About 2 months ago, I started an N-scale layout, and was telling my dad about it. He told me that my brother's old trainset was in a closet in my parents' house. My brother died in 1976 at the age of 30. I dug the train out of the closet, an old Marx "Streamliner" tinplate set with a 999 engine. I brought it home and started messing with the engine, trying to get it to run. After a fair amount of machine oil, and working the wheels, it finally sputtered to life. I made a few other repairs, mounted the track on a sheet of plywood, and took it back to my dad. He was as excited as any 82 year old kid in a candy store. When the dust settled, he gave the set to me. I've since bought another Marx set, a newer set with plastic cars and a smoking 666 locomotive, and a low end Lionel locomotive. The 666 was the most powerful of the bunch, with the Lionel the smoothest. Well, the 999's reverse mechanism started getting stubborn, and I found this site today, and another thread where Ray Marinaccio suggested contact cleaner. I tried that, and of course got contact cleaner (and lube) all over everything. My brother's old 999 now runs as smooth as the Lionel, and STRONGER than the 666! Marx rules!
Steve