Hobby shop that can repair locomotives?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Is there any hobby shops I could possibly send a few locomotives and some cars to that could fix a few if the older DC locomotives I have that dont operate? (Seems there is no shops around me that would do it)

I have quite a few that have issues, some the motor works but they are able to be pushed freely, some that skip a lot and struggle (I know that could be the track or just dirty wheels)

I also have one that needs the body fixed, if that’s at all possible.

I know one Athearn loco that needs work, I think the metal spring that contacts the pickup and goes to the motor needs work on that. The light lights up, but it doesnt move. The rear truck pickup doesn’t touch the spring thing, so I think that might be the issue there.

Some of them could just need to be oiled and greased.

I know eventually I’ll need to do the work, but I’d like to have them brought back into working condition before then. Start out clean and working and go from there. I am also cleaning and working on my track and such, and I’d like to have the layout tacked down and wired when we get our house. So locos are now a bit of a back burner.

Part of this too is I dont know anything about most of them, I figured an expert could check them out, see what they need and if the parts to fix them are available. And if they are even worth fixing.

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Dana’s Railroad Supply in Spring Hill, Florida and Gulf Coast Model Railroading in Sarasota, Florida both have repair services.

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I have never used these services, so I cannot speak for how good either shop is.

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I do not know if the cost of the repair plus shipping would be more than just buying a working locomotive.

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-Kevin

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Hi Wdodge0912,

I think the first question should be “Are the locomotives worth repairing?” If you have some locomotives that are decent quality then having them repaired might be worth the expense, but if your locomotives are poor quality ‘toy train set’ units then repairing them is a waste of money.

Why not start now? Bringing old locomotives back to life is one of the rewarding parts of the hobby. Learn to make the repairs yourself. We will be happy to help. Choose a locomotive or two and post some pictures of them including with the shell off and also showing the bottom of the locomotives.

Dave

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That’s exactly it’s problem. Clean the strip, and then bend it, or the truck pickup, so that strip makes contact.

It’s easy to replace that strip with wire, soldered in place.

I think you should learn how to fix this stuff yourself. It’s part of the hobby, and it’s NOT rocket science.

Freight cars are also easy to fix. It usually involves the wheels, trucks, and couplers.

Sending older used equipment out for repair, and the cost involved, seems like a huge waste, once you actually find a place that will do it.

Do you have any friends that are in the hobby and fix things themselves? if yes, talk to them.

Here’s a link on rebuilding an Athearn locomotive:

http://www.mcor-nmra.org/Publications/Articles/Athearn_TuneUp.php

Mike.

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It will likely cost you $20 round trip shipping just to have the hobby shop tell you their price for repair and if they are even worth fixing. $10 one way if you tell them to trash them.

You can find good used DC locos on ebay for about $50, including shipping. If the item is described as working perfectly, it should or else the seller will have to buy it back and pay for the return shipping. Athearn “blue box” locos are popular and are for sale all of the time, and one of the better DC locomotives ever made (compared to Tyco, AHM, probably Mantua).

I would say that if you don’t learn to repair them yourself, its probably best just to find a replacement loco.

Also, many private citizens do repair locos, and could use your locos as parts donors, so you can also list yours and sell them for parts and recover a few bucks.

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I agree with the above responses “no time like the present” to give it a go and dig in. Don’t waste $$ on old equipment. The older Athearns can’t be dinged beyond what you can repair.

Take them apart take, post pictures on the Forum and ask for help, you can do it.

Mel

My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

Bakersfield, California

I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

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As a rough estimate, I have about 16 locomotives. A few of them have sentimental value. Most of them would be cheaper ones, but I do want to have some fixed. I’ll list what I can remember, and some info about them. I want to do any of the cleaning and lubing to them, but there are a few that need some work, and a couple have sentimental value that I want to for sure pay to have fixed up

060T - Runs well, could be cleaned and lubed

Pennsylvania 040 - Run . But body is beat, as well as knuckles. Plan to sell

Chattanooga 080 - motor goes, but it doesn’t. Planned to keep it a static display if it cant be or isn’t worth being fixed. The loco and the tenders wheels are driven. Has wired and a steel bar connecting them. Body is in great shape too.

