How to power a 24V 2.5A DC motor with a switching power supply?
Prior to the invention of the transistor, DC motors were started by putting a resistor or several in series with the motor and then shorting them out either manually or with timed relays.
The diagram below shows a manual starter for a DC motor. The resistors connected in series with the armature of the DC motor are progressively bypassed by manually moving a lever. The resistor values are selected to hold the peak current to 125 to 175 percent of the full-load current of the motor.