Regarding "gear noise":
It's been my experience that you get more gear noise when the first gear in the array is a spur gear, as opposed to a worm (gear)
I suspect that the reduction ratio in the first spur gear set also plays a part. I have a Tenshodo articulated that has a 1:1 spur gear set ahead of its two worm gear sets. It is pretty noisy.
I have several Hobbytown drives. There is significant reduction in the first pair of spur gears, and they are much less noisy than the Tenshodo. But they DO still make noise.
The now-standard worm-gear-first type of diesel truck is much quieter than the above. As are the typical worm gear steam drives.
There's a lot of variation in the "noisiness", however. But as a very general rule, I think this concept holds.
Ed
If your thinking of the earlier brass diesel drives from KMT, which powered Alco Models, Hallmark, Trains Inc and a few others, yes those take more work to run well. And those can run well but the tower gear noise will always remain. At one time, E&P, Oriental Limited and then Challenger offered replacement trucks made by Samhongsa that got the noise issues better, not Kato quiet but better. It wasnt till Ajin designed the trucks on later run Overland diesels did we get a drive worthy of the price.
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
Nifty locomotive and story.
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Glad ot hear it is running OK. All my brass diesels with similar drives were not so good.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Here is our lines GP35. She was purchased from the ATSF out of their deadline, its been thru one rebuild but was sidelined with mechanical issues before the rebuilt that moved the headlight to the nose. Our shop forces replaced the missing air horn with a stacked 5 chime we had on hand, along with replacing the beacon with a brand new 8911 model from Prime. I am waiting for the AC unit detail part to come in the mail, then I can clean up and prep for paint. Took awhile today to limber up the drive unit. This model lived in a closet in its box since 1982. I was 9 years old when this model was new!(I am 45 now) This is an older "tank drive" that preceeded the silky smooth tower drive that Ajin developed after this style was made. Power is a single ended Sagami can motor to a central gear tower, then drive shafts that come out of each end of the fuel tank to each truck. Each axle has a cast gear box that resembles a traction motor. All of the ones on this unit have zinc pest cracking but run ok for now. A replacement set of trucks with better gear boxes are on order. The last run of tank drives had a different gear box casting that seems to be stable and not cracking. But I will run these trucks till issues arise. As I do not use DCC, one of Richmond Controls excellent constant lighting circuits with Prime beacon is on its way to me. One can see old No1 sitting on the shop lead in the background. My railroad builds on the actual Logansport & Eel River excursion train that I rode as a child. While they used either the TP&W or Conrail tracks for the excursion, the line owned what was left(1.5 miles) of the old PRR Eel River line/Butler Branch that ran from Logansport, Indiana to Butler, Indiana. I am modeling like the line was left intact up to Columbia City to the grain elevator. So along with the excursion train, some freight runs as well. The local rail fans got a real treat when old No1 was used for the first 2 weeks as the GP35 was still having mechanical issues. Last pic is my ticket from 1982, same age as the brass GP35. Mike the Aspie