Pre War Lionel 10E, Standard Guage

Before my grandfather died he gave me his trains from when he was a kid during the Depression.
It is a Standard Gauge Lionel set, with a 10E locomotive, the three passenger cars, and a Gondola, all Peacock Green, a box full of track, a station, some lights poles, and other misc pieces.
He told me his father traded a radio, to get him this during the depression.

Anyway, it is in very poor shape. Everything is rusted, and in bad repair. I spent some time and reworked the Supermotor
in the 10E, it now works but not well, runs very slow and has no power. The track is so rusted it will never conduct electricity.
The cars all roll, but the lights in them are gone, and the plastic windows have fallen out.

Now to my question?
I know the value of this set is minimal because of condition, but if I gut the Supermotor from the 10E, and replace it
with a DC motor that I can run off a battery pack, am I really destroying anything?

All I want to do is run this around the Christmas tree, and display it above my HO layout the rest of the year.

Thanks for the thoughts. I have some pictures if anyone is interested.

Brian

A new question?
After talking with a guy I work with that knows a lot about motors, he thinks the Lionel Super motor
with run on DC voltage.

Can anyone confirm that this motor will run on DC?

Thanks

Somewhere in your area,there might be a TTOS Chapter, that might have the collective know-how on your equipment,and possibly parts.
If the orignal track is beyond hope,they might know if there's replacment track avaible.

TTOS=Toy Train Operating Society