Early American Flyer Clockwork Project

[JamesP]

I need to stay off Ebay - saw this little locomotive, and just couldn’t pass it up. I’m not well versed in Flyer locomotive types, so I hesitate to identify it, but I do believe it is probably from around 1915 or so - any Flyer experts, please feel free to chime in with an identification. The motor has major problems and the loco has been haphazardly sprayed with black paint, but the body is completely intact so it is a good candidate for a rebuild. I haven’t done an in-depth clockwork project for myself in quite a while, so I think this little guy is going on the workbench next:

• James

[mersenne6]

It looks to be a Type 1 cast iron clockwork ca 1915-1916. The paint scheme for the engine would look like the one in the picture below - red under the cab window - gold highlights above and below the red and along the running boards. The engine pictured has a clip in motor, a brake rod coming out of the cab and side rods. The Type 1 engine also came like yours with a motor mounted with a screw in front and a slot in back and no brake rod or side rods.

[AmFlyerTom]

I have no personal knowledge here, but some of the early American Flyer catalogs are online. That engine appears to be shown in the 1914, 1915 and 1919 catalogs. It is hard to be sure because some of the images are small.

[JamesP]

@mersenne6 - Thank you for the information, good to know that it did originally come in the two variations. I have another one that does have siderods (another restoration project I did some time ago), good to know they came both ways.

@AmFlyerTom - I appreciate the catalog information, too! Yes, it can be hard to positively identify from early catalog illustrations, thank you for looking them up.

I’m surprised at the amount of wear the motor has - some kid (or kids) really enjoyed running this little engine. It appears that the first intermediate shaft wore so much that it managed to move far enough out of alignment so that the big gear and associated pinion stripped out, ruining the big gear. The mainspring is gone. Everything else is there, but there is so much wear in the sideplates that I will probably build a new motor using parts scavenged from this one and whatever is in my parts bins. This may be a slow project…

James

[JamesP]

As I mentioned above, the windup motor in this locomotive has considerable wear. The first intermediate shaft is worn the most. Clockwork motors typically have shafts that have a short journal that is machined down to a smaller diameter that rotates in a hole in the sideplate. It’s a bit difficult to get a good close-up picture (with my camera), but you can see the wear in the journal area of the shaft. The very end (which sticks out beyond the sideplate) measures 0.085", but the worn area next to it measures 0.070"… 0.015" of wear:

The corresponding hole in the sideplate also has a lot of wear. The winding stem didn’t have a lot of wear on the shaft, but the hole in the sideplate did have considerable wear. All this wear added up to a point where the two gears moved far enough apart that they “stripped”, in this case damaging the teeth on the pinion gear and actually bending over the ends of the teeth on the big gear:

Other parts are worn out as well, so I’m planning on making a new motor utilizing Flyer gears that I’m scavenging out of my parts bins, and I’ll make new sideplates out of 16 gauge steel. It will probably look similar to this motor I made for another Flyer project:

Like that motor, this one has cast iron wheels. It appears that Flyer used them with the tread and flange as-cast. I’m truing them up on the lathe as my first step, and once that is done I’ll figure out what parts I have for the internals. There are some pieces that I can salvage out of the old motor (for instance, I think the governor is fine) and I’ll figure out the rest. Once I have those figured out, I’ll have to make the sideplates. Needless to say, this won’t be a fast process…

James

[JamesP]

Minor progress today…

First, I cleaned the paint off the key. It appears to be in good condition, I may polish it up later:

Second, here is a picture of one of the drive wheels (left) that has had the tread and outside edge of the flange trued up on the lathe, and one of the idler wheels (right) that needs attention. I just clean up the tread and barely touch the flange to keep it as close to original size as possible:

I’m making a mandrel so I can machine the idler wheels, but am waiting on the right size die to arrive later this week to finish it. Once that is done, I can clean up the idler wheels.

Finally, I cut out new sideplates from 16 gauge plain steel. I will need to lay out all the holes that need to be drilled, which is always a finicky task. One of the original sideplates is shown for comparison:

I’ve found enough internal motor parts that are in serviceable condition, but some of them are very rusty, so they are soaking in EvapoRust for a while.

More later,

James

[JamesP]

Progress this week…

The salvaged motor parts soaked in Evapo-rust this week and cleaned up nicely. I also finished the mandrel needed to clean up the tread & flange on the idler wheels. Here are all the small parts ready to be put into a motor:

The next step is laying out and drilling the various holes in the sideplates that I had previously cut out. As I mentioned before, this is always a finicky process, so I like to have a block of time set aside when I’m alert and attentive to do this. I like to lay out the holes for the axles and the cross members first. This is a picture of one sideplate clamped in the vice, and a Flyer sideplate for reference:

Once the axle and crossmember holes are drilled and centerpunched, both sideplates are clamped together and the initial drilling begins. I have some small 1" C-clamps that I use to hold both sideplates together for drilling. Doing it this way ensures that all holes line up exactly, as opposed to laying out both and drilling separately. I drill the crossmember holes in the corners first, and put machine screws in them as I drill them to keep everything in line. This picture shows the sideplates at this point in the process:

