Workbench Equipment to restore old locomotives

[Mike S-J]

Hi,

I'm in the process of setting up my workbench so that I can restore old non working locomotives back to working condition complete with DCC decoders and sound.

I've got a fair bit of stuff from my RC days (soldering irons, screwdrivers of all shapes and sizes, tweezers, dremel etc), but I need to enhance it with some specific tools for model railroad work.

So far I've identified that I'd need:

A Rolling Road (DCC Concepts do an excellent one in the UK)

A DCC Tester Board (Something like the ESU 51900)

Can anyone think of anything else I might need, especially when troubleshooting the motor?

Thanks

Mike

[Anonymous]

Don´t forget a volt-/amp-meter.

[cudaken]

Sir Madog

Don´t forget a volt-/amp-meter.

 Yep, that is a biggie. You need to know what the freewheeling Amp draw is and the Stall Amp's. All so a small DC Transformer.

 Cuda Ken

[Blind Bruce]

A short course in electronics and an ocilloscope.

[dknelson]

Familiarize yourself with the HO Seeker website  http://hoseeker.net/

which has scads of old equipment diagrams and some technical info on old (and no so old) models.  There are other online resources that have greater focus on this or that model or manufacturer but I have found nothing but nothing to challenge HO Seeker for overall scope.   I am not a toy train guy but I suspect there are similar websites out there for Lionel and Flyer repairs. 

For wheel and gear work, you may want to explore the tools that North West Short Line offers (scroll down on link):  http://www.nwsl.com/uploads/cat_chap1_TOOLS_for_web.pdf

Specifically the various "Puller," "Aligner," "Quarterer" (for steam locomotives and other engines with side rods).

You might find NWSL's online tutorials on repowering projects instructive and useful as well

http://www.nwsl.com/uploads/cat_chap6_for_web.pdf

I think you also need to do some study about open frame motors.  One of the risks of doing work on them is causing a loss of magnification.  In fact your repair work may be dealing with the mistake a prior owner made in taking apart their motor.  A remagnification capability might be in order particularly now that open frame motors are less common and thus a simply remotoring for some models may not be practicable.  This is by no means exhaustive but this website (which is also interesting in other ways)  http://www.irwinsjournal.com/a1g/a1glocos/mtmotors.html

offers, just as a sample of what I am talking about, this discussion

The plastic front bushing plate/brush retainer can now be removed. This is done by slightly spreading the magnet pole pieces so the bosses on the plate can clear. While we're at this point, I will mention the magnetic field weakening issue. If a motor is assembled and THEN magnetized, the field will be considerably weakened if the components (magnet, pole pieces, armature) are separated during motor disassembly. This results in a poor performing motor after it is put back together. The motor will usually run at a higher speed but draw a lot more current and not have nearly as much torque as before. Since the current draw can be excessive, the motor windings can get hot enough to burn the insulation - not good. I learned this the hard way with my Treble-O-Lectric locomotives and I had to rewind the armatures on them and then build a remagnetizer to restore the field strength. Of course, I was just ten or eleven when I disassembled them and had no knowledge of this particular trait of some motors. And even though the Treble-O manual warned, and I quote, "You will permanently damage the electric motor if you dismantle the magnet assembly by removing a pole-piece", I really had no clue as to what it meant. I mean, I figured if I took it apart and put it back together exactly like it was, everything should be hunky-dory right? Wrong!

Dave Nelson

[dstarr]

Lets see.

Small taps,  2-56 00-90 and such

Files, big, little, all kinds. 

Nut drivers for the smaller sizes, especially 2-56

Real soldering iron, 150 Watts or more.

Volt-Ohm meter. (VOM)

Heat gun for shrinking heat shrink tubing.

Gear/Wheel puller. 

A vice.

A drill press is nice to have.  Not essential but nice.

A test track/run-in track.   A few lengths of flex track fastened to a  piece of 1 by 2 lumber.

Ordinary DC power pack.  Cheap train set left over will do fine.

An airbrush is nice but not essential.  I paint all my steamers with a rattle can of dark gray auto primer.

Clamps and alligator clips.

DCC decoder test jig.  There was a make your own article  on a recent Model Railroader.  It had an LED on each decoder output.  You used an ordinary DCC throttle to order the decoder to go forwards and backwards and toggle all the aux outputs and watched the LEDs to see that the decoder was responding.

I would only buy tools as you come to a project that needs them.  This way you collect the tools that get used, rather than all the nice looking stuff in the Micro Mark  catalog.   Try to remember that your object is to work on locomotives, not become a collector of tools.

[mobilman44]

Not trying to be funny, but you will also need................

-  lots of patience

- a way to keep parts from getting lost (apron or towel on your lap)

- a cloth/foam cradle to hold the locos

- a digital camera to take "before" and "in progress" pics so you can put the loco back together properly.

- a list of items of what you want to do to the loco while its open.   May sound silly, but I suspect most of us have closed up a loco only to recall they forgot to solder this or oil that.............

- a determination of when it is not worth the time/trouble/money to refurbish a specific loco.

Wish you the best!