Good Evening, Crew! Earlier I was at the bench and took my old Life-Like Alco S2 shell off of the frame, lubricated the gears and bearings, and gave it a test. It runs well, but needs more running time because its been in moth balls for so long. Although it's on the quiet side, I was up close and wearing my hearing aids, so I could hear everything. First, I need to access the power wires going to the motor so that I can hook up my power source. The wiring is tucked away under and inside the weight, so I may have to take that off. There's also a small PC board that controls the directional lights attached to the weight as well. Any ides concerning getting the weight off? I'll need to check for hidden screws. Second, once I have the power jumpers in place and the loco is running, I need to clean the wheels. In the past, I've used fine grit wet/dry sandpaper. Any other ideas? Thanks, Guys!
Russ
Modeling the early '50s Erie in Paterson, NJ. Here's the link to my railroad postcard collection: https://railroadpostcards.blogspot.com/
Russ,
Please...do NOT use sandpaper on your drive wheels! 91% alcohol and a Q-tip will clean off the junk quite nicely and not abraid the smooth metal surface of those drive wheels. Scratches only allow more gunk to become imbedded, which makes electrical pickup even more iffy.
The 91% alcohol can be found at your local drug or grocery store. If you don't see it on the shelf, ask the pharmacist if they have any in the back.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
tstage Russ, Please...do NOT use sandpaper on your drive wheels! 91% alcohol and a Q-tip will clean off the junk quite nicely and not abraid the smooth metal surface of those drive wheels. Scratches only allow more gunk to become imbedded, which makes electrical pickup even more iffy. The 91% alcohol can be found at your local drug or grocery store. If you don't see it on the shelf, ask the pharmacist if they have any in the back. Tom
Thanks, Tom! As far as the sandpaper goes, I was thinking in terms of 800 grit or higher and, perhaps, a coarser grit micro-film. I think that your suggestion is solid. I always have 91% alcohol around on the bench as well as Q-Tips and that sounds like the way to go. The wheel treads just don't look very bright and I thought that it's oxidation that would hamper pick-up, hence my idea of using very fine sandpaper.
Run the loco over a alcohol soaked paper towel patch on the layout, hold the loco up so the wheels spin on the patch. Does wonders
Erie1951As far as the sandpaper goes, I was thinking in terms of 800 grit or higher and, perhaps, a coarser grit micro-film.
Hi Erie1951,
I'll add my $0.02 to Tom's recommendation. Using sandpaper on your wheel treads will create scratches. No matter how fine those scratches are, they will still grab onto the crud that settles on your rails. The wheels will get dirtier faster instead of staying clean. Use the Q tips or a paper towel with alcohol as has been suggested.
If you have already used sandpaper then I suggest using a Dremel tool with a buffing tip to remove the scratches.
My club has been building a new layout for the past 15 months. As the layout construction foreman I took it upon myself to absolutely forbid any form of abrasive track cleaner from touching the new tracks. Why ruin a perfectly good thing by scratching up brand new smooth track?
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critter My club has been building a new layout for the past 15 months. As the layout construction foreman I took it upon myself to absolutely ban any form of abrasive track cleaner from touching the new tracks. Why ruin a perfectly good thing by scratching up brand new smooth track? Dave
My club has been building a new layout for the past 15 months. As the layout construction foreman I took it upon myself to absolutely ban any form of abrasive track cleaner from touching the new tracks. Why ruin a perfectly good thing by scratching up brand new smooth track?
Couldn't agree more, Dave.
I agree with the others, any kind of abraisive can, over time, remove the plating from your wheels, the nickle silver component, and that will really slow your engines down. I do the paper towel and alcohol thing, putting half of the engine on the soaked paper towels and let the other wheels touch the tracks for power, then turn the engine around and do the same.
Q-tips and alcohol works well, also a drop of Labelle 101 oil on the wheels will improve the electrical contact. I also use a little ATF, (automatic transmission fluid), both on the wheels and about 6 inches on both track for the eningines to ride through and glaze the wheels, this will also improve the electrical contact.
Robert Sylvester
Newberry-Columbia Line, SC
robert sylvester I agree with the others, any kind of abraisive can, over time, remove the plating from your wheels, the nickle silver component, and that will really slow your engines down.
I agree with the others, any kind of abraisive can, over time, remove the plating from your wheels, the nickle silver component, and that will really slow your engines down.
Thanks, Robert. Never too old to learn, ya know. I didn't realize that loco wheels were nickle-plated and always thought they were just polished steel. Now the advice against using any type of abrasive to clean them makes total sense.
And you don;t have to take the loco apart to clean the wheels - you just do one truck at a time, the other is on powered track and ouhold the loco so it doesn;t run away, running one truck over the alcohol saturated towel. Then flip it around and do the other truck. You can do this fairly frequently, as needed. It's OK if you are already taking it apart to lube the gears, but to just clean wheels periodically there's no need to disassemble the loco.
You also don't need to remove the weight, other than to gain access for lubrication. The weight, and frame of the loco, are all attached to the lower motor connection, so there is a connection point to get the motor to run when the loco isn't on the rails. If you look at the circuit board for the lighting, you will see that the one motor wire just is trapped under one of the screws that holds the board on, and the oher (top one) goes right to the motor terminal. This is actually something that needs to be modified when converting the loco to DCC.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thanks, Randy! I have the shell off now and have the gears lubricated. What I want to do next is to apply power to the motor while the chassis is up-side-down in the foam cradle. This will give me the opportunity to clean the wheels with alcohol and give it some hours of break-in time.
I found a way to power the motor without much trouble. The ends of the wires from the trucks to the motor are simply inaccessible, but I found that each side frame has a brass bar that spans the axle points and acts to ensure good electrical pick-up. The brass connectors are visible just behind the side frames.
Since the side frames are flexible, I simply used a small screwdriver to open up a space wide enough to insert a lead from my power source. I did the same thing on an opposite truck and the motor now runs. It seems smooth and quiet enough and I used the trusty Q-Tip and alcohol method to clean the wheels. No gunk, just a wee bit of grey residue and that was all. I now have it running in the foam cradle to give it a few hours of break-in time. Success! I now have the shell off of my Life-Like DL&W GP7 and that'll be next for cleaning, lubricating, and some break-in time. The real project will be getting the shell off of the Kato NW2. I looked at the how-to info on Kato's website, but it appears to be for newer models and mine is an older one. But that's another story.