Nelson
Ex-Southern 385 Being Hoisted
With a cowl body and the plastic chassis, they would be an easy repower if someone tooled up a pair of proper power trucks with a matching wheel base. Plenty of room for a huge can motor and extra weight. The odd trucks are the real stumbling block for an easy repower. I am gonna try this guys repower can motor in my one KM and see if it runs better, wont be a stump puller, but cant be worse than it is now. I can deal with being easy on the throttle when switching, but the noise and harshness of the old 3 pole motor needs to go. Mike
LHS mechanic and geniune train and antique garden tractor nut case!
Yep , got two of the KM's myself , I keep looking at them and wondering how to repower them. A retrofit drive would be great. I heard about a shop somewhere down south that had the brass trucks from the brass version , I e-mailed them once and never heard anything back. Can't remember now what shop it was. Dang it !
Jerry SP FOREVER http://photobucket.com/albums/f317/GAPPLEG/
Maybe Proto 1k or someone else will make one in the future. I am talking with the guy that has the repower motors, mine current KM is an early model with the earlier design motor, not the later style that was totaly round. A nice pair of smooth running DRGW KM's with the mars flashing correctly ect, would just be the cats ***. Cheers Mike
A new Krauss Maffei would be nice. I like my Rivarossi SP KM and won't be replacing it, but a new one with a better drive and more detail would be good for other people.
I don't think Hornby will be re-releasing the Rivarossi KM. As far as I know, the tooling was destroyed in a fire around 25 years ago.
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A gentleman over on our favorite auction site offers a can motor repower for the KM's and E units that AHM/Rivarossi made. For the whopping cost of $15, I may pull the trigger and repower both of my DRGW KM's and see if I can make them run well. The do well out on the open road, but switching they are a bit jumpy/lack a good creeping speed. With a newer 5 pole/skewed armature motor, they might run a tad bit better. The gears in them are high quality brass, I turned the flanges down with my dremel on one of the two units. I can add pickups to the other wheels easy enough. But with the poor original 3 pole motor, I havent attempted any upgrades to the old girls. I am not sure what Hornby's intentions are with the Rivarossi line, not much has been said or re released yet. Cheers Mike
I'll join you. I always thought those KM's were rather fascinating looking, and I had one of the old Rivarossi models some years ago. They certainly looked better than they ran, but perhaps the Rivarossi dies are part of the Hornby buy-out and could be revived with a better drive. I'm not much of a diesel fan, but I'd certainly bite for one of them.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Like many modelers, I love the brutish looks of the turret cab Krauss Maffei diesel hyd units tested by the DRGW and SP years ago. Very unique units, hi ad trucks and just plain weird looking units. The old AHM/Rivarossi units looked great for their time, but the single truck drive leaves much to be desired. Repowering is a difficult prosepct with lots of scratch building if you want a smooth modern mechanism in one. Division point did them in brass if one can afford $1200 for a single unit! OUCH! I would love to see Hornby/Rivarossi reissue the KM's with a better drive system, or someone else to do one. Even a replacement power chassis for the old AHM/Rivarossi shell would be nice. The hardest part is the odd wheel spacing of the KM trucks. One can reuse the side frames from the old drive, but getting the axles lined up is a bit more problematic. Defintaly not an easy project. If someone would do these with a better drive, I would sign up right now for all 3 DRGW units. I know many SP modelers would as well, these ran during a common modeled period for SP modelers and they add some spice and flavor to the shop tracks or better yet out on the main line. If we can get the Hiawatha from Walthers, the UP turbine from Athearn, then a better running KM in afforadable plastic isnt to far fetched anymore in my opinion.