How to Restore a Tyco “Super Spirit of 76” Train Locomotive

I was looking for a hobby to de-stress myself from work and decided to get into model trains as I remembered how much enjoyment it gave me when I was young. I attended a local model train show with my wife and daughter and from across the room I was delighted to see Tyco "Super Spirit of 76" locomotive sitting in an old faucet box. I quickly haggled with the owner and was able to purchase the locomotive for $20. When I got home I immediately took it downstairs to my model train layout and tested the locomotive. It purred into action but was a little slow; I believed it needed some cleaning and lubrication. I also noticed that the coupler on the back of the locomotive was missing. So I went to work on disassembling the locomotive for cleaning and repair. Above is a picture of the disassembled locomotive.

First I needed to replace the missing coupler. I took a coupler off of an old rolling stock car, I then glued two pieces of metal I had in my junk box to the tab where the coupler had been to limit the travel of the new coupler. To hold the coupler in place I used a small brass nail glued in place. Here is the result.

Next it was time for cleaning and lubrication. First I took a paper towel and applied a small amount of Rail-Zip track cleaner and laid it over a section of track then rolled the rear truck back and forth until the wheels looked clean. I then applied a drop of Labelle 107 multipurpose oil to each bearing on the rear truck then once again rolled the rear truck on the section of track with the paper towel with a small amount of track cleaner to remove any excess oil. See picture above and below.

This was a little harder because the wheels would not spin freely because they are connected to gears connected to the gear on the armature of the motor. Using alligator clips, I connected the motor in the front truck to the CAB power supply. I then applied power to get the wheels to move slowly. I then held the truck on the paper towel that had a small amount of track cleaner fluid applied to it over the rail. See picture above.

Only the sides of the gears where exposed and the guard was riveted on so I used a jewelers screw driver to smear the grease on the gear teeth. Once again I applied power to the front truck motor and held it over the track covered in a paper towel that had a small amount of track cleaning fluid applied to it. I did this in order to remove any oil or grease that might have gotten on the wheels during lubrication.See picture above.

The Tyco "Super Sprit of 76" locomotive I purchased at the train show did not have the handrails attached. The seller did give me a kit to install the handrails. This was the most tedious tasks so far but well worth it!

Now it is time to test the Tyco "Super Sprit of 76" locomotive on my track layout. After the cleaning and lubrication the locomotive was able to come up to speed faster and operated quieter.

I hope this information on cleaning and lubricating my Tyco "Super Sprit of 76" locomotive was helpful. May model railroading bring you as much enjoyment as it has given me.