Hornblower,
Thanks for looking them up, but she's not interested in spending much to fix it.
Thanks again,
Richard
Although I didn't see any in BN colors, Model Train Stuff has Roundhouse (Athearn) EMD GP38-2 locos for $107 (analog DC) or $133 for DCC Equipped versions (no sound). I think if your friend got her hands on one of these, she'd have a new favorite loco!
Hornblower
Thank you for the responses.
Shane: Your response jogged my thoughts and reminded me I have some locos belonging to a friend that I was suppose to sell at a trainshow in 2020. COVID shutdown came four days before the show. I have looked at one box and will look for more of them in other boxes for a donor loco.
OldEngine: Thanks for the instructions, however, as I said I have little in the way of conputer savvy. My wife hands me her smart phone to look at something and it is immediately a dumb phone and goes blank. I have heard some of the terms in your helpful instructions, but they might as well be in Greek. I got left out in the cold when they passed out computer smarts.
Hornblower: I know it is not worth much, but it seems to be her favorite loco, so I was hoping for a cheap fix. If I can find a donor in my friends collection, it should do the trick.
I'm not sure I would put too much effort into this particular loco. With only one powered truck, only one truck picking up power, and a feable pancake motor, this loco is never going to run well. A friend of mine recently purchased a pair of these locos (power + dummy) from an on-line vendor and he asked me to put a DCC sound decoder in the powered unit. I was immediately disappointed by the toy quality of these locos and I was never able to get the powered unit to run worth a darn. I told my friend to forget it. The power truck has four traction tire equipped wheels so it can't possibly pick up power. The pick-up truck has brass wheels that were so black with oxidation that it took hours to polish clean again. Unfortunately, they still don't pick up power well and this purchase was a total waste. An Athearn Blue Box loco would be a much better starting point.
cowman wrote: "My lack of tech savvy is showing. I just had a topic written up and it disappeared."
If you're posting from a computer, use a text editing application to do the composition. Then, copy it to the clipboard and paste it into the forum composition box. Do some "final formatting" and then... post.
One thing I've noticed on the Mac (using TextEdit) -- Whenever I hit return, that seems to get "doubled" by the forum software. I have to go through and eliminate the extra carriage returns...
It does appear ty be LifeLike's GP38-2. A quick search turns up based on what ou said. Would preffer to see a pic to better understand
If I am reading that right, you are reffering to the shaft that goes between the pocket that holds the coupler and the truck. itself. Easiest way to fix it is pick up a similar either truck or or entire loco from ebay and swap the parts. which is quite simple. Best part, is it would be the same part on many life like locomotive types because it is the more simple trainset engine.
You could do a body mount, will take a little work, but a body mount is doable. Shane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
My lack of tech savvy is showing. I just had a topic written up and it disappeared. I'll try again.
I have a friends loco with a broken off coupler. It is a Life-Like, 4 axle, second generation (?), painted in the Burlington Northern green and black scheme, numbered 2098. (Sorry I'm not up on second generation identy and if a picture is needed I'll have to wait until my tech savvy son comes home some weekend.)
It is not the actual coupler, but the shaft coming from the truck and has the clip to hold the coupler. It is on the power pick-up truck, as I see the trucks are a little different. Is there a way to repair one of those trucks? She doesn't have the piece that broke off, it was gone when she got the loco.
I could try to put on a body mounted coupler box, but I'm not sure there would be enough cooupler swing on 18" r layout.
Any thoughts and ideas will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,