Hey guys:
Unfortunately my first post here comes as one wherein I bear bad news.
My Proto 2000 2-8-4 Berkshire (1998-2002 era I think) has run beautifully up until this year. It isn't run often, being lettered for POLAR EXPRESS and brought out only during Christmas. In fact, it has less than 15 hours of running time on it. Upon putting it away after Christmas this year, I noticed that it seemed to be, for lack of a better word, sluggish and dragging a bit, and certainly not up to it's usual 30-car consist-pulling self.
I took the locomotive apart and discovered, to my dismay, that the main axle gear had cracked. It's still in one piece, but the crack does not allow power from the motor to reach the drive wheels at full strength.
I've emailed Walthers (in the unlikely event that a part still exists). Beyond that, what are my options? It's not an Athearn clone like my Proto 2000 FA2 is, and I can't find any details about the Kato drives to make a comparison on the drive gears they have.
Can a custom gear be manufactured somewhere? Glue repair? Or is this beautiful model to be retired to static display?
Thanks!
The bad news, Walthers does not support the pre-walthers prot 2000's. Had the same issue with a friends USRA 2-8-8-2 that broke a side rod, and that is exactly what they told me. So, I fabricated a new side rod that looked close from scratch. In your case, you might be able to get away with using CA glue to bond the gear back together. NWSL might have gears that you could use to re-gear the locomotive.
Michael,
To The Forums.
Check with these people to see if they can help you:
http://nwsl.com/NWSL_Online_Catalog.html
Frank
I had a similar issue recently with my Proto USRA 0-8-0. NWSL does not have replacement gears and they're not currently manufacturing new made-to-order gears, either.
The gear in your loco may be the same or similar to that in mine, a set-up similar to that in the diesels, but with the gear on the axle offset considerably to one side. I removed the geared wheelset from the loco, and by manually squeezing the gear together at the split, was able to put calipers on the axle stub to measure its diameter at .191". Checking through my stock of brass tubing, I found that 7/32" brass tubing has an inside diameter of .1875", just a little too small to fit over the plastic stub sleeve. To rectify that situation, I used a #12 drill bit (.1890") in my pin vise to ream out about 1/2" into the end of a length of 7/32" tubing, then followed that by using a #11 drill bit (.1910") in the same manner. I then marked off the required length - don't make it too long, as you don't want it contacting anything metal, and possibly causing a short - and cut it from the length of tube by rolling it back and forth on a sheet of glass with an X-Acto knife. Use light pressure so as to not deform the thinned tube.I used a small round file to lightly chamfer the inside circumference at one end, then, after removing one driver (engineer's side, I think....in any case, the side on which the longest portion of the plastic axle sleeve is located) and manually compressing the gear in order to bring the split faces together, carefully pushed the tubing onto the plastic. Push it as close as possible to the gear. The plastic sleeve on the other side of the gear is very short, so I didn't bother to attempt to duplicate the process there.
I pressed the driver back in place - I have a NWSL quarterer, but was able to re-quarter the driver "by eye", and the loco now runs as well as it did before.
Wayne
doctorwayne (Quote edited out for space - see post above)
(Quote edited out for space - see post above)
Thanks for the repair advice, Wayne. Your USRA 0-8-0 sounds like it has the same drive as my 2-8-4. Of course I measure in MM (being Canadian), so I had to go translate the measurements you gave me. LOL. I'll be ordering a pin vise and drill bits for this repair. Hopefully it works as well for me as it did for you!
Of course, further inspection of the locomotive has revealed cracks in the #2 and #3 drive axle sleeves as well. How ironic that the only one that isn't cracked is the rear-most drive axle.
One last question, are the rod pins on these locos pressed in or screwed in?
The rods are held in place by threaded bolts - I didn't have a wrench that fit, but a pair of small smooth-jawed pliers did the trick.
I find the metric measurements annoying, especially since many of the most commonly-used packaged items (oil, paint, and food in containers) are labelled with metric units but are actually American-sized containers, so what used to be a quart of oil (1136.52ml) is now, instead of a litre (1,000ml) 946.353ml (an American quart). This is also true for paint (from an Imperial gallon of 4.54l to 3.78l - an American gallon).
Converting those measurements to metric won't help much, unless you were raised knowing only the metric system and need to visualise the sizes in familiar terms. This is because brass tubing is sold in fractional sizes (even here in Canada) and numbered drill bits can be converted to metric dimensions, but they're still sold in Canada as numbered bits. For the sizes required, you'll likely need to go to a tool supplier rather than a hobbyshop.
doctorwayne The rods are held in place by threaded bolts - I didn't have a wrench that fit, but a pair of small smooth-jawed pliers did the trick. I find the metric measurements annoying, especially since many of the most commonly-used packaged items (oil, paint, and food in containers) are labelled with metric units but are actually American-sized containers, so what used to be a quart of oil (1136.52ml) is now, instead of a litre (1,000ml) 946.353ml (an American quart). This is also true for paint (from an Imperial gallon of 4.54l to 3.78l - an American gallon). Converting those measurements to metric won't help much, unless you were raised knowing only the metric system and need to visualise the sizes in familiar terms. This is because brass tubing is sold in fractional sizes (even here in Canada) and numbered drill bits can be converted to metric dimensions, but they're still sold in Canada as numbered bits. For the sizes required, you'll likely need to go to a tool supplier rather than a hobbyshop. Wayne
Yeah I was raised on the metric system (80's kid). I've ordered the tools necessary for the repair. Hopefully this works!