I started setting up my Christmas train, but the EMD F7 that is circled decided it didn't want to play well with others.
The 1949 to 1953 General Motors Electro-Motive Division F7s in the Santa Fe warbonnet paint scheme were always my favorite train engines.
Instead of just giving up on it, I decided to see what went wrong and tore it apart.
Dirty wheels were the most apparent problem, so I disassemble both of the trucks to extract the axles.
Simple enough, clean them up on my lathe.
Might as well clean them completely while they are apart
While the drive truck was apart, I found a broken wire that was supposed to be soldered to the wheel brushes on one side.
Easy peasy, solder her up and reassemble the entire unit.
That old F-7 I paid $1 for runs like a top now
You gotta love having a small machineshop in your home for special moments like these