I recently got an original Rapido Turbo Train set brand new in the original box, and thanks to cracked gears, got to have it for a nice discount! New gears have been unavailable for a long time, so I had to find another solution to the problem. Using some new gears from Bachmann N scale PCC trolley trucks, I managed to get it working, and it wasn't even that hard to do!
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Nicely done, Darth! And the Turbo Train is almost as cool looking as my Con-Cor Aerotrain.
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 —almost as cool—
Careful, pardner. You just may be outnumbered here
Turbo_PC52-Amtrak50 by Edmund, on Flickr
Let's just agree they were both cool for their time
I remember replacing the gears in my second turbo (the Penn-Central one) but for the life of me I don't recall where I found the replacements
Glad you got her up-n-runnin'!
Cheers, Ed
Darth Santa FeUsing some new gears from Bachmann N scale PCC trolley trucks, I managed to get it working.
What in the world made you think that Bachmann N scale gears would work?
Nicely done. Congratulations on the repair.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Hi Darth,
As usual, you have demonstrated how creative you are at finding solutions to difficult problems. Well done!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
SeeYou190 What in the world made you think that Bachmann N scale gears would work? Nicely done. Congratulations on the repair. -Kevin
Thanks! I was looking through my parts bin for anything that would work, and just happen to have a couple of those PCC gears. When I saw that they could actually work really well, I went ahead and ordered a couple trucks from Bachmann. $10 worth of parts and some fine tuning later, and the Turbo's running like new!
That is excellent news. Hopefully the gears will pass the longevity test. Keep us posted!
Simon
There were actually a number of issues beyond the gears making the set run poorly, so I put together a second video detailing some ways to improve the performance:
snjroy, if the gears ever fail, I'll be sure to post an update!