It may be a bit late to post about it, but I’ve just dug into a project I’ve been very eager to start work on for quite a while.
The project in question is an American Flyer 312, with SIT and “Pennsylvania” lettering on the tender. According to the Gilbert Gallery, that would make it 1946 production(?). The locomotive certainly has seen better days, but also has sustained relatively little damage to the diecast body, and all 6 marker lamps are still intact (though some are missing their jewels).
I had to delay work until I finished overhauling the link-coupler cars I bought at the same time, since otherwise I would have no cars for it to pull, and the added motivation of getting to work on the 312 afterwords would help push me through the tedium of cleaning the cars.
I do not yet have pictures of things as they currently are, but here’s the pictures I took when I was documenting the loco, “pre-repair”:
If your reversing unit fingers have worn out by having the final 90 degrees of the 180-degree loop at the end fall off, you can get a second life out of the finger by flattening it somewhat, so that the remaining 90 degrees is close to where the original 180 degrees was.
I shoulda thought of that! It’s unfortunately too late for me to turn back now… I made some makeshift replacement fingers out of very thin, springy brass. I cut the old fingers off at the base, and soldered in the brass ‘replacements’. They’re a bit less springy than the originals but will suffice for a while! The fingers that are still intact, I opted not to replace in this manor.
Where I left things early this evening, the reverse unit is able to cycle without getting stuck. I have yet to detirmine if my new fingers are going to work, since there’s much more to do before I can wire things back up.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll try not to forget it before it comes in handy!
As far as the missing marker jewels are concerned measure the empty sockets with a metric ruler. Swarovski makes crystals of various sizes and colors, you can get them at a Michaels craft store if there’s one in your area. That’s what I use for Lionels (and others) missing the marker lamp jewels.
They’re not as dark as the originals, but relect light a lot better.
That’s going to be fantastic when you finish it! I also rebuilt a 312 2 years ago that was in rough shape. My experience with the Flyer steamers is that they are usually great running engines…once you do the overhaul. Generally everything inside is shot when you buy it. Don’t skimp on the reverse unit.
You’ve got the earlier production with smoke in tender and die cast trailing truck. You’ll also have to service the smoke unit motor and bellows. But as you say, most of the exterior is in good shape, should be a sweet engine when you finish.
As far as the missing marker jewels are concerned measure the empty sockets with a metric ruler. Swarovski makes crystals of various sizes and colors, you can get them at a Michaels craft store if there’s one in your area.
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There is indeed a Michaels nearby, I may scope them out and see if they have what I’m looking for when I can next get out. Thanks for the tip!
Thank you for the kind words! I second that experience with flyer… service 'em good, and they’ll run like a dream.
I certainly intend to go “all the way” with this loco, it’s simply a matter of budgeting and then ordering the parts. My ‘temporary fix’ for the reverse unit is exactly that- temporary. I have every intention of doing it properly once I’m ready to make an order from portlines!
I have a spare SIT unit I got somewhere, which I made a makeshift baffle for- it didn’t hold up the best, but that was a couple years ago, and I may be able to do a better job with my current knowledge and skills. Hopefully the lessons learned on that unit will apply themselves nicely to the 312’s SIT unit.
When I did my research on the 312 I figured out pretty quick it had to be an early model, since as far as I know the SIT units were phased out by the early '50s. I also noted a lot of pictures showed up of 312s with the combined drawbar/trail truck that all my other AF postwar steam locomotives (except the 343 of course) have- I presumed it was a cost cutting measure that came along at some point.
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The engine you have was made in 1946, the first year of post war S gauge production by Gilbert. There are four ways to date it to 1946. First is a 1946 only coupler, but that is missing, I will come back to that. Second is the PENNSYLVANIA stamping on the tender. Third are the two spring loaded brass buttons on the underside of the engine chassis. These were to be used with a track trip, but Gilbert discontinued that trip after only a few were made. 1947 engines have the holes in the chassis but no brass buttons. Fourth is by a date stamp inside the engine shell. Almost all Gilbert engines have the month and year of production stamped inside the shell.
There are Gilbert parts suppliers that have all the parts you will need. One is Port Lines but there are others. Port Lines also has repair instructions on their site, including a tutorial for rebuilding the bellows type smoke unit. You will need the 1946 only, thin shank, unweighted coupler with its matching pin for the tender. You will also need the link coupler installation tool kit. If you purchase replacement reverse unit fingers be aware that some are slightly too long. The fix is easy, just bend them very slightly. they also sell replacement jewels. They usually have some two pin jacks, the one on the engine is broken. You will likely also need replacement brushes.
Were that my engine I would save the original PENNSYLVANIA stampings on the tender. I have done that in the past by spreading a thin coat of Vaseline over the letters prior to painting. Then carefully wipe it off when the paint is dry. That stamping is easy to remove so care is required.
You’re welcome! And if worse comes to worst and you lose the “Pennsylvania” markings on the tender this is a source for S Gauge / American Flyer decals.
I was wondering what those brass buttons were for! It was driving me bonkers, they clearly had some purpose but I couldn’t figure out what it was for, and I hadn’t stumbled across any writing on their purpose. Do you know what exactly this type of trip was used for?
I am familiar with Gilbert’s date stampings. I will have to check the shell again, because I didn’t see the stamping when I took the loco apart- however my focus was more on the work I was conducting, so I may have managed to overlook it!
