My prewar AF brass piper engine #4695 was working fine about 12 years ago the last time I used it. I set it up again this year so my 4-year old grandson could watch it run under the Christmas tree and around the living room. Unfortunately, the forward/reverse lever sticking out the back of the cab is giving me problems. It is very “touchy” and will not stay in position long enough to keep the engine running in either direction. I have removed the decorative locomotive shell from the motor to get a better look at what the problem could be. It appears that the double pole slide switch that is constructed on some kind of circuit board material is not making proper contact. The complete slide switch mechanism is sandwiched between two of these circuit board type materials and only spaced about 1/4" apart. Plus, the assembly is riveted together making it very difficult to get in there and try to clean the contacts or to even see if that is the actual problem.
I would be very grateful if anyone has any ideas how I might fix that slide switch.
Thank you!!
Welcome jack34491!
I’m not a Flyer guy and maybe some of them can give you better advice than I can but if it were one of my Lionels and had a flaky reverse unit I’d pull the thing out and wire the locomotive for forward-only operation, at least until I could get a replacement.
I’ve done that a number of times and honestly I didn’t miss the reverse function as I very rarely run my trains in reverse.
Another thing that you can do is spray electrical contact cleaner inside the thing. Completely douse it. That sometimes helps.
Thanks for the advice. Yes, I did considerer bypassing the slide switch and just wiring it for forward motion. But that would be a last resort for me. I recently tried adding a drop of solder to the circuit board contacts. It looked like they were worn down below the surface of the circuit board. It was very hard getting the solder in there, but think it did the trick.
Now, the problem seems to be my little old 50w power pack and the deteriorated condition of the track I was able to salvage. I’ve tried de-rusting all of the pieces and cleaning the top of the rails as best I can. I have a lot of old track set up in a loop-type shape on my floor. I bet many of the old rail connector pins are not making good contact, either. I had to replace many of them with galvanized nail bits. the engine just stops, at times, and makes a violent humming sound. I give it a push and it starts going again for a while, but not very fast. It is really struggling.
I really hate to jump into this. Rest assured someone will come up with an AI solution and argue it to death.
I have done several of these, and the non-piper version. It is caused by the track reversing mechanism that doesn’t throw far enough, AND does so under power, to arc the contacts. Contact cleaner might help…didn’t on the ones here.
First, we killed the reverser track function…cab lever still worked. Tied up the actuator arm so all the parts are there.
Removed the sliding reverser. Drilled down the middle on the spacer rivets with a 50 or 55, clearance for a 2-56 tap. Then bigger just to take the curl off the end.
Opened the reverser. No luck actually finding a unit, once open, you will see the contact burned back from arcing.
IF you can find a brass rivet, grind off the far end curl, insert new rivet, clamp tight and solder. You may be able to set the rivet with a center punch first. I used a brass screw, filled the slot with solder.
That’s part of it. Then you may find operation may be erratic. It’s the buss jumpers on the back side. Solder them to the rivets, and solder the eyelets to the rivets.
The shouldered standoff rivets you drilled earlier, tap 2-56. If you messed up, I think a 4-40 or a 6-32 with a homemade spacer worked. I had an issue with one or two.
You can try soldering first, might do it, but be prepared for surgery.
It’s loads of fun getting the reverser out.
TOC