repower this rivarossi

[Budliner]

hello I have a 2-8-8-2 and the motor was sticking, when I opened it. little tinny ball bearing whent flying, wow they are small. I have not seen much info on repowering this model, but I was looking for a match up with a flywheel has enyone made this upgrade or some tips thanks

K-

[Anonymous]

I'm interested too... I have Dads 'origina'l Rivarossi Y6B 2-8-8-2 . It was either 30 or 40 dollars back when it was first produced. It has big flanges [ YUK, hits the spikes on code 70 rail ] and the plastic drive shafts are wearing out where they slip over the 'T' gears that drop down into the undercarrage. The motor is kinda weak now too. Its over 40 years old and never been backshopped!

NW Short Line???? They might be a resource.. They produce LOTS of very high quality gearsets and motor options.

[orsonroy]

The last NWSL catalog I picked up (1999 or so) had instructions for regearing and repowering three different Rivarossi engines, including one of the articulateds. Give them a call and ask them what parts they'd suggest for repowering.

[Budliner]

I was on the nwsl web site (info overload) and after hearing all the things that this old 2-8-8-2 has wrong, phew. now my buchmann 2-6-6-2 's are not looking to bad
looks like I need 50 parts to get this old steamer chugging along the rails.
I had hoped to find a monster sagami motor (my buchmann can only get 12 boxcars up the midland mountain side) and pull all 30 I have on the pike now but thanks for the time I just got the rivarossi for $40 and I killed a little 0-8-0 to fix the wheels (it was missing the front of the boiler)but the ballbearing thing got me good I was so close !!!must have been a killer loco when new and on the correct rail for these big flanges

Ken

[Virginian]

If all you need is a new motor, two different guys on ebay sell them real cheap. The biggest problem with the old Riv 2-8-8-2's is that if you weight them to where they will pull well, all the drivers are not in bushings and sometimes they will hop a little. Blacken the wheels and don't run on less than code 83 (the N&W rail wasn't code 70 anyway) and they run fine. The newer ones are quite a bit better yet.

[orsonroy]

It's not that easy to "just remotor" a Rivarossi engine. You need to remove the old motor mount, jury-rig a way to keep the model together (most Riv motor mounts are integral parts of how they go together), fabricate a new motor mount, replace the drive shaft from the motor to the first gearbox, mill out the frame/weight to lower the motor enough to line up with the new shaft, and then figure out which NWSL universal will best mate between the new motor and the drive shaft.

That's why it's best to physically talk to the folks at NWSL. They've been guiding modelers down the repowering path for decades, and have LOTS of experience with this sort of thing. I really wi***hey'd come out with a full book on repowering projects!

[Virginian]

The guys on ebay have "bolt in" replacement motors for the older (motor in the cab) Rivarossi's.