My plan was to order from Portlines, I have bought from them once before. Unfortunately at the moment I have no plans to replace the rear coupler- I cannot afford the overhead cost of buying specialized tools made for repairing toy trains, particularly tools which I don’t find myself left “high and dry” without. I would love to invest in the right stuff someday, but it’s going to have to wait until further down the line [:S] As for motor brushes, well… yeah, the brushes are completely shot, and I noticed a discrepancy in the tension between the brush springs, and the two brushes were significantly different in length. Wh
The track trip was assigned the number 695, only a few were made. It was not cataloged with any operating accessories. It could have been used in place of any momentary contact pushbutton. It could have been used to throw a turnout for an approaching train or to start the Talking Station. The number 695 was re-used in 1955 for the reverse loop relay. The holes in the engine chassis were eliminated in 1948 when the tooling was changed to incorporate the smoke and choo choo unit in the boiler.
I confess, I did do a slight bit of work over the weekend. Relatively little, but it did give me a “leg up” on today’s work. The main efforts over the weekend were some cleaning and lubriucating of the chassis, and reassembling and tuning up the reverse unit with my temporary fix.
I have the motor reassembled now, and it runs pretty nicely- not as silky smooth and silent as my 372 or 343, but not bad at all.
Well versed and attentative readers may note something very “not right” about these pictures. No, that is not the original brush plate- I have no spare American Flyer brushes or brush springs with which to furnish the original brush plate, so for the time being, it is borrowing the brush plate from a loose whistle assembly I got somewhere, and brush springs and brushes from a 307 I have in pieces. In due course, I will return the proper brush plate to the motor with new springs and brushes.
The reverse unit is cycling pretty well- I imagine some nice, new contact fingers will only serve to take it from “working well” to “working flawlessly”.
I wasn’t just imagining things, there legitimately is no date stamp inside the shell of my 312- and I have a photo to prove it!
Indeed, it was one of the first faults I noticed with the locomotive. Fortunately, due to the manner in which it had broken, almost every single piece of it was still attatched to the engine. Since I felt up for the challenge, I set about repairing it. In the end, it wasn’t too hard- not as good looking as a replacement, but it should do the job nicely.
You are correct, it was obvious that the brush holder was not original since the 1946 engines used lever style springs with slotted brushes. It is interesting that the whistle motor brush holder will interchange with the early steam engine motor brush holder. The slotted brush holders and the early shoulder style brush holders were made for 2 9/32" armatures. In October 1949 an oil slinger was added to the commutator shaft and the resulting armature length was 2 11/32". The slotted brush holder was changed to accommodate the longer armature. If the motor is not running as well as you expect the whistle motor brush holder may require some extra spacers on the armature shaft. There were multiple lengths of whistle motor armature shafts from a minimum of 1 22/32" to a maximum of 1 30/32". Those made after October 1949 also had oil slingers. The pictures and the repair work look great.
I noted that despite the brush holder for my 307 Atlantic and my 350 ‘Royal Blue’ looking relatively identical, they are not. Something has to keep the commutator from touching the brush tubes- the means to keep that space is part of the brush holder, on the 350- but for the 307, it is part of the armature. The brush plate from the whistle is like the one from the 350, and works with the 312’s armature- it does run slightly less well in reverse, but I can’t find any faults in the spacing between the armature and brush plate.
Today’s report brings with it no pictures… yet.
I wish I could entirely announce good news, but today we have some bad news as well.
The good news, is that I gave the shell, steam chest, boiler front, and trailing truck a good scrubbing with soap and warm water, and they do look a lot nicer. In preparation for cleaning, I removed all the trim, and took out the surviving jewels to make sure they didn’t come loose in the sink and become lost forever (a just concern, as one of them fell out during the removal of the trim). I gave the trim a good cleaning, and took care of the rust as best I could manage- I replaced almost all the cotter pins that hold the trim on, since I had some of the right size hanging around.
…Now, for the bad news.
I should have noticed far earlier, when I first got the locomotive and looked it up, but the boiler front is clearly that of a 342. Someone attempted to glue it onto the front of the 312, which I mistakenly assumed was because maybe it became loose. No, it’s because the boiler of the 312 is too big for the 342’s front!
The part is frankly in quite good shape, though missing the headlight lens.
This is bad news to me, since it means one more part to order, and as far as I’m aware, boiler fronts aren’t as cheap as some other parts. I have a number of pieces of equipment which also need somewhat more expensive parts, so it’s likely I won’t have the loco finished to a state where I’ll be happily operating it for a while still- I will be able to run it, but… it’s a frustrating sight to see a locomotive with no boiler front!
The other major bit of bad news is imho much worse: the 312 has a new battle scar. A sibling pushed pass me this morning while I was carrying the locmotive and knocked it out of my hands before I had time to move out of their way- the damage could have been worse, but now part of the roof is bent and so is one of the pieces of trim I spent so much time working on yes
In the end, today was a very hectic, busy day for me, and I didn’t end up working on any trains. However, I promised pictures, so here are a few- not my finest ones, but at least they show the 312 in a state of assembly…
Still really bummed about the roof, but relieved that it appears not to have suffered any paint loss. Hopefully I can at least get that hand rail sorted soon. And of course, the plate where the power leads plug in still needs to be finished up and installed.
Hope these do a good enough job of reflecting the work that was put into this locomotive so far.
I suppose I’ll have to take some better ones soon!
