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S4 ALCO switcher Life Like

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  • Member since
    August 2019
  • 198 posts
Posted by Rambo2 on Friday, January 13, 2023 9:35 AM

Keep searching dont give up please keep trying

  • Member since
    December 2020
  • 11 posts
Posted by Kikkertje on Sunday, January 8, 2023 5:03 PM

Hey Ed l compared the photo with the other one in the engine, and they are close but not the same.  Thanks though, much appreciated. 

  • Member since
    December 2020
  • 11 posts
Posted by Kikkertje on Sunday, January 8, 2023 4:55 PM

Thanks Mat, i wll try this.  I knwo irt ahs to be there, but so does the sock in teh dryer :)

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Collinwood, Ohio, USA
  • 16,235 posts
Posted by gmpullman on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 1:12 PM

I've got some spares that came out of the Life-Like P2k FA-2. I don't know for sure if it is the same assembly that is used for the S-4.

 Proto_gear-6 by Edmund, on Flickr

Maybe I'll check later. I suppose it is time to open up my S4s to relube them anyway.

Send me an email with your address if you want a couple.

My go-to when searching the floor is to suck up everything into a cordless hand-vac (Hoover for you Brits). I can empty the dustbin and sort through the rubble and most times I'm successful.

 Vacuum_DC by Edmund, on Flickr

Regards, Ed

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • 3,139 posts
Posted by chutton01 on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 12:51 PM

wrench567
Did the flashlight thing. No good. After about an hour of sweeping the floor and going through stuff under the bench, still nothing. Disgusted. I shut the lights off and retired upstairs. While taking my shoes off something hit the floor. Yay!!!! Found it!!!! Must have been stuck in the top of my shoe.

I have occasionally did the flashlight 'shadow/reflect' method to find stubbornly lost items before (after simple visual searching falis, which it often does), with a fair rate of success.  However about 9 years ago when I was wearing a medical boot on my foot due to a fractured bone in that foot, I was working on 2 HO scale brass newspaper vending machines and (you can see where this is going) I dropped one, which vanished. Keeping the story short I eventually found the vending machine 3 days later dropping out of the boot (after having removed the boot several times over the intervening periods - no idea where it was hiding the booth was rather simple in construction) - rather squashed into unusability beyond the scrap pile. Since quite frankly by the late 2010s era I model newspaper vending machines were getting a bit rare, the remaining vending machine and one that looked like a holder for a local free paper were all I really needed for that module.  Even vaccuuming wouldn't have found that errant piece...

  • Member since
    May 2020
  • 1,056 posts
Posted by wrench567 on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 11:53 AM

  Had a worm gear roll off the bench once. Found the gear right away but the bronze bearing was nowhere to be seen. Did the flashlight thing. No good. After about an hour of sweeping the floor and going through stuff under the bench, still nothing. Disgusted. I shut the lights off and retired upstairs. While taking my shoes off something hit the floor. Yay!!!! Found it!!!! Must have been stuck in the top of my shoe.

    Pete.

  • Member since
    March 2002
  • From: Milwaukee WI (Fox Point)
  • 11,427 posts
Posted by dknelson on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 11:32 AM

Matt - your method works and I purchased from Micro Mark (but now have learned it is available from other sources perhaps cheaper) a mirror plus LED light that is on the end of a telescoping rod (almost like the very old fashioned radio antenna on cars).  I don't always find what I am looking for but I always seem to find something 

Dave Nelson

  • Member since
    February 2021
  • 1,099 posts
Posted by crossthedog on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 9:22 AM

This may seem frivolous but I'm serious. Being an inveterate Dropper Of Tiny Things, I have developed this method of search: turn out all the lights so the room is as dark as possible, then turn on a bright flashlight and set it on the floor so that the beam shines parallel to the floor. Turning it the same way you'd "spin the bottle", only very slowly, will bring into brilliant relief every marker light, every 2-56 screw, and every tie spike you every dropped, along with every dead bee and dustspeck that has accumulated under benches and cabinets. Your gear is down there somewhere. It has to be. I would give this a try. Good luck.

-Matt

Returning to model railroading after 40 years and taking unconscionable liberties with the SP&S, Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads in the '40s and '50s.

  • Member since
    March 2022
  • 87 posts
Posted by bmtrainmaster on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 9:12 AM

If it's a life like proto 1000 is a copy of athearns drive so it will work but if it's a 2000 I think it would work an athearn gear should work too. You can buy the gears from athearn, ebay or find a parts locomotive.

Posted from ipad.

  • Member since
    December 2020
  • 11 posts
S4 ALCO switcher Life Like
Posted by Kikkertje on Monday, January 2, 2023 8:59 PM

Hello, i have a S4 ALCO swither in CN paint scheme manufactured by Lifelike.  I was working on it this PM, and during that time, one of the wormgears fell on the floor in my garage and bounced right out of sight. I have looked high an low and cannto find it back. My question is if anybody would have such a part availalbe for me or if they know where i could get one. Your help will be much appreciated,

Tags: Lifelike , S4 , Switcher

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