I have a few of these marvelous Allegheny locomotives, and recently decided to sell one of them. The buyer ask if I could test run one of them he was interested in. Since I just got my lower deck up and running, I thought why not run this test on a few of my Alleghenys, included a really heavily weather one I bought years ago and don’t recall if i ever tested it.
I had this one that was questionable, particularly where it crossed over from one district to the other (plain DC in this case). When I first looked down thru the driver wheels it appeared as if one of the little ‘pusher pins’ was not springing out against the inside surface of its driver wheel.
I decided I needed to inspect this problem closer. Sure enough I found a defective pusher-pin,…two of these per ‘truck’,…one was defective.
(photos not included)
Has anyone else experienced such a problem? I’m guess this little spring loaded pin needs replacing. Wonder where I will find one??
Wonder about safely removing old one and installing new one,…likely some sort of press fit?
I seem to remember these type of pins have been used on other steam loco models,…and from other manufactorers. I have emailed Hornby in England to see if they have replacement parts?
This was an interesting site with lots of similar contact pins,…
I don’t think any of my steam locomotive models use these pins. I only have a small selection of plastic steamers. I will take a closer look at my “new” IHC 2-10-2 and see what its electrical pick up strategy looks like.
Ive only come across Riva using this type of pickup. I actually prefer this type. Of all the parts i see available for Riva’s, oddly enough these never show up. So im not sure if you can get any aside from parting out another Riva. EBay prolly your best - first choice.
These work so well ive not had to mess with them. When they do get a little stiff, dropping them into a dixie cup of light oil overnight usually fixed that problem.
I give them a short workout after the soaking to make sure 1)most of the oil is gone (no hydrastatic locking!) 2) good working and free of binding, before i replace them back into model. Sometimes twisting the tiny lil contact reseats it on the spring enough to free it up.
When working correctly, if you push in the lil contact button, and release it, it should sound like clicking a ball point pen and work similarly.
Curiosity got the better of me. I decided to take a look at my stash of locomotive hulks and lo, there was an NYC Empire State Hudson (1981 vintage) with Scullin Disk drivers and a pair of nice pips. (I call 'em pips anyway).
They are a little different in design in that the ones on the Allegheny have a bit of a collar arrangement on the outer housing,…but they look like they use the same small spring. I might be able to make them work if you think you might not use them. [Email address removed by moderator. Please PM to exchange contact information - Thanks.]
Curiosity got the better of me. I decided to take a look at my stash of locomotive hulks and lo, there was an NYC Empire State Hudson (1981 vintage) with Scullin Disk drivers and a pair of nice pips. (I call 'em pips anyway).
I had the same problem when I first tried to send a private message. The big window that opened up for me to compose my message just DID NOT work,…so why is it there??
It did not give me any hint how to find it,…local knowledge I guess?
Unfortunately, out of my jurisdiction. The ever-promised “upgrade” should fix those issues but that’s been a dangling carrot for a couple of years now.
Yes, but PM and ‘private e-mail’ are two radically different things… and not all forum members have an ‘open’ e-mail address… or a current one. I don’t actively monitor the one at hotmail.com and anyone trying to “PM” me there without notice in thread might have a year or more wait… [:-^]
I have emailed Hornby in both the USA and in UK lloking for those parts. I received a message back from the US address. They are no longer handling parts, and it sounded like they are getting out of model trains period.
