I have a TW with a loose whistle/reverse control handle, so loose that the whistle circuit won’t engage. Inspection of the handle reveals that the control shaft receiver plastic on the handle is not nearly so rounded as the metal of the control shaft itself (whether the handle was warped through heat, mechanical stress, or other abuse, I cannot determine). I tried wrapping a cable tie around the plastic receiver shaft, but all this does is make the control handle really hard to remount, and only works until the cable tie stretches out (which it does repeatedly).
I have this crazy scenario in my mind where I fashion a funneling heat-shield out of aluminum foil to soften the receiver shaft using my heat gun, and then clamp two halves of a wooden jig (that I pre-drilled to the proper bore) down upon the softened plastic of the receiver shaft to restore it to true, but this sounds overly complex, and prone to failure (which might result in a melted and completely unusable control handle).
Yeah, I know I could buy replacement handles on eBay for about $20 total (including shipping), but that’s almost as much as I paid for the TW. A man has his pride…[(-D]
I do wonder if loosening the tension on the whistle/reverse control spring might help…
If anyone has any other ideas, I’d love to hear about it.
This is what a good handle looks like with a metal insert and metal band for tension. Last year I purchased a pair of handles for about 12 dollars. Now I have a spare. 20 is high so keep looking… Jeff of the train tender is the part hero of this site. I am sure it would be closer to my price… Enough said of the purchasing.
I have used electrical ties on grill and stove handles. I suspect you may be using an inferior brand. My solution is use the tie to fit the tension you want on the hande. Remove the handle and use two part epoxy around the shaft and fill the void. Use tape to where the level changes on the left to hold the epoxy in place. This should keep the tension. The 5 bucks for the epoxy is the drawback so for 7 more you will get two NEW handles. I sense the inevitable coming. I use the epoxy for many plastic repairs. For exampleI use it to fix tender corners. I remove the old screw post and epoxy the corners inside. Drill and tap and the tender screws hold.
To be clear, the handle that Dub has shown is not a TW handle, but the principle is the same. For some reason the orange TW handles are almost always bad on the old units. If they don’t loosen, they warp and bind. Why not buy just the orange handle–I don’t think you need to replace the pair? You’ll be more satisfied in the long run…
The handle is a new repro. I compared it to a black RW and couldn’t see any difference. The red does photogragh better.It is interesting that the TW is different. Thank you for the comment. I researched and discovered I don’t have a TW handle to show. Just hope I helped. I don’t think I have ever seen a TW after seeing the diagram.
(I knew that wasn’t a TW handle, but the undersides are almost identical - in fact, I have a handle like that on my 1033, and it fits nicely on the TW)
I have the metal tensioning band - it doesn’t apply nearly the tension that the cable tie does. Also, I probably should have mentioned that the metal slot insert/bushing has seperated into two halves.
I don’t think additional tension is going to solve this one, since it is very difficult to put the handle back onto the shaft due to how tight I’ve made it using the cable tie. I think the problem is that the receiver shaft on the handle is not as round as the shaft that fits into it, so it only binds against the shaft in two spots (obviously opposite to each other). The epoxy suggestion made me wonder if I could just fill the receiver shaft hole with epoxy, and then drill out a hole of the exact right size for the shaft, and then re-slot it using my dremel.
This is a stress point. I do not think it will hold. Epoxy will hold screws and strucural pieces but to shim a hole? I have used it on a cast frame to hold the engine pin that was enlarged by a drywall screw but I had to backfill on the inside to get the adhesion and surface area. How much stress will it see?
My backup is to use a center post from a different handle.Those handles are suppose to have metal inserts along with the exterior band. You can just barely see it in my picture. I would cut the post at the base and replace it. Then epoxy 360 around the post. Use tooth picks to keep epoxy out of the slots. Those fins will help with added surface area for adhesion of the epoxy. Keep two opposing fins on the old handle and the opposite pair on the replacement…On the replacement you will have to remove the handle from the post. In other words, destroy it to remove the post and fins. The TW handle will have to grounded out.Since your handle is rarer than a normal one I posted, this may suite your purpose. All you have to do is sacrifice a normal handle.
The easiest answer is to just break down and by a repo. It is a good transformer and worth a small investment. By the time you chop,chisel and drill, what have you really saved?
Amen, Sir James! All you’ll wind up with is a kludged up mess that will probably come apart again. As Dub said, it is a stress area. If your handle is warped (probably, compare it to the black one) it wil continue to bind anyway. There is less cover-to-handle clearance than you think. Sometimes the handle “flares” from top to bottom and that isn’t readily apparent until you compare it to a new one. Train Tender has them for 10 bucks. Even at that you’ll still have gotten a great bargain on a fine transformer and you’ll be much happier in the long run.
To give an answer to SIr James question, try before you buy. I normally try to repair something to get it useful before turning to a new part. I enjoy the tinkering. I do it, to know it can be done or not. In this case I gave a plan. I would be tempted to try if I had some junk handles but I don’t. So far I have learned what a TW is. The opinions are leaning toward buy. I would try but in this case I do not know all the variables.The stress on the handle being the most important.
Dub - I can see your point. My words of wisdom here is that if you do tinker with this, make sure you limit your tinkering to the handle and not the spindle. Do that and you could eliminate a repro handle from your option pool. [;)] I’ve been there and done that but not with model railroading… hint pnuematic nailers do not play well with CPVC plumbing!
Yes, the receiver is flared as well - sorry if that was not evident.
I think I’m going to try my epoxy shim idea - I agree with Dub; “try before you buy”. If it doesn’t work, I’m no worse off. I will keep the existing cable tie on there to keep the epoxy from cracking under stress. In any case, I don’t think I’d be fiddling with trains in the first place if I didn’t have some time to burn…
I wish I could use my heat gun as more of a scalpel than a hammer, since I highly suspect this could be solved by restoring the receiver back to true, but I lack the finesse to skillfully heat and manipulate plastic with such precision.
Is there any way to retension the spring on the whistle/reverse control? It does seem awfully tight (and thus remains a potential reason for the handle failure in the first place).
