You are CORRECT that the 2-8-2 is a Toyco product. I don’t know what got it into my head that it was a Bachman product. Time does that to us (especially me! LOL!).
Thank you for all of the links to both of these locomotives.
It seems like all I’ve been doing the last few weeks is working on modifying the frame to make the motor fit. I even went as so far as to make a whole new frame from a piece of billet aluminum that I had laying around. Bottom line, the motor that I bought from Micro Mark won’t fit no matter what position I put it in. It’s just too darned big!
Don’t ask me why I didn’t buy the #40321 motor from Walthers. MAJOR brain infarction. Money is short now that it is Christmas time so it’s going to be a couple of months before I can order that one.
I’ve had it done in the past and for me I just didn’t think it was worth the trouble and expense I went trough as the newer Proto H2K stuff is far superior but thats not the subject here if it’s worth it to you thats all that matters. I would contact Alliance Locomotives there is a link below. They make the Helix Humper motor which i have repowered many of mine and friends loco’s with. I highly recommend them as their pulling monsters. I They don’t seem to have a direct application for the old Rivarossi’s but I’m sure their tech guys can help you out with that part of it. However the motor is only half your battle the old Rivarossi’s had narrow flange drivers which made them horrible runners compared to today’s standards. I have both the new Hornby Big Boys and the old AHM/Rivarossi versions and there is no comparison. So along with re-motoring your going to have to consider changing the drivers. Some may say it’s not necessary but I have found the old ones do not like to cross switch frogs no where near as well as the new one’s I also provided a link to a site with a pretty good how to article on the converting to a newer motor. It may prove helpful.
Good luck and enjoy…
Duce,
I don’t know if you have enough left of the boiler weight to mount a motor in the cab, but this is a shot of the disk drive motor in mine. I replaced couplings with NWSL universals and 2mm shaft, because the old slotted couplings were horrible. Rivarossi replaced them with hex shafts when they switched to the round motor.
I have a spare boiler weight if you need it.
Thanks to all for the information,
I could put a motor back in the cab as I haven’t cut anything off back there. I didn’t cut the motor mount off just in case the center drive motor quest didn’t work out. I did, however, fill the gearbox holes with epoxy so IF I were to mount the motor in the original location, I’d have to drill and tap the holes out again! Does anyone know what the thread size is for the original screws? If not, I’ll just put the 4-40 screws (that I have HUNDREDS of from my RC aircraft builds) in place of them.
The ONLY reason I decided to re-motor this locomotive is because it was my father’s (I finally nailed it down to the Christmas of 1978–my first at IBM). He loved to see it chug along with all of the mechanisms flailing away.
I don’t remember it jumping the track through turnouts but he operated it more than I did. TRUST ME, if it were a PITA to operate, he would have said something!
I don’t know the thread size, but I know all their screws are metric. No reason you can’t tap it for the 4-40 screws instead.
And you’re right, I’ve never had any problem with the old pizza cutter Rivarossis tracking poorly; in fact it always amazed me how reliably they ran. As long as you don’t try running it on anything smaller than 100 code rail, you shouldn’t have a problem.
hello sir,
This is Michael, I have an old Riverossi big boy that my father purchased in the early 70"s. It makes the noise while running, but will run on any radius from 18 to 22. I noticed you have a new style can motor, I was wanting to know were you got the motor so I can upgrade my dads and my engine. I am also wanting to go DCC with this engine. Any help would be greatly appreciated.