Hello again,
It seems that I have burned out the motor on my HO AHM Penn Central #5050 FM Diesel Powered Locomotive. I would like to replace the motor and keep the engine as I am a native of Pennsylvania and used to work for Penn Central before they became Conrail. Except I have taken the engine apart and could find no way to ID it as a part number.
Now concerning the Athearn, is there any way to safely remove glued in metal weights from the shell. This thing is way to heavy to run on Life Like Power Loc tracks.
Thank y'all once again.
cplmckenzie
2 questions:
a) have you tried a can motor, say from the hardware store or a defunct disk drive?
b) how many axles are in the wheelbase of the Athearn? I had problems running 6 axle diesels on that track as well, such as my SD-40 of unknown origins. However, my Geeps and F units all ran fine on the track. If it is a 6 axle or greater diesel, I would remove the middle wheelsets instead of weight. That, and check that the track is in gauge.
Yes, it is a 6 axle. So exactly how does one go about removing that middle wheel. I looked on the bottom and poked around a bit, but those trucks seem to be a seald unit from the bottom.
cplmckenzie Hello again, It seems that I have burned out the motor on my HO AHM Penn Central #5050 FM Diesel Powered Locomotive. I would like to replace the motor and keep the engine as I am a native of Pennsylvania and used to work for Penn Central before they became Conrail. Except I have taken the engine apart and could find no way to ID it as a part number.
If you want to change your AHM C-Liner into a good, reliable locomotive, get a Stewart (now Bowser) AS-16 Baldwin road switcher. The AHM bodyshell is pretty-well a drop-on fit, although you'll need to devise a way to attach the body to the frame. Here's one which I did for a friend:
The correct sideframes are available from Detail Associates, and are a press-in fit on the Bowser trucks.
Wayne
Hey RR Mel,
Looking at your image of the Rivarossi Krauss Maffei 4000 frame, My chassis is basically the same. See photobucket images, kinda dark.
http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad200/gmckenzie444cplmckenzie/Mobile%20Uploads/14445883699302015059663_zpscpigcxu4.jpg
http://s935.photobucket.com/user/gmckenzie444cplmckenzie/media/Mobile%20Uploads/14445883699302015059663_zpscpigcxu4.jpg.html
http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad200/gmckenzie444cplmckenzie/Mobile%20Uploads/1444588828825-1855207360_zpszzgnaoze.jpg
It looks like the entire chassis will fit, if not, the motor looks very close. What do you think?
btw, here is an image of the actual #5050 shell.
http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad200/gmckenzie444cplmckenzie/Mobile%20Uploads/14445895528791333001251_zpskmuntfum.jpg
Do you do any ebay, I have gotten numerous engines, cars and track there.
thanks
Thank you RR Mel,
cplmckenzie Thank you RR Mel, Yes, I am very much interested. At least it will be a starting place to get my Penn Central engine working again. If nothing else, it will be a good learning experience at rebuilding an engine. Thank you very much. The mailing address would be....... Gary McKenzie 145 E Wallace Ave Apt 2 New Castle PA 16101. Now how do I go about taking care of postage. COD??? cplmckenzie
RR Mel,
That sounds good. You can email me at....
gmckenzie444@gmail.com
I look forward to hearing from you...
The unit your in your pix is the Mehano? Version. These were AHM Tempo and the IHC models. The motors are different than the Rivarossi version.
what makes you say you have burned it out? The brushes require material and the communicator needs to be clean and dry, no oil or grease. I have a summary on my blog that describes the techniques to get these to run with stock parts. They will stiill be current hogs, but the should run reasonably.
Larry
www.llxlocomotives.com
So many trains, so little time,
RR_MelIf you’re interested I’ll pull the Kadees and send you the complete frame with motor for postage. Mel
Hello All,
WOW!!!
What a great community!
Please keep us up on how it goes with this project.
Good luck!
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
cplmckenzie Yes, it is a 6 axle. So exactly how does one go about removing that middle wheel. I looked on the bottom and poked around a bit, but those trucks seem to be a seald unit from the bottom.
Post a pic of the bottom of the frame. My SD-40 was of TBD origins, there was a clip on the back that, when popped, brought the bottom plate and side frames off all at once. I suspect that these might be as well. As an aside, who made trains marked solely with "made in Yugoslavia?"
Morning,
These are links to the bottom and side of Athearn.
http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad200/gmckenzie444cplmckenzie/Mobile%20Uploads/144465778664261001280_zps8073klvk.jpg
http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad200/gmckenzie444cplmckenzie/Mobile%20Uploads/1444657838684-792909506_zpsvfpmtetn.jpg
Thanks,
Looks very similar to mine, have you tried looking at the rear of the truck withou the fuel tank?
ggnlars The unit your in your pix is the Mehano? Version. These were AHM Tempo and the IHC models. The motors are different than the Rivarossi version. what makes you say you have burned it out? The brushes require material and the communicator needs to be clean and dry, no oil or grease. I have a summary on my blog that describes the techniques to get these to run with stock parts. They will stiill be current hogs, but the should run reasonably. Larry www.llxlocomotives.com
Hello all,
Just wanted to update y'all and say thanks for all the helpful suggestions. I had a very productive day,
RR Mel and the fellow that asked me If I was sure I had burned up the motor made me give some thought to what was actually happening when my Pen Central stopped working as I was working on another part of my layout when it happened.
I realized that I didn't smell anything burning so I took the shell off and found that something like a pin between the two wires connected to the motor had kicked out of position. After some fiddling with it my train began running again.
To the guy that told me weight was a good thing and how you had to remove the middle wheels from the truck made me remember that when I first came to this forum somebody had given me a link to a complete disassemble for the SD40, used it to remove the middle axle from both trucks, no more derailments and it pulls smoothly up my grades. Which lets me know that weight really is a good thing.
So no I am on the hunt for some weights for my other 3 engines that spin alot going up these same grades.
So thanks again all you guys for your help. I do appreciate it. BTW, I also got around to adding another plywood board, 4x3 to put in a turnaround. Now my entire front room is my layout.
Suggestions for weighting my engines wou be very useful. Where to get them, possible size, weights and where they should be placed inside the shell.
Thanks again
Mel, the pix I was referring to was the one from the op original pix post.
I'm little confused about the Athearn SD pix shown today. These are easy to get and keep running. It is not clear if this is a BB or a RTR version.
adding weight to an engine will increase the draw bar pull by the friction coefficient factor. That is roughly thirty percent. Which means you get .3 oz draw bar force for every oz of increased weight.
This continues until the operating current approaches the stall current. The added weight requires more power, so the current has to increase with the weight. I have shown these models can run with a pound more weight. This results in a significant increase in the number of cars the loco can pull. This is why modern engine models have as much weight as can be added. There are some down sides, but if the motor can still breath, then it will be ok.