Another old, very old loco repaint and repair.

[ACL1504]

A few weeks ago I showed the picture below and said it was going to be the next brass project. Well, that was 3 or 4 locos ago.





Sometimes things are just better off left alone. This could be said of this loco but I wanted to repaint it to reflect the proper color (white) for the ACL herald and stripes. The Judge and I purchased the loco from Howard Zane last year just prior to the EXPO.

The loco is a very old Akane USRA 2-10-2. I can't tell if it's a 1963 or 1968 model of the Santa Fe type. The center driver is blind, meaning the driver doesn't have a flange on the tire. The loco has a DCC Tsunami decoder installed. And, I must say the loco runs very smooth and sounds good but the chuff is a little to weak for my liking. I said it sounds good but the sound could be better. I plan to have the TCS WOW sound installed.

Upon disassembly, I found many problems and some strange wiring as well.

I'm not sure yet if this sow can be turned into a silk purse!



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

I was going to add this loco to the other brass thread but this one deserves a thread of it's own.

I got a little ahead of myself and neglected to get a few pictures of some of the "tear down" process. I'll cover it in part later in the thread.

To start with, the sound was directed up through the coal load instead of down through the tender. The next two pictures show you the coal load and speaker. The coal load was glued to a piece of styrene and holes were drilled through the styrene and coal load. There weren't enough holes for the sound to escape.





I'll drill holes in the bottom of the tender for better sound.

I started taking the loco apart and things started to go wrong from that point. I'll continued the thread on Thursday night. Now for some Florida politics.

[jimmillho]

I categorically deny that I ever performed any wiring repairs on that Engine

Jim

[ACL1504]

I categorically deny that I ever performed any wiring repairs on that Engine

Jim

Jim,

I agree, this definitely is not your work. A blind man could have done better.


Tom

[S&S RR]

Tom


It looks like you have a project with this one.  Good luck - I will be following along.

[ReadingBob]

I got an up close look at this one in it's disassembled state last night.  Yikes!     However I'm confident that Tom will rise to the occasion and knock this one out of the park!   

[ACL1504]

Tom


It looks like you have a project with this one.  Good luck - I will be following along.

John,

Thanks for stopping by. This one is definitely a project loco. Hopefully it will all come together.

Tom

[ACL1504]

I got an up close look at this one in it's disassembled state last night.  Yikes!     However I'm confident that Tom will rise to the occasion and knock this one out of the park!   

Bob,

I enjoyed our visit last evening as always. I'm happy you have more confidence in me than I do my self for this one. I can make it look good but getting it to run is something all together different.

Tom

[ACL1504]

It seems like every driver and tender wheel had some sort of electrical pickup on them. Here is the loco and all the contacts. I removed most of the contacts prior to the photo but you get the idea.



Pretty much clean on the bottom though.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

The tender truck wheels had contact wipers on each of the eight wheels.



These were all removed from the tender trucks.



Between the contact wires and the sound, there was a bunch of wires.

[jbvb]

I can just feel the "I'm gonna nuke that intermittent contact problem from ORBIT!!!" vibe radiating from that chassis.  Looks reasonably well thought out, though.

[deemery]

That "bunch of wires" photo almost looks like the tubes from a blown-up boiler (low water explosion)


dave

[ACL1504]

I can just feel the "I'm gonna nuke that intermittent contact problem from ORBIT!!!" vibe radiating from that chassis.  Looks reasonably well thought out, though.

James,

It was very well thought out. It was probably done when we used DC analog sound. Wipers were an excellent way to get better running from the older brass at the time. When the DCC was installed my guess is that the decision was made just to leave it.

Tom

[ACL1504]

That "bunch of wires" photo almost looks like the tubes from a blown-up boiler (low water explosion)


dave

Dave,

I agree.

Tom

[ACL1504]

These are all the wires and wipers that came off the loco wheels.



The loco was fitted with a superior Swiss motor. I didn't realize it was this small until I removed the boiler. The loco easily pulled 17 cars and a brass caboose with no problem. Plus it has a universal joint instead of the rubber friction coupling. No doubt this is a big reason it has such great pulling power.



I had to go in through the stabilizer bracket to get to the screw to remove it.



Continued in a few.