At this point, all the existing holes are de-burred and crossmembers prepared for a test assembly. For this motor, I am using standoffs for electronic boards that are tapped for 4-40 machine screws. The ones I have on hand are 0.750" long, but this Flyer motor needs to be 0.700" between the sideplates. I put each standoff in the lathe and machined 0.045" off one end. This will leave 0.005" end play for the various shafts so they rotate freely. With all of that done, I did the first test assembly to make sure everything was lining up so far:

Now it gets even more finicky… time to drill the holes for the intermediate shafts and winding stem. Using the drive axle and an old idler axle, I line up the Flyer sideplate and use a 0.5mm mechanical pencil to trace a circle for both intermediate shafts and the winding stem. This has to be done carefully to make sure the new holes are in the right position. Once this is done, the old sideplate is removed and each hole is carefully center punched for drilling.

The plates are bolted back together for drilling. Each hole is a different size to fit the journal of the shaft. Again, this must be done methodically so that we don’t make a mistake - those can be difficult to fix, or they may even require starting over from scratch, so this isn’t a process to be rushed. Once the holes are drilled to the correct size, the plates are separated and de-burred. Time to load the parts and see if the gears mesh properly:

Fortunately for us, the gears look happy, so let’s bolt the sideplates together and see if everything will rotate - here is a view of it assembled, sitting on the back of the motor and looking in from the bottom :

Everything is rotating smoothly, so work can continue when I get more time. The next step will be to lay out and drill the holes for the governor, then lay out and cut the slots & holes so we can mount the motor in the body.

That’s all for now…

James

[JamesP]

Sneak peek of today’s progress on the motor… getting closer to a test run:

James

[palallin]

Wow. Just, wow. You aren’t just restoring, you are remanufacturing!

Bravo!

[Flintlock76]

@palallin

Wow. Just, wow. You aren’t just restoring, you are remanufacturing!

You’re not kidding! That motor unit’s going to be BETTER than new!

[JamesP]

Gentlemen, thank you for the kind comments. With the amount of wear and damage to the motor, a major rebuild like this is a good alternative to trying to do a proper restoration. But, since the body is in good condition, a correct motor could be substituted later on. I do enjoy these kind of motor projects - it turns a shelf queen into a nice running locomotive (hopefully).

Since the last major update, I finished adding the governor to the motor. The drum for the governor was salvaged from the old motor and soldered to the new sideplate. The slot that mates the rear of the motor to the body was drilled, cut out, and filed to shape. The hole for the mounting screw in front was laid out, drilled, and tapped for a 6-32 machine screw. I am using a slotted brass screw that will hopefully look proper for the vintage of the locomotive. The 4-40 machine screws for the crossmember were cut to length. I had to chamfer the holes for the crossmember next to the rear wheels so that I could use a flat headed machine screw so it would sit even with the surface and not interfere with the wheel hubs. I also stamped my name and year in one of the sideplates for posterity.

With that work complete, it was time to install the mainspring and see if the motor would run. I used a new clock spring I had on hand - not sure of the part number, but it is the correct width. The clock springs tend to be thinner than the original main springs, so the locomotive won’t have as much power, but it should be sufficient to power the locomotive, tender. and at least one car. The motor ran on the first try - it’s always a big relief to see it working!

I cut a new rear axle out of 0.1405" steel round stock, and was able to see the motor sitting on all four wheels for the first time. But before I installed them permanent, the back of the idler wheels needed to be faced off 0.040" to make them sit at the proper gauge. This is because the new sideplates are thicker than the originals. With that done, I was able to permanently install the rear wheels by peening over the ends of the axles.

But does it run on the track? Stay tuned…

James

[JamesP]

Test run video: https://youtu.be/8sz1hfFdVXw

James

[Engine_1988]

Goodness! I didn’t think that it was possible for a clockwork loco to go so far!
On a side note, and this is a most noobish question for which I apologize, but is it reversible? I’m presuming not.

[pennytrains]

@JamesP

With the amount of wear and damage to the motor, a major rebuild like this is a good alternative to trying to do a proper restoration.

I can relate to that. I restored a Beckh set as far as I could but the spring was just so far gone it couldn’t even be wound without snapping. So I kept it as a shelf queen with original parts.

[mersenne6]

Well, airborne JamesP - that is some video!

[Flintlock76]

Outstanding! Better than new indeed!

[JamesP]

@Engine_1988 This is a very simple mechanism, so no reversing, nothing fancy, not even a brake lever.

In an ideal world, I would prefer to have a thicker mainspring for more pulling power, even at the expense of runtime. The motor is a bit weak with the body installed - the extra weight results in more drag around the curves. It will have to do unless I find a vintage mainspring that is a bit more stout. Other than that, I’m pleased with how the motor turned out.

Now to get started on the body!

James

[Engine_1988]

Sure, that makes sense.