Saving the Scout

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

I decided to make this a new discussion topic since it’s more about the past issues than the current ones I’m facing with my 6110 ‘scout’ type 2-4-2.
When I bought it, there was a glaring issue with the motor. See if you can figure out what that might be…


Well, I can certainly say that the cloth tape wasn’t exactly doing it any favors in the looks department. It also jammed one of the pickup rollers- and I noted that only one of the axles was properly engaging with the motor.
My suspicion is that someone dropped the locomotive at some time- and, with the scout motor’s body being made out of bakelite… you don’t need to guess what could have happened. The main miracle is that there is no significant cosmetic damage to the shell- I don’t have many diecast steamers in such good nick, usually something is severely bent or broken off, and there’s a fair bit of paint chipping.
Well, I took off the tape… and quickly discovered the damage was every bit as bad as I worried it might be.

2

I considered post war 2-4-2’s a bargain back when I was buying and TTOS had big monthly meets and I bought several. I paid as little as $10 back then. Keep a eye on eBay and train shows for good deals.

Be careful to only buy ones with the metal motor.

3

I bought this ‘scout’ because I had been flipping through the Lionel service manual, and upon seeing the pages concerning the ‘scout’ type plastic motor, I decided I simply had to have one- the mechanism fascinated me. I also quickly noted that the 6110 had a number of rather desirable features for a low end, scout motor equipped 2-4-2 (diecast shell, magnetraction, smoke), so it was definitely one worth owning.

I’d have to despute your warning against buying the plastic motors, however.
I can verify that my repaired scout runs quite well- it’s not silky smooth and nearly silent like some of my finer locomotives, but the motor noise isn’t so bad, and will probably be even less once I get around to replacing the brushes.

An advantage to the plastic scout motor is that as far as I can tell, it’s very easy to convert any scout motor produced from 1950 onwards with magnetraction- all that should be needed is to replace the steel axles with stainless steel ones, and fit suitable magnets into the pockets that are provided in the motor housing. I had no issue inserting the magnet from the 6110 into the donor motor housing I took from a 1061.
An upgrade I was able to make, by using the housing from the 1061, was giving the armature proper bearings- something the original 1001M motor was lacking. I believe these bearing equipped versions came later? I suspect the lack of these bearings probably contributes to poorer running quality.
I plan to keep an eye out for more ‘scout’ locomotives, with intent to try doing a magnetraction conversion, and get in some practice on working on these peculiar motors.

4

Here are some pictures of the “rescued” motor, now assembled within the motor housing donated by a 1061:



And here’s some pictures of the reassembled 6110:



For the time being, this is where the work stops.
I have some plans for more work, though, including:
-add an LED to shine through the headlight
-acquire and install linkage to the drivers
-replace the weak magnetraction magnet with new rare-earth magnets
-increase the required voltage to operate the motor
-attempt to improve reliability of the reverse mechanism
For now though, it’s time to move on to the next project- I have quite a few of them waiting in the wings now, and several currently underway.