Friday I got my second engine of my quest. It’s OMI 's Challenger with the two Turbine Water Tenders. It was numbered 3985, just like the excursion train that UP has. I bought $500.00 worth of Rapido Budd cars, and even bought a OMI Steam Tool Car. Took it up last night to club night. The older guys drolled. Placed it on the track, set up all the coaches, turned on the power and off it went. With everyone watching it got to the first Turnout and BOTH Turbine Tenders came flying off. Seems OMI must think we never run these through a turnout. The AIR & WATER lines were hanging so low they almost touched the ties. We backed the Challenger up to pull the train without the Yellow Turbine Tenders. It got about 20 feet when I could hear it shorting out. If I just touched the cab it took off. I was so upset I almost threw it out the window. The older guys calmed me down by telling me that 95% of the brass they buy needs fine tuned. Some times they completly disassemble it to get it to run fine. I fixed the problem in the Tenders, but don’t have the nerve right now to sit and play with the engine. So there was a real great MRR bight for me. Below is the one I bought.
What a beauty!!! You will find the shorting wire or connection, and then it will be fine. Look for bare wire touching the metal interior or frame, maybe a wheel. Does the drawbar pass power…is it meant to? As frustrating as this introductory run was, it is all fixable…always fixable…but it needs a calmer time, some know-how or good supervision, and take the boiler off to find out what is amiss.
We all have something like this. I’ve got a Bowser PCC trolley. I love it, but it’s never made good electrical contact between the wheels and trucks. I’ve had it apart countless times, including today, and there’s always another tweak. Right now, it’s working great electrically after adding a couple of jumpers, but now I can’t get the front wheels to stay in gauge and it’s out playing leap-frog on my turnouts.
Man, that isn’t even a bad nap, much less a nightmare ! Lovely locomotive ! Just relax and take your time and you will find out what the problem is and fix it and be fine.
Some suggestions - the footboard on brass is supposed to be coated on the bottom with clear plastic. Sometimes it’s separate in the box. Sometimes it is just forgotten. Also, check the leading and trailing trucks.
Touched a nerve there!! The not so well kept secret about brass is that it is primarily built for those who will display it rather than run it. I know there are those who will disagree with this statement, but if you ask them have they encountered a lot of ready to run brass, the answer is generally no. This is particularly true of the older models (10 years or older).
I know several big time collectors who never run their brass. We have bets going when they bring new models over to operate as to whether the loco will make an entire loop before shorting out or derailing.
One reason for these issues is that most brass builders build the models as close to prototype specs as possible. Most model layouts have much sharper curves and switches than the real locomotive would encounter. This causes shorts and derailments in some models built to proto specs. Most larger model locos that are built to run, have certain compromises in the design to accomodate the sharper curves etc. that are encountered on layouts.
Other issuse with older brass (and some newer brass) are rough running open frame motors, poorly designed gear boxes, poorly designed drive linkages, details hanging down in the way, drivers out of quarter, no headlights installed, balance problems, shorts due to clearance issues between the tender and the loco cab etc… None of this matters when you keep it on the shelf, it all matters when attempting to run these models.
There are some builders such as Division point and others that have begun to address this issue and do offer good running models but the price tags generally start at around $1000.00. One of my narrow gauge buddies starts to foam when the subject of RTR brass is broached. Until this year, all of the locos in narrow gauge were brass, so these guys share your pain.
On the plus side, most brass is worth fixing and can methodically be fine tuned to run extremely well.
The model is I think a 05 run. Thats what is on the side. The engine does need the tender to operate. And it also has a plate that drops down between the cab and the tender. You can see below were I bent the lines up some. But what about the BIG hose? I noticed that the lines on the tenders are so close it will not couple right. If you bend them what if they break off [censored].
The thing I can’t figure out is why does OVERLAND put hose’s on that low when they will get caught on everything? For the money that thing costs I expected it to run like a Riverossi. And not embaress me in front of everyone.
I find this sadly funny. Many forum members [censored] like crazy that they have to change couplers or wheels on a $40 passenger car, or reset the CV’s on a $250 loco!! I’m sure you paid way more than $250 for this loco!!! At the price you paid it should be PERFECT!!! You have my sympathies!![:O]
I’m with you. I got an Atlas switcher back in the 80’s that had a problem with one of the trucks. I sent it back and they sent a replacement that had a bum motor. I haven’t bought any more locos from Atlas since that time. If I’m going to pay that kind of money for a loco it better work right or I won’t buy another of that line. I won’t buy any more Athearn Genesis steamers because of how I got reamed on a 4-6-2 light pacific a couple of years ago. They wouldn’t take it back and it took almost a year for them to get the replacement part to me. After that was replaced I found that it has a cracked bearing seat and won’t run because of it. It’s destined for a static display on my layout where it can collect dust.
