Remotor

When I was running my little Nn3 Mogul at the train show a couple of weeks ago it got pretty hot and then stopped working. The motor has been sort of finicky lately so I figured it was probably time for some attention. It is a 3 pole and I wanted a 5 pole anyway, so I decided to swap it out.

Swapping a motor in a Marklin 2-6-0 chassis is not a simple thing to do, but with the proper tools it can be accomplished. The motor is not removed as a single unit as it is on larger locomotives, that would be too easy. Instead the magnets in their housing have to be removed and then the gear pulled off the armature shaft. Then the armature can be lifted out and swapped with the 5 pole motor. The gear is then pushed back onto the new armature shaft (the article uses a small hammer but I used a C clamp) and the magnet housing reinstalled.

The brushes for these motors are also separate, and when I opened the package to install them I found one of them defective. A quick email to ajckids, where I got the motor and brushes, netted a new set sent immediately and without further charge.

I put the brushes on and attempted to run the locomotive and had an odd little problem; the rotating commutator pulled the engineers side brush backwards out of position. Running the locomotive forward did not pull the firemans side brush out, but every time it ran forward the right side brush pulled backwards. It took a bit of bending to hold the brush in place, but it finally stayed.

Brushes installed and wheels cleaned, the motor works beautifully. The locomotive no longer needs to be started by hand, the application of starting voltage is enough all by itself now. It also runs quieter and smoother at lower speeds, all of that makes it a much more enjoyable locomotive.

I spent the evening running it in with assorted consists, and I am pretty confident in saying it is ready for the next show.

Erie PA1

My wife's great grandfather drove a locomotive like this one after they retired his Pacific. Grammy has a picture of him and his crew standing on the track in front of this locomotive. You can't see the number in the picture since it's a nose shot, and you can't tell if there is a B unit (there probably is), but it is definitely a PA1 and this model is in the correct paint scheme.

I need some passenger cars for it now.

Weekend Acquisitions

Of course I cannot attend a train show without buying something, even if it's something I have absolutely no use for.  The first one of those things is this:

I had the 4-6-4 ConCor Hudson in ATSF livery and it's a pretty good running little locomotive, but when I saw these shells for it I just had to have them. I didn't know they existed, and I think they either were made by a second company or they are of a different run.

The original locomotive shell is held on by a single screw but there is no hole in the Pennsy shell for it. That means when handling the locomotive now it is imperative you pick it up by the cylinders in the front and the trailing truck/tender in the back, or else you just get a handful of shell.

The original tender shell is held on by four clips, two in front and two in back, but the Pennsy shell only has the front clips. I also had to cut out the front of the tender shell to clear the wiring, which is another reason I think they were either second party or a different run. It is held on pretty well in the back by friction alone though, so it doesn't come off like the locomotive shell.

Truth be told though, I'm not sure just how much I like the Pennsy shells. To begin with the PRR never had a Hudson type wheel arrangement so the shells are pure fantasy, but rule number 1 (it's my railroad and I'll run what I want) applies. Added to that is the fact the loco shell either needs a screw hole drilled or will require special handling. Last but not least...I'm just not sold on the looks. If I want a streamlined locomotive I'll just lease one of the N&W Class J's since I have two of them now.

Which brings me to my second purchase of the weekend:

I saw N&W 601 in it's Spectrum jewel case with the tag "does not run" on it for $40 on Friday when I was helping the club set up for the show. Saturday it was still there. I tried really hard to talk myself out of it, but when it was still there on Sunday I finally asked the man about it. He didn't know what was wrong with it, it was a used locomotive that he had gotten in a lot. I bought it and took the shells off the loco and tender only to find the left wire was off the tender plug.

A couple of seconds work with the soldering iron and lo and behold, it runs beautifully! The headlight doesn't work (the backup light does) so it still needs a bit of TLC(EDIT: One wire off the light board, a touch with the soldering iron and everything is fully operational), but $40 for an operational Spectrum J class is a pretty good deal. I'll probably just replace the entire wiring harness like I did with the 611, the original wiring harness are junk in my opinion. I even have a decoder to go into it!

The weekend concluded with a Veterans Day dinner at McCormick and Schmicks with my lovely and generous wife who let me play trains all weekend with nary a complaint. She had other things to do so she wasn't sitting alone at home being a model train widow, so I'm certain that helped. She didn't complain about my purchases, either, although she did remark that I had more things to pull with than I had things to pull.

This is absolutely true, so perhaps I need to invest in some N&W passenger cars...two sets of them now since I have two locomotives to pull them. I also have an Erie PA1 in the mail, the kind her great grandfather drove after the Erie retired his beloved Pacific, so I'll have to find some cars for it to pull as well. When I said as much she agreed, so I have her consent (another reason why she is just so awesome).

Life just doesn't get any better than this.

Train Show

Neuse River Valley train show at the NC fairgrounds in Raleigh: