Hi everyone.  I'm new to MRH and was pretty excited when I came across this place.  I have to say that the free online magazine is very well done.  I'm looking forward to learning a bunch from everyone on here.

Well to make a long story short, I was very into model railroading when I was younger (10-15 years ago) and am now getting back into it.  I pulled out all my old locos and rolling stock and am in the process of resurrecting them.  They've seen some use and abuse, and have been in storage for the past 10 years or so.  When I pulled them out, it was obvious they had seen better days.  The stock sintered wheels were solid black, the metal clips were completely rusted over, and whatever lubricant was left had turned into glue.

I've got 3 old Athearn locos (GP9, GP35, GP50) and one Kato that need a thorough going-over.  I've searched online and found a few pieces of advice in regards to tuning older Athearns and I'm wondering if anyone on here can offer some as well?  I'm interested to hear what some of you have done.  

I have done some work, but have a lot more to do.  I've completely disassembled two of the Athearns and ground off all the rust using a wire brush in a Dremel (there wasn't any other way to get it off).  I removed the lights and long clip, and soldered using the "five-wire" system for DC.  I've gone through the gears individually, and tried to remove whatever flash and old lube I could find.  They run better, but one of them is still pretty rough (I haven't put new lube in yet).  I haven't touched the other Athearn or Kato.  What are some tricks to getting these things running well?

I'm hoping that I can get all of them running smoothly, then I'll be stripping down the shells, superdetailing, and airbrushing them.  Lots of work ahead!