I had a idea to see what would happen if I switched tenders. I took the small tender from my SUNSET 4-12-2 and hooked it up behined the Challenger. While I’ll be, it ran perfect in both directions. So that narrrows it down to the tender.
INSPECTION FIRST!!! whoa, the club I was at required physical inspection of equipment before running. Checking wheel gauge, low and dragging equipment, seems here we need a working hotbox and dragging equipment detector…
I just bought my DM&IR 2-8-8-4 Akane and learned it was in storage forever, never really run! It needs all the lubing checks and tweakage. Open frame motor must be changed to a can. It needs run in time. Bearing surfaces are tight and running in wears them to loosen them.
I have LL’s 0-8-0, nice detail including turn restricting chains from the body to the trucks, but OH are they a bear! One was loose and hanging low. Off it goes…or a quick walthers goo fix…
Classic Brass!! Looking at these photos (its hard to tell whats going on over the web), it appears that you have a decision to make: Do you want to alter the loco??? If you do, you will diminish its collector value. I’m sure that you paid big bucks for this thing, do you want to keep it? or is there a possibility that you might want to sell it in the future??? Does it run on your layout?? Fit in with your overall road and plan?? Was it an impulse buy that you might change your mind on later???
If you might sell the thing, I would find a replacement tender (Rivarossi or Bacnmann spectrum Maybe) and run it with that, keeping the brass intact. I think some one ran this in plastic recently, do a search. For a brass replacement (good luck), Bottom feed on Ebay or check brass dealers.
There are two tenders are the ends of both of them the same??? If so, I would fix up one as a runner and save the other as “mint”
Mess with it until you know exactly what the problem is…
Fixes: Replace the coupler with a longer shank coupler and see if that helps.
Ultimately you might end up cutting off (oooooh!) those hoses or go ahead and bend them and hope they don’t break. Before doing that I would get a second opinion from some one you trust who can personally inspect the model…There may be another solution, You might only need to cut one or just trim it a bit… If it were raw brass I would suggest de-soldering the part and keeping it, I wouldn’t recommend that on a painted model.
I have cut, drilled and otherwise defaced all of my brass, but I would guess you paid more for this item than I paid for my entire brass roster (only six locos). I buy stuff to run, so I’m not too worried about resale, thus I hack away until they work.
Thanks for correcting me. I thought they were Budd cars. The Dome cars ARE Budd’s from Walthers. Because Rapido doesn’t make a dome car. So your responce was very helpfull. Wish I was perfect but I am not. Sorry for the disappointment.
Thanks for entry, cures any lust I might have had in my heart for brass.
Based upon some of the responses to your entry I surmise that essentially you bought a piece of sculpture; at least until modified.
Surprised it didn’t come with a disclaimer from OMI legal department stating unit is for display only. Any attempt to run unit on a layout should only be done after examination and necessary modifications by OMI approved technicians to insure safe operation.
I do hope that you’re able to get loco running properly, it appears from your post that’s what you bought it for. In MRailroading engines there are poor, good, better, best peformation classifications.(follow some of threads on this subject within this forum) While it could be argued that brass should be in best catagory may be it should be in “best” with an asterisk or two.
Well. This is way above my paygrade. But that engine with the tender is just like the actual Challenger I saw. i do have the video somewhere in my RAID on the other computer.
I am a operating man, I would probably chop off those hoses… trim em and reattach them until no more dragging. That would be a start. Now ye fellas dont need to be fainting when your hearts race and pressure drops at this particular paragraph. I buy em to keep and run. Not sit in a BOX or marooned to a shelf until after I die. No sir. For the money involved, they will be chopped or altered (Nuetered?) until they can be run well.
Now, I remember as a child having had the priviledge of watching some of the old Outside Rail O scale brass slowly ease through trackwork at 5 mph flawlessly 30 years ago… those are powerful memories. HO scale isnt O but bear with me here.
I have not bought brass for myself yet so Im not qualified at all to open my mouth about the rest of the issues mentioned here.
top-notch brass, built to actual scale drawings. Unfortunately our track and so forth is a compromise over an exact scale replica and what can/will work reliably. Buyer beware. Sure does look nice though.
I absolutely bought it to run. It seems that it’s something in the tender. It runs as smooth as silk with the other tender from the 4-12-2. The Turbine Tender hoses were gently bent and I also placed a small fiber washer on each tender truck which raised it up a little more. I also noticed now that it is running that it has constant lighting. And it also has holes drilled into the OIL tender for a speaker.
I can only comiserate with you as very few engines will come out of the box and run well regardless of their vintage. Despite the fact of how much you paid it’s a fact of MR life.
Kinda akin to the fact that if you post something here…
“A certain somebody who shall remain nameless only to protect the inane…”
has to spend his [2c] at the nickel and dime store. Gas! you like many of us here will solve the cadbury secret and enjoy the fruits of your labour.