Burlington Road Unit - The body separates from itself, so it’s not attached. However. This one was one of my Grandma’s main locomotives so I definitely want to have it fixed professionally. It did want to move as well.

Burlington Switcher - Definitely needs cleaning, but not sure if it worked. This is the other main Locomotive my Grandma used. Some of the railings have been broken off.

Santa Fe GP40 I’m pretty sure this one also had a motor working and no drive. If kotnit was the other 4 axle diesel Santa Fe

Santa Fe U36B - wanted to go, but needed help. Probably clean and lube ( if the GP40 was the one with the drive issue)

Santa Fe 6 axle - Tyco, not sure of engine model though. Definitely clean and lube.

Bachmann Santa Fe F Unit - runs fine.

Athearn Santa Fe F Unit - doesnt run, needs the spring connector replaced. (If soldering a wire to replace it, I may try to do that on my own) this one also has the matching passenger cars, one is missing a coupler, and they definitely could use some weight. All are Athearn, could I replace all the couplers with something better? That was why I was going to send then all out.

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I think most local hobbyshops have a repair service, so if you do want to get your locomotives repaired then you would be best off sending them to one your able to drive to. This will save on shipping and also allow you to have a face to face to conversation with the owner to make sure your repairs are what you want.

However I would recommend you consider the cost vs reward of getting your locomotives fixed. You only want to have engines fixed that you’ll actually want to run. Those hobbyshops will likely still be there after you take time to assess what you certainly want (I.e. Era, Railroad, etc).

I think repairing things yourself is a great idea. I love digging into my locomotives, and I save money as I only have to buy parts! They don’t always get fixed, but you get some valuable hobby time fixing them you wouldn’t get sending them to a shop!

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If you’re willing to share a general idea about where you’re located, there may be a shop or a person nearby who does repairs. If you can avoid shipping them, then having a loco repaired is much more worth it. I imagine shipping is also less onerous if you send several at once.

Your list of locos would be much easier to grade the worth-it-too-repair quotient if we knew what brand they are.

Lastly, as relates to Athearn and couplers, an easy swap for almost all Atheran couplers is the Kadee #148. Just pop off the clip/cover (black plastic on the loco, metal on the cars), take off the horn hook plastic coupler, put a #148 in it’s place and pop the cover/clip back in place. It’s dead easy. There is a Kadee couler that is just like the #148 but is slightly shorter so the loco will couple closer (more realistic) but the number escapes me at the moment. I’ve just been using #148’s.

Most other brands locos and cars will take a #148, but the replacement process will be different.

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As others have mentioned, most of what you need done is not all that difficult to accomplish. If you can post some photos and describe what issues you’re having, there are lots of folks here that can assist you through the procedure.

As for some of the ones you’ve listed that you’re planning to sell, I wouldn’t set my hopes too high on getting rich - not running and damaged seldom garners high offers, and many times, none at all.

Wayne

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I did get ahold of a shop localish to me, and they said if they can get the parts, they can help get it fixed. I’m near Lansing, Michigan if that helps any, the store I contacted was Riders in Flint, MI, so not too far of a drive for me

As for the ones I’d sell, I don’t plan to even make $5 on them. But figured they are ones I wouldn’t want or are too beat up for me to want to deal with.

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How old are these engines? Simple repairs can bring them back to life, but seriously old locomotives my not be worth the effort.

I looked into repairing my old Athearns, but soon realized I could simply replace them cheaper than buying new motors, trucks and couplers. I resolved the “sentimental value” issue by removing the ancient motors and running the engines as dummy (or “honorary”) engines.

