Hi everyone. New guy here.
I recently inherited a bunch of old HO scale trains from my uncle. Most are old TYCO/Bachmann/LifeLike stuff, many are new in box. This has caused me to go digging in the attic for my own trains, which I haven't seen in probably 20 years. So, what we have here in the pictures is the oldest train I think I have. It might be from the late 70s, early 80s. I don't know the manufacturer. The loco actually runs pretty well, considering the beating it has taken. The problem I am trying to address in this post is that the thing is SO LOUD. It always has been too - I can remember it growling like this when I was little too. It literally is about as loud as a blender.
This evening, I have been sitting trying to figure out why. After disassembling/testing, I have narrowed it down. The motor spins fine, and if you remove it from the train and let it work, it makes no noise. The noise is coming from these two gears - the one that comes off the motor and the one below it which transfers the power to the drive train out to the wheels. The engine is quiet on its own, the wheels and drive shaft are quiet on their own - it's the meshing of these two gears seen in the 2nd link down below.What I'm wondering is this: One, can anyone identify the manufacturer of this? That might help me find parts. Two, maybe someone can just tell me if it's possible to get replacement gears somewhere? Possibly metal ones?http://kilahcup-design.com/blog/wp-content/themes/emerald-stretch-kdllp/img/image-uploads/P2150002.jpghttp://kilahcup-design.com/blog/wp-content/themes/emerald-stretch-kdllp/img/image-uploads/P2150003.jpg
http://kilahcup-design.com/blog/wp-content/themes/emerald-stretch-kdllp/img/image-uploads/P2150004.jpg
That is an old Varney unit from about 1968?, right at the end of Varney, before it was sold to Life Like, or it might even be one of the earliest Life Like versions - early 70's.
Not very good runners in most cases, not sure you want to put much effort into it.
There are no parts other than finding people who have stock piles of used or NOS parts.
Try the train shows.
Sheldon
The only reason I'm putting any effort into it at all, is the sentimental value. My father gave it to me and it's the first locomotive I ever owned.
Hi Snowmojoe, I think some gear lube is what is needed here. If its brass metal gears go with
Labelle #106 Gear Lube which works great. Any Hobby Shop should carry it. If your gears are
a black plastic kind go with LaBelle #106 and lightly trace the mesh of the gears and joints where
moving and non -moving case parts touch.You should notice an instant improvement in noise.
good luck. steve
SnowMoJoe The only reason I'm putting any effort into it at all, is the sentimental value. My father gave it to me and it's the first locomotive I ever owned.
Joe: Looks lie First task would be to clean the brushes and armature. A pencil eraser, used lightly, does wonders on the armature, be careful with the brushes when cleaning the contact area.
One other comment.
It looks like the model had traction tyres. And they need replacing.
Also looking closely at that second picture, it looks like their is some lint or burr behind it. Try picking it out with a metal pin.
One other item the bottom gear has a mark on it. I am not sure from the pic if this is just a pen mark or a crack on the gear. If the gear is cracked I am not sure how to replace. These gears are pressed on, and if cracked the motor will spin the gears but not the (bottom) shaft to the wheels.
If you can measure the gear very accurately and have a way to press on a replacement gear(please note I said "IF") Check NorthWestShortLine 's(NWSL) site for gears: http://www.nwsl.com/
I thought NWSL only made brass but I could be wrong.
Rgds IGN
I think those spur gears are inherently noisy to a point. A possible improvement is to check the "play" in the drive shaft/s. If the "back and forth motion" is more than 5 mils I would fix that and get it down to <<5 mils. NWSL makes thrust washers that you can use to take out the play (aka "slop") in the motor shaft. You will have to disassemble the motor to get the washers into place. You will have to remove the magnet and that may cause problems with certain kinds of magnets...they lose strength. I would chance it..I've been lucky so far. If thrust washers take some of the noise out and you are happy with the noise level you can either live with the decreased pulling power that you might get from the degraded magnets or you can use some Micromark supermagnets as replacements. Whether all this is worth depends on your own attachment to the piece...sort of up to you. But thrust washers are an easy fix for the motor. I don't know about the bottom shaft..and I can't tell if thrust washers would be effective on the bottom shaft from the pictures you show. I have used thrust washers on Bowser motors and along with balancing the motor armature the noise levels were significantly reduced. You can check the armature balance when you remove it by anyone of several methods.
It somewhat resembles the old Marx F3 unit, which in turn was a knock off of the even older Varney all metal F3. I just looked at an old 1967 Varney catalog on HO Seeker and it says the F7 was 8 wheel drive.
As for the noise, I think the reason is the relatively large motor and truck mechanism is atached to a rather meager plastic outline that fits into the shell. There really is no frame per se as you see in the Athearn F unit.
Because of this the shell (the body of the locomotive that is) is acting as an amplifier. There is no total cure for this given how Varney designed the locomotive. Some guys would glue a piece of a rubber band whereever the plastic of the frame met the loco shell. This helped somewhat to dampen the vibrations although it pushed the body shell out a little bit. I have seen self-adhesive felt for sale at hardware stores that might also do the trick. Indeed covering the inside of the shell with adhesive felt might help.
Other fixes that guys tried would be to try to glue a piece of plastic or wood inside the shell from side to side (obviouslyi where it does not interfere with the mechanism. This would inhibit some of the vibration so it would not have that hollow sound. Whether stuffing some foam rubber in the empty area of the shell -- again taking care not to interfere with the mechanism or free turning of the trucks -- I do not know but it might be worth a try. Anything that acts as a mute for the empty shell can only help.
Dave Nelson
I have slipped NWSL washers in place without disassembling. I cut one side with a small pair of sharp pair of scissors. Using small tweezers, I slip the washer onto the shaft.
Below is a link about different types of mostly HO train companies. You might find some diagrams/info.
http://www.hoseeker.net/lit.html
Look below also.
http://yardbirdtrains.com/index.htm
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
NWSL does sell quality Delrin and metal gears. I have bought both, mostly Delrin and couple metal worms.
I did a few Tyco locos as an experiment.