Hello,
I am fairly new to model railroading so please bear with me. I have an old AHM/Rivarossi 2-10-2 which runs when I place the power pack leads directly to the can motor but will not run on track.The headlamp lights up but the engine wont move.
I have cleaned the wheels, the track and the tender wheels, I oiled the gears as well…What could be wrong?
Gidday, [#welcome] to the forum.
I’m not familiar with that particular locomotive, so maybe of little actual help. the only thing that you didn’t mention was whether you cleaned the actual pick up wipers and their contact area. Also another stab in the dark, is the locomotive to tender drawbar an electrical conductor?? and if so how clean are its contacting surfaces? No doubt if you had access to a multimeter you would have already checked the continuity between the pickups and the motor.
Sorry for not being able to provide a more definitive answer. Good luck.
Cheers, the Bear.
Does the headlight get brighter as you increase the power?
If it doesn’t or is still dim when full power is applied, then you probably need to clean your wheels, pickups, and track. Of course cleaning all of these is a good thing whether it solves this problem of not.
If it does, then you may have a break in the wire from one pickup to the motor or a connection is corroded.
Good luck
Paul
There might be a spring-like wire on the bottom of the tender drawbar. That wire must touch the metal pin on the back of the locomotive where the drawbar attaches, in order to pass current from the tender wheels to the locomotive’s motor.
Many Rivarossi models of the time picked up power from only one side of the locomotive, and the tender wheels picked up from the other rail.
Make sure that wire is touching the pin fairly firmly.
Also make sure the tender wheels are properly orientated, with the metal wheels all on one side.
Thanks for the advice gentlemen, I figured out what was wrong. One of the brush springs was bent enough that it was touching the can and shorting power into the can. Straightened it out and she went to running.
The motor works - because it runs when the live leads are applied directly to it
The headlight is on when track power is applied. That means the tender is supplying electricity and sending it to the locomotive body.
The suggests that somehow one or both of the electrical connection(s) to the motor itself has/have failed.
I would have to study the engine in more detail (I do not own that one, presumably the B&O 2-10-2) but presumably the engine picks up power from its metal frame just by virtue of being screwed on to the frame, and in some way the current picked up by the tender is transferred to the motor, perhaps with a wire that has failed? All my AHM/Rivarossi steam is packed away but I will try to dig up an engine or two and see if I can discover how they routinely got electricity to the motor. I know for one IHB 0-8-0 I had to run a wire from the frame to a motor lead to get it to run.
Dave Nelson
From the symptoms you give us here is the diagnosis
Juice isn’t getting to the motor.
The motor and the drive train (worm, worm gear, drivers, rods, etc) work when they get juice.
Juice is getting onto the locomotive and making it to the headlamp.
Most likely fault, a wire bringing juice to the motor is broken or disconnected. Secondary possibility, an open in the chassis connection. Most likely this locomotive is " hot chassis" with electricity conducted to one side (one brush) of the motor thru the chassis. Connection between the motor and the chassis may have opened up.
While you are at it, you might want to take the boiler off and clean and lubricate the entire drive train. Gears want grease, everything else wants light oil. Go easy on the lube, the moving parts tend to fling it off making a mess. Also check the clearance on the worm and gear gear. Too loose and the worm will skip over gear teeth which is bad for it. Too tight and the extra friction will slow the locomotive noticeably. You adjust the clearance by placing shims under the motor.