Sluggish or Not? PW Lionel 2037 Loco

To add to the 2037 saga, after I set up two loops on our family room floor, I brought in the 2037 that I aguired this summer.   That is when I cleaned it up and serviced it.   It has been sitting since August.   Like you and Bob Nelson, mine starts best loaded with a whistle tender, 5 PW cars and a lighted caboose at just about 10 volts.   I am using a LW transformer, and may try a 1033 later if I feel like searching a little.  Unloaded, the engine will start by itself at around 9.   At 12.5  volts loaded, this engine and train is chugging around the track.   I can back it down to 10-11 volts once it is running, and it will maintain some speed, but 12-12.5 is tops that I would want to run.  I also tested the latter 2026, which operated the same.  

I find your B17 story interesting.   I wish my dad were still here, as he would know.   My dad was a flight engineer on the B17 and a host of other military aircraft.   I drank a toast to him the other day, as it was 5 Christmas ago that he celebrated his last with us here, after we moved back home.   My mom just turned 95 in November, and we celerated my brother's birthday with her yesterday.   My mom was the one who supported us in the trains hobby, she would say that when we were in the basement running or working on the trains, she didn't worry, as she knew we weren't out on the streets getting in trouble.   I used to stay up well past 11PM on Friday nights when I was in high school working on the trains.   Used to love operating in the dark.

      Right now I have 2 loops, O gauge, on the floor that I am running.   I was informed by my wife and daughter that this is alright until Saturday, so I won't be dragging in to many trains.   The inner loop I am running my son's Prewar Trains.   I happened onto this find 3 years ago when we went to Long Island for my niece's wedding.   Talk about being in the right place at the right time.   My son was after me for about 5 years for a prewar set, and when I got serious about it, this set(actually 2) fell into my hands.   I like them, we have added a little to them, but I think I will stick to postwar and modern.

     The outer loop, I am running postwar.   I have a table set up in my garage that has three sets I found in a newspaper add this summer.   They needed a little work, but after chores and whatever else I was working on this summer, I cleaned them all up, and they are ready for running.  So that is what I will do a little for our Christmas celebration.   I like a few trains at Christmas and wish I had a permanent layout, but will make do with what I have right now.

     Saturday, it will be back to work early to power up.   This year we shutdown for Christmas, it will be interesting to see how well we power up, after a shutdown.   My experience from a few years ago was that we don't always power up as easy as we shut down.  Will see.

                                                                           Merry Christmas...