Hello Everyone,
I have a Oriental Powerhouse 2-8-8-2 with an unthreaded pin that has worked loose on a connecting rod. I am unsure how these were installed (pressed/soldered?) and need to repair it. I pushed it back together but it is unfortunately coming apart again. Any help is greatly appreciated.
I cannot tap it for a screw.
Thanks, Pete
Remove the parts from the locomotive. Assemble the subject parts with the pin. Use a ***-punch (a sharper pointed center punch) on the back of the pin to gently open it out into the loose hole. Of course, "gently" is the operative word. You might put a thin piece of paper between the two pieces to maintain spacing.
Oh, yes. Reinstall parts.
I see some censorship program has replaced my word with asterisks. You'll just have to go through your mental catalog of such words to fill in the blank. But the point of the pointy punch is to spread the pin rather than flatten it. Hence the maximized pointiness.
Ed
I appreciate your response and please have patience with my ignorance as I have never torn the valve gear down off of any train, and usually deal with newer plastic stuff. I just bought a huge estate of brass N&W stuff, probably 40 locos, and will have to learn fast as I have to get some running and sell to keep the rest.
Anyway, is there a viable method to do this with the gear in place? Either find a long rivet and insert from back, solder on front side and file down? THe problem is the rods are silver in color, so a brass rivet would stand out. The current pin is a silver metal.
Thanks again!
I currently have my Powerhouse 2-8-2 apart for painting. I am going to need to install the valve gear pins meself soon. They are probably similar to the 2-8-8-2 pins.
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Let me know how it works out for you. Thanks.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Deleted.. Duplicate post
Hi Kevin,
Regarding your 2-8-2, did you pull the pins out? Were they soldered or riveted and did you have to drill them? I think I found enough info on the net as it looks like the pin joining the eccentric rod to the return is out/loose. I will measure and find a replacement stainless rivet at this place:
https://model-motorcars.myshopify.com/collections/small-parts-hardware/bolts
I will try to solder it, putting paper between the two and also on outside where I will solder on outside of rod. I cannot take these off due to my limited skills.. I will then file it down and hope it looks ok, and hope I don't lock the joint.
Also dealing with intermittent short. Runs great upside down off track, but can see a spark when it shorts on left side wheels that occors on both front and rear trucks. This is above my pay grade as I can't figure out how to remove boiler.
I know my way around a multimeter. For brass, should there be be continuity between the drawbar and any part of the loco other than the motor post? I also assume only continuity between pick up wheels (right) and motor post. Not sure if my issue is with insulator on drawbar or insulator on wheels. Hopefully not wheels as I am too chicken to remove them..
Wish me luck and any tips are greatly appreciated!
Oh, I bought a huge estate of abour 40 each N&W brass/plastic (mainly Broadway, Bachmann, MTH, Proto DCC/Sound) and will have many questions moving forward as I learn my way around them. I will have to auction some off on ebay/craigslist to keep the ones I want. They were hoarded and haven't been run in years if at all, so the issues are from lack of use. A few brass ones I got going just by applying light oil to valve gear and wheelsets and removing boiler and gently turning engine, but i am informing buyers to do full maintenance on them.
Mark Schutzer's guide has been helpful to say the least, but many things that may be easy for most (soldering pins, etc) are omitted I am sure to keep the guide reasonably shorter. I will apply for an apprenticeship if anyone is looking!
Stainless steel has a reputation for not taking solder well.
Perhaps you can slide a replacement rivet through from the outside face (read on). I would use one that is long enough to project a bit out the back, and put a very teeny dab of epoxy on the exposed part. That should keep the pin from sliding out.
I would clean the pin thoroughly with solvent before installation. It would also help to bit into the project part of the pin with diagonal cutters to provide more grip.
I have a related question:
Who sells replacement pins or rivets? I thought NWSL sold them but I can't find them in the NWSL on-line catalogue. I checked Bowser too.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Hi Dave,
Try these guys below:
https://model-motorcars.myshopify.com/collections/small-parts-hardware
PeteDTry these guys below: https://model-motorcars.myshopify.com/collections/small-parts-hardware
Wow Pete!
They have lots of neat stuff!
Thanks for the link.
So I am declaring victory for now (just on the pin). I pushed the factory dislodged pin back in, cleaned the back side of the rod, and carefully smooshed some solder into the backside of the connection. I ran it upside down and it is holding great!
Still need to figure out the short but at least a mini victory for my first train repair. Actually, I did put a new gear in a large scale mogul once, but that was so large it was pretty easy.
Anyways, thanks for all of the tips.
Pete