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I agree with Dave. Fixing up old locomotives is a lot of fun, and the more you learn to repair, the better at it you’ll become. My suggestion would be to start with the one that seems to have the least amount of problems and go from there. If you run into any problems, don’t hesitate to ask for help. We’ll be happy to help if we can. Here’s a link to video on servicing an Athearn locomotive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhPY7A9vogw Hope this helps.

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Sentimental value cannot be priced by anybody else than yourself.

Speaking as an experienced modeler who has trains to run, a dispassionate view would say that you would be better off spending time finding other trains you like rather than trying to make these work. Sentimental aspect is unanswerable, IMO.

I’m sure Rider’s can fix the issues. Probably at minimal cost, for labor. He mentioned that “if you get the parts”

That’s probably a nice way of saying that there are no parts available to order. Too old. He’s not going to waste his time trying to source them.

Any parts would have to come from the reverse situation I recommended to you, where you would have to search ebay for a replacement loco to buy in order to use it as a parts donor to supply the parts you need to fix your sentimental keepers. And the issue wouldn’t be price, it might be the time it takes to find the donor locos.

Speaking of price, the one you buy for a donor might be better than the one you have. Would that change the way you look at the situation?

As Rider’s said, if you can get the parts, he will see what he can do.

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As I near the finish line of life, sentimental value diminishes. I suffer from TMS, too much stuff, stuff I will never use, my kids don’t want.

I got back into the hobby only a handful of years ago and I had plans to put Kadee couplers and weight and weather by Tyco rolling stock. I never got around to doing it, but if I did, they would still require more work than that to look halfway decent. They are now test palettes for weathering techniques.

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That’s true. I’ve found other modelers to be the best source of parts. When it comes to fixing up cheapies the guys on the Tyco Depot have been of great help with parts and knowledge, especially when it comes to locos that no one else bothers to fix.

All that said, if you have time, just sitting down and cleaning, lubing swapping couplers, and checking the electrical connections may go a long way toward not having to pay someone to fix them. If you have the cash and inlination having them fixed right away is not a bad thing, but if you take your time, go to a few train shows and frequent shops that sell used trains (for donor locos), you can probably have them all fixed yourself at a fraction of the cost over the course of a year.

As for sentimentality. I limited my sentimental colleciton to a couple of train sets I had as a kid. They are mostly preserved and then I moved out the rest of the items that didn’t fit my current era.

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Really just the 2 Burlingtons are the sentimental locos for me. I want to get them going tip top, them find some kind of display case for them. I know I’d have to clean, oil and lube them if I want to run them again after having them sit for a while, but at least I’ll know they are good running locos when I put them away.

I’m going next Thursday to pick them up. They are all over at my grandpa’s where I have a test track set up.

I’m thinking the Pennsylvania 040, F Unit ABA, and the Military set will be put on eBay here soon. I will also put up the Tyco Santa Fe A and B dummy if I can get the Athearn running.

The CN F unit and the 060T, while good runners, may go as well. I have a lot of Santa Fe stuff, so I could stick with that for a line and call it a day, if I can get them all running again.

I should be able to find a shell for the 44 tonner to switch it to Santa Fe, and the little switcher if I can get it going is just a generic one. It could also be put in a shop on the layout as a broke down loco, which it is.

The Chatanooga could also be a on display train on the layout. Build it a little stand with a track section under it, make it look like it was donated the town or whatever. If I cant get it going.

I think though too I could see about having the Santa Fe and the Burlingtons relettered (I know I couldn’t do it, dont have the skills for that) to BNSF, since they did keep the color schemes. Would put the setup in a more modern time than I want to model (I wanna do late 50s early 60s, that would be 1995-1996) but that way I’m not having to get all new locos of a new line, or having them all repainted entirely. And if/when I get a steam train for an excursion type of deal (or the 080 if it runs), I could just say it’s running on their track, that way it doesnt have to match the rest of the locos.

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I have two “sentimental” locomotives I am holding onto.

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Really, only the body shells are sentimental, so they are both now mounted to Athearn chassis and run good and reliable.

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-Kevin

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