I have several mint condition AHM/Rivarossi steam engines my dad bought in the 1970’s including an SP cab forward, UP big boy, and NickelPlate Berkshire 779. These run good but the Berkshire, due to the power being received from the front trucks and rear tender trucks on opposit sides tends to hesitate at my atlas #6 frogs or in some cases completely stall out. Is there a way to modify the engines to alleviate this problem?
I think their early FEF UP 4-8-4’s had the same kind of pickup–front and lead trucks only. I understand that some modelers alleviated this problem by using brass pickup shoes on one side of the drivers, connected to the motor and insulated from the frame(I did this on a later Rivarossi AC-12 to improve pickup, it worked pretty well). I also have heard of modelers replacing the AHM motor with NWSL cans and a flywheel, that allow the loco to ‘glide’ over the insulated frogs. I was always surprised that the later AHM locos were powered as they were, since the early (1960-70) Rivarossi locos used both loco and tender pickup just like the brass imports, and ran extremely well for their time.
Tom
if it has deep flanges it will lift the wheels in frog areas where flangeways are.
Being stiff-framed, it will lift the loco.
I was able to spring the drivers on my berk using power pickup springs, folding them and gluing them in while filing up the axle areas, works. Plus I filed down the flanges.
The deep flanges are the European NEM standards.
But I like my LL 2-8-4, gonna sell my RR stuff.
The older engines had the motor in the cab, too. Most Rivs had the tender pickups on one rail and the engine on the other, and even if only the trucks picked up power they usually didn’t stall because they were spaced a good distance apart. Check to see you have good continuity from both trucks in both places. The metals Riv used were prone to get coated with a non-conducting oxidation if they sat unused for awhile. A wire brush in a Dremel can work wonders on an engine that has been sitting for awhile. I bought one dirt cheap at a flea market once that did not run, and I mean this thing was dead. Nothing would get it to do anything. Figured the motor was gone. But, a few minutes with that Dremel and some lube and she ran like a top.
I always added a bunch of weight. There was usually quite a bit of room in the boiler. Also, constant intensity directional lighting is a must.
I sorta have a warm spot for Riv because they were the only decent non-brass source for so many wheel arrangements for so long. But, the warm went a little cold with the price tag they hung on the Allegheny. Nice engine, but nowhere near that much nicer than a P2K.