I recently was able to get my father’s 72-year-old American Flyer locomotive (a 4-4-2 Atlantic) running pretty well once again. I replaced the motor springs and brushes as well as the electronic reversing unit in the tender, along with all the wiring and the front headlight bulb. I did lose two screws off the drive wheels, however, so it has a weird jog when it runs, but that will be fixed once I get the screws replaced. I’ll also eventually replace some missing detail parts and possibly repaint the locomotive as well, but at least it runs pretty well once again.
Watch the full video of the work I did below.