so we can help you identify it and any known issues👍

[Newportnobby]

If the wheel cleaner you refer to is the Minitrix one I would be very careful in using it and would go so far as to suggest you don't.
It concerns me that while the wheels may be getting cleaned, the gears on the loco (if not covered) are grinding away on the plastic centre that separates the brushes on the cleaner.
I'm not saying this may have caused the burning smell and would agree with Owl about removing the body, but hopefully my comment may give you pause for thought.

[Ifan]

Thanks for the advice and suggestions. I'll check later what loco it is - think it's something Manor in green (it's a 4-6-0) and came with a starter set of Kato track and three GWR chocolate and cream coaches. Ditto the wheel cleaner, but pretty sure it's Minitrix. What I find weird is that the smell has just stayed the same - no worse when running and no better after hours of doing nothing. I can only smell it up close so guess it was possibly there previously.

I'm not confident enough or, to be honest, competent enough to start dismantling the loco. It's under warranty for a good while yet so I could always send it back.

Thanks again

[Ifan]

The loco is actually called Hinderton Hall.

[OwL]

It sounds like you have a 'Hall Class' locomotive. These were built by the great western railway in real life.

Now regarding the loco itself:

Have you run it in yet? (This is where you oil the loco in accordance with the manufacturer's data sheet, then run the loco on its own, no coaches, for 30 mins in each direction at a moderate speed)
The loco must be oiled with appropriate model rail loco oil (available at all good model shops) in the correct locations. Usually on the cog wheels (known as gears) underneath the loco. Please refer to all data sheets first. These tell you where and what must be oiled.
Apologies if you have already carried this out.

Secondly it could well be oil or transit grease on the motor. These models are built in China and sometimes overdone with transit grease for their sea voyage to the UK. transit grease would warm up on a worked motor and probably give off a smell.

Depends where you live in the UK but if you have a local model shop, phone up, and see if they have a loco servicing facility. A lot of Independant shops do. They could look at it for you for a small fee (£8-10) and run it in for you and put your mind at rest for any issues you may have. Most servicing people (being modellers too) would show you and point out basic key maintenance tasks on your loco so you would feel more confident in doing this in the future to this model and others you may acquire.

Another thing to think about is don't get too carried away with wheel cleaning. Focus more so on keeping the track clean. If your tracks are very clean then your locos will pick up little or no dirt, therefore not need any direct wheel cleaning. As Mick pointed out be very cautious of wheel cleaners like this. To the beginner they can cause more harm than good sometimes. If your track is cleaned regular, it will help better running always and negate the need to clean wheels on the model.
New models are rarely in need of wheel cleaning. It's generally older second hand models which have run on dirty track that require this 'minitrix brush' cleaning method.

Just a few considerations here to look at first. Good luck and let's us know if you need more help?👍

[Dr Al]

This can be common - I've seen at least 5 Dapol locos where this happened and each time it was down to poor quality capacitors wired across the motor, with at least one going semi-short circuit and burning up. I just snipped them out of the circuit (they are wired in parallel across the motor, presumably for arcing suppression) and this restored the running.

It does concern me if left unchecked how far these would go (I've had them smoking, albeit under careful watch) - their electrical safety is somewhat dubious I'd have thought - fortunately it's low voltage, and there isn't anything near them generally that could actually catch fire. But boy do they get hot for the short period they're burning up.....

Cheers,
Alan

[Snowwolflair]

Just a different thought.

the wheel brush you use could be creating debris that is getting into the motor or bridging contacts.  It would do no harm to give it a blast of air from an airbrush compressor or a can of air used to clean computers.

[Lazy-Ferret]

This can be common - I've seen at least 5 Dapol locos where this happened and each time it was down to poor quality capacitors wired across the motor, with at least one going semi-short circuit and burning up. I just snipped them out of the circuit (they are wired in parallel across the motor, presumably for arcing suppression) and this restored the running.

It does concern me if left unchecked how far these would go (I've had them smoking, albeit under careful watch) - their electrical safety is somewhat dubious I'd have thought - fortunately it's low voltage, and there isn't anything near them generally that could actually catch fire. But boy do they get hot for the short period they're burning up.....

Cheers,
Alan

You would be better replacing the faulty capacitor, as not only does it suppress interference, which could cause issues if you are using DCC, but it helps to stop arcing of the brushes, which not only helps them last a lot longer, but also reduces heat generation on that end of the motor, which in turn can reduce the chances of damage to the motor pinion.

[Dr Al]

You would be better replacing the faulty capacitor, as not only does it suppress interference, which could cause issues if you are using DCC, but it helps to stop arcing of the brushes, which not only helps them last a lot longer, but also reduces heat generation on that end of the motor, which in turn can reduce the chances of damage to the motor pinion.

I've never found it necessary - don't DCC so it's not relevant [tho, I thought folk often said to remove all suppression equipment when DCCing?]. I watch the current consumption closely with permanently wired meters, and it's no higher on these models than those with functioning capacitors present - heating is also therefore displays no obvious difference.

I look at older Bachmann Farish models that came factory fresh with absolutely no suppression equipment at all (the split chassis models) - these don't seem to suffer adversely at all with no capacitors fitted. If it can be proved otherwise then I'm interested to hear, but I think it's a non-issue.

Cheers,
Alan

[Ifan]

Thank you all so much for your replies/suggestions. We've had the loco since my son's birthday on December 29. I oiled it as advised before putting it on the track and also ran it in for 30 minutes each way. After a few initial problems it's been running fine since I got to grips with properly cleaning the tracks. And as I mentioned previously, it still runs really well since I noticed the smell.

It hasn't been used at all since Saturday and a slight smell remains. I'm pondering whether to send it back while it's still under warranty so any problems are sorted. It often also derails while reversing over points (Kato 6#) - the same set of driving wheels directly under the cab ride up on the points. I'm no expert, but reckon that set of wheels might by slightly out gauge wise?

I don't really want the hassle of sending it back as guess it'll be gone for weeks/months which is a shame for my son, but suppose it's best to get it sorted.

Thanks again for all your help