After watching 2 of my dad’s diesels go up in smoke [:(] (literally- they were going around the track with smoke rolling out of the cab) and watching my DCS-51 fry, along with a new decoder, I had some positive results.
I have many engines that need various work and are stored in little totes. I pulled out a United 2-6-6-2 that while the motor spun, nothing else happened. The setscrews on the gears were loose and stripped. I searched through my parts and couldn’t find any screws that size, so I re-tapped them to 1-72 and made a couple new setscrews. Success! She screams like a banshee with that gear arraingement, but it ran [:)]
That got me in the mood to tackle another engine, a Heritage Y3 needing a motor. I looked in my parts and found a Athearn replacement motor with dual flywheels. The shaft length was good, but the motor case dimensions were off. I pulled flywheels off both and swapped them, and since that engine used the frame to sandwich the motor, I put a few wraps of electric tape around the motor to give it a snug fit on assembly. Hot diggity!![:D] It runs as smooth and as quiet as one could ask for.
Perhaps my hands are starting to function as hands once again, instead of being like I’m wearing a pair of winter gloves. Guess I’ll find out later when I try tackling a camelback that needs bushings put on the siderods later today.
Yes it is, or at least it was. Two seperate incidents. The DCS fried (along with a new DH-123) a week or 2 ago. While I’m waiting to send it in I hooked up the DC throttle and have been running some un-converted engines I have. The ones that fried this time were my dad’s from my childhood, so they have been idle for over 30yrs. They were nothing expensive, just some old B-man/ Moheno stuff that cost $20 back then. Still, they were my dad’s, and I will probably fix them. Yeah, they are noisey and can attain speeds greater than the fastest bullet-trains of today, but they have some memories.
… and I thought smoking was prohibited on Amtrak trains!
It would be a good idea to have an ammeter on your power supply to make sure those older engines aren’t drawing too much current. Old grease, rubber band drives, dry bearings can make those old motors draw way too much current.
Yeah, always good to check the lube status on old locos. Often, it hardens and makes the motor jump off the amp scale. Best to clean all that old lube out and redo with fresh.
