Catchy title to say the least but while pulling a 16 car with a double header at full throttle and coming out of a curve the lead engine derailed and came to a grinding hault. Another 6" and the Big Mike (BLI Heavy Mikado) would have plumeted off the rail and down 3’ onto a unforgiving floor.
After 20 minutes of inspecting it was discovered the lead rod pin had backed itself off enough to cause the rod to jam. Further more one of the teeth in the gear train sems to have chipped off. The engine still runs but is not as quiet as before.
Check your rods boys as this may have been a costly and may still be a costly accident. I suspect I’ll have to replace the gears.
Does this mean that we’ll have to do a pre-flight or pre-run inspection? I can just see that Mike heading for the floor. Fergie making a head long dive and a one hand catch just in the nick of time. This just after I see a pig fly over the house. Seriously I’m glad that you didn’t have to make that try.
So am I as it would have been the second time today as the Challenger was fumbled on the 10 yard line and I had to make the dive (after tripping over Dad’s feet)
“Preflight”? Absolutely! The prototype engineers always inspect their locomotives
before heading out. It can save their lives. For us, it can save money and emotional
turmoil. We model trains-a pre-run inspection should be part of our modeling.
Plus, it just makes good sense. My [2c]
Just like those little jeweler’s screwdriver sets, they make sets of hex sockets for the crankpin screws (if that’s the type used). I don’t remember if BLI includes a proper wrench - PCM did with my T-1 since you have to unbolt the rods to replace the drivers with the traction tire set, so I’m thinking BLI does as well. Very important to check every few hours. Even worse than it binding up is if the screw backs out all the way (good luck finding it along your roadbed!) - the rod can jam into the roadbed and literally vault the loco into the air.
I’m wondering about those Heavy Mikes, Fergie–my BLI dopped a crankpin the other day while struggling up Yuba Summit. Luckily it was an up-grade and it was only going about 15smph, but I had to look all over to find a hex-driver to get the crankpin in and tight again. And this was on the main driver where the eccentric gear takes off, so it was a lot of fun finding the parts and putting them back together again. I hope this isn’t some kind of epidemic.
Tom [B)]
I guess I should check ALL of my steamers…such cheap insurance, when you come to think of it. I have two recent additions, a reconditioned (returned?) Niagara and the newest edition of the K4s. This tells me that I may find something to fix. [%-)]
Fegie, I’m still intrigued by your partial account of the dive-save of the Lionel…what happened, exactly?
Thank whatever Diety you prefer that it was a model, and not full size. I remember seeing a photo of a 1:1 scale steamer that broke a crankpin. The loose rod cleaned off EVERYTHING on that side of the locomotive - running board, air tank and pipes, boiler lagging… The loco was scrapped.
On another occasion an old N&W engine man told me that a J had somehow had a radius rod (from eccentric crank to valve motion) come adrift. They found the generator (which was mounted behind the skirting under the running board) a quarter of a mile away in the middle of some farmer’s field. Roanoke fixed her up better than new.
Think of the fun of having to repair that kind of damage.
She was coming out of the corner where there are two double curved Turnouts and guess what? The latter (peco) was open. Up over the rail head she went and over Dad’s feet I sprawled, regaining my balance and bolting the remaining 10’ I was able to keep her from certain death.
Sorry to hear that but your lucky, it could have been much worse. Once I was running a Mantua Mikado and I went upstairs. About a ½ hour later I went down to eerie silence. I figured it derailed but the red indicator on my MRC told me otherwise. The loco dropped a rod and it jammed the mechanism. Unfortunately it stayed on the track. Cooked the brushes and armature in my Sagami 2032 real good. Eventually enough of the coating melted off the armature winding so the breaker could trip but by then the damage was done. I tried to order a new one only to find out an earthquake destroyed the Sagami factory. It took a year to finally got a new one form NWSL. When I got it home I found out the shaft diameter was changed from 2.4 to 2.0 mm so now my flywheel would not work. Back to the LHS and you guessed it, the Timewell flywheel I needed was backordered! It took a while to get it too. A series of unfortunate events.
I threw a rod in my wifes old SS396 Nova a few years ago on the drag strip. The rod went through the oil pan oiling up the back tires at about 130 mph. That was a near death experience. I’m glad your loco didn’t take the plunge of death.
My 40-year old Rivarossi 0-4-0T dropped the screw holding the forward end of the connecting rod. While I have all of the parts, I could sure use some tips on how to reassemble it. Such as should I get a metric or english wrenches? How do you hold the screw in the wrench–bit of wax? How do you hold all the parts in position while the screw is inserted?Should the connecting rod be disconnected from the side rod first and then reattached after the front end has been reconnected to the guides? Are there other “first things first” procedures like" you can’t get there from here, you have to go over there first?" Oh, and no the engine hasn’t been running all of that time. It only has about 4 or 5 hours total running time.
Too soon old, too late smart, George