Just a thought, but could you put his tender on a powered "block" (new to this, so I think that this is the term but not sure) from an Aristocraft six-axel engine and just remove the stripped gear to effectively make James a non-powered engine? This would also give him more power, and if you wire the pickups from the engine to the motor block in the tender it would also increase his electrical pickup.
Just a thought. I know I want a Thomas myself, but they are very expensive these days.
Modeling the D&H in 1984: http://dandhcoloniemain.blogspot.com/
ElMik wrote: I decided to let my Lionel James out to play on the new layout today...
Good to hear.
Lionel collector, stuck in an N scaler's modelling space.
I usually call Northwest Shortline (nwsl.com?) for parts to models a lot of people gave up on. I have repaired some imported and out of production engines with their parts. Most of the time I can't stump them. The cool thing on the gears is you can order metal gears and they will last. I recently bought five USA Trains blomberg motor blocks that were stripped out, one with a blown motor, for $5 a piece. New nwsl motors are $30 and the gears I need are $15. 4 gears and 1 motor are $90. USA lists each replacement block at $100. One day these will become a pair of MP15 ACs. Mike.
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