Since the only decent looking model of this engine is the AHM/Rivarossi one from the late 70’s, it looks better than any of the brass versions I have seen at least. But they lack in a couple of depts, one is you cant see the headlight, and they have one speed, warp drive mode. I installed the NWSL regear set, it cuts the top speed by 65% over the factory set up. You have to swap out the worm gear and axle gear. I scibed a line in the axle and wheel face to retain the quartering when I reinstalled the drive wheel. I drove the axle from the wheel with a small punch, then did the same with the gear using a pair of plyers behind the brass gear to support it. The axle is shouldered so the gear will only go one way. The driver you remove is the one that picks up the power. The axle is lightly splined to help line up the driver when reinstalling. I drove the new NWSL gear into place using a small socket and my small brass hammer. I then lined up the scribe and did the same with the driver. After checking wheel gauge, I put a drop of ACC to lock the wheel back on the axle and set it aside to dry, the capliary action will draw the glue into the wheel/axle grove and set it tight. I then set up my plyers above the worm gear on the motor, and drove the motor shaft back out of the worm with my small punch and brass hammer. I tapped the new worm gear on the shaft and flush with the end of the motor shaft. It was nice and tight on my motor’s shaft so nothing else was done with it. I put a better grain of wheat bulb directly under the headlight and painted the back of the boiler face silver, then removed the headlight lense, painted the whole inside of the head light silver, let it dry then reinstalled the headlight lense, now its much brighter. If your motor makes alot more noise going forward, reverse the two brushes as one is mesh and one is carbon, I did this and mine is much quieter now going forwards. You will find the regear, combined with the 3 pole Rivarossi motor is a nice combination and ru
Nice work. I, too, had turned down the flanges on my Casey Jones and it runs on Code 70 track with only occasional clatter at a couple of turnout frogs. The Casey Jones 4-6-0 was dimensionally very close to Clinchfield #99 (and Clinchfield #99 serves in IC lettering at the Casey Jones home/museum). Mine serves as Clinchfield #99, which is the connecting railroad for my “could-have-been” short line. I took off the cab roof clerestory and replaced it with a smooth roof in addition to the re-lettering. I had picked up a second AHM Casey Jones at a train show as a parts locomotive if needed.
Although I can work for hours on adding small detail, I am generally reluctant to tackle the engineering problems such as regearing and remotoring. My locomotive was having serious operation problems and often would not start. I sent it and my “spare” to one of the formal repair places that advertise in MR (and who had done nice work on several older brass locomotives for me). His response was to swap out the motor, with no change to the gearing. So your effort with the re-gear kit may have been a little intense, but it was likely cheaper than using a “professional”, and almost certainly with better results.
As has been mentioned in several threads on requests for “small” HO locomotives, this Casey Jones locomotive would be a joy if it were re-issued with proper flanges, a more modern motor and drive-train for slower/smoother operation.
Bill
Very nice work! I have 2 old AHM/Riva’s that I reworked also. They made 3 different drives for these in the 0-8-0 , horizontal shaft to a worm with the motor in the tender, vertical shaft with worm direct to the drive gear, and a horizontal shaft with a attached gearbox to the motor and drive shaft coupled to a worm to the final drive. The version with the gearbox attached to the motor seems to be a good version to get good low speed out of. I bought 2 of these years back and added new wheels to the tender with extra pickups on all 8 wheels which made a big difference going through a turnout. Cutting down the flanges also was a great improvemnt for running reasons. I have considered remotoring many times but the attached gear box seems to be an issue. Mine do make abit of noise not real bad, but there is some. Could you send me a personal message and give me a good disription of how you did the rebuild of the 3 poll motor, I’m intrested in this.