    To keep your railroad empire rolling smoothly, it is important to maintain a regular lubrication schedule for
your MTH motive stock. With a little preventative maintenance, you can easily avoid some of the common
problems of poor performance, and even prevent breakdowns.

    In the Operating Instructions included with all MTH motive stock, you can find a section that discusses the
specific oil and grease points for that engine. For all engines, one or two drops of oil should be applied to
the pick-up roller pin (fig.1) every 15 to 20 hours of operation. On steam engines, apply one drop of oil to each of
the side rod bolts and the crosshead (fig. 2) (the part that slides back and forth) also every 15 to 20 hours of
operation. The last routine oil location is the coupler knuckle pin (fig. 3). One or two drops every six months will
keep the coupler firing freely.

    The gearboxes on the engines are greased at assembly, but will eventually need to be repacked with grease.
This should be done after every 50 hours of operation. We recommend using lithium grease (or Red-n-Tacky #2),
found at your local hobby or hardware store. On engines with exposed gears, such as the diesel engines, a
small amount of grease should be applied to the gear teeth (fig. 5) prior to first operation, and after every 20 to 25
hours of operation.

    By following this simple maintenance schedule, you should be able to enjoy many years of operation from
all of your MTH engines.