Walthers Powered American Crane

[mcouvillion]

I bought an SP Maintenance of Way Powered American Crane at a recent train show. When I got it home and disassembled it to check it out, I found that the two plastic worm gears on the drive axles were split, and therefore the thing won't move well on its own. Has anyone else had a similar experience? I intend to contact Walthers and see if I can get replacement axles (since I can't seem to get the wheels off the axles to get the gears off intact). Does anyone know where I might get replacement axles with metal gears?

I assembled the crane and rigging, shimmed and lubed the motor and gears, and it looks great and sounds a lot quieter than out of the box. But I would love to see this thing move under its own power. Thanks in advance for your comments.

Mark C.

[Anonymous]

Well since Walthers is the dealer/manufacturer they would be the ones who I would suggest. Some years ago I bought a Walthers depressed center flat car and one of the sides was not it the kit. It wasn't clear whether it came that way or if someone had removed it. So I sent them a message and the sent me a replacement side.

Can't hurt to ask. Probably would have been better not to have assembled it, and to have returned the whole kit. I have one that works OK and another that is still in the box untested. Looks like I should check it out!

Bob Boudreau

[cmrproducts]

We have on of those cranes and they sure are slow movers. It really slows down the layout operations during an OPs session!

I have a decoder in it and it runs sweet. The biggest problem was stalling over the switches. We finally put wipers on all of the wheels and it will run smoothly across any of the Atlas dead frogs.

Now when we have an OPs session out will come the MOW crane and Blue Flag a section of track just to slow down the pace of the session a make the Dispatchers job just that much more fun.

Actually we really had to use it during one session as there was a piece of track causing some derailment problems and the crane was pulling a gondola with the spikes and stuff. The MOW operator was called out. He pulled it into the bad section and Blue Flagged the area and proceeded to fix the track. Then he called Dispatch and released the track section back into service!

BOB H Clarion, PA

[retsignalmtr]

i bought the crane several years ago and just ran it on a straight section of ho flex track that i had available. it ran ok then. i model in n scale. i did not run it again until last year when i joined a club and found that it did not run well at all. it was very noisy and would derail on curves because the gears on the axles would slide away from the center and not let the trucks come back to the straight position leaving the curve. i figured to put some ca to glue the gears to the axles. i still haven't done it. it's sitting on a shelf collecting dust.

[AntonioFP45]

Guys, don't forget to let Walthers know about the quality control issues with this model! Walthers will respond if enough complaints come in.

10-4!

[mcouvillion]

Thanks Guys,

I contacted Walthers this morning and they are sending a replacement set of drive axles. Apparently, this was a common problem. The guy I talked to says he puts a new gear on the axles that you return, but the new gears have a slightly larger hole so the plastic won't split. I just need to return the old axles in the same packaging when it arrives.

I like the idea of using the work crane in operating sessions. That's neat! Bob H., which DCC decoder did you install? Was it N-scale? There's not too much extra room inside the shell, so it must be a snug fit for the decoder. I suspect it will go in the operator's section of the cab. I had gotten into the model and re-shimmed and lubed the drive gear to take out the slack and reduce the friction. It made it quieter, too. I even added a thin film of the magnetic strip from a refrigerator magnet so that it actually picks stuff up. Waiting to move it with it's work train down the track.

Mark C.

[mcouvillion]

I installed a Digitrax DZ123 decoder in the crane this evening. Can't wait to get the drive axles so I can run it down the track! The installation was easy - it actually took longer to get the rigging cables re-strung correctly than it took to install the decoder. I know a couple of guys in the train club that will be green when they see it run.

Mark C.