|
farace
Switcher
Status:
offline
| |
 Posted - January 20 2010 : 10:46:11 AM
|
Hi. I'm new. This week I got in some stuff from eBay, the main attraction for me being the AHM/Tempo New Haven C-Liner and Rivarossi dummy B unit that were included in the lot:
Missing its horns, unfortunately. Now that it's in front of me, I'm a little amused that 1) they'd go to the trouble of painting it in New Haven McGinnis colors and not get it right (it really wouldn't have been any more difficult, I don't imagine), 2) that it carries the road number 370 even though New Haven's C-Liners were 790-799 (again, it wouldn't have been more difficult), and 3) the number plates read 9506 (yeah, it would have been more difficult to change this for each road number). Oh, well, I'm not a rivet counter yet. As it is, I have an Athearn New Haven locomotive that apparently never existed in New Haven (SDP-40), so I can't be too fussy. (I focus on New Haven; my great-grandfather and great-great grandfather were both engineers on the NY, NH & H RR.)
Amusing tidbit: The front truck is held to the body with a couple of plastic tower thingys ("thingy," I believe, is a term of art) that key into a slot in the bottom of the body. One of those plastic tower thingys is broken off on my unit, so the truck was usually dangling by its wires. I bent a loop of music wire into roughly the shape of the missing plastic thingy, drilled a couple of holes in the truck, and glued it in place with CA. Worked perfectly. Put the locomotive back on the track, and it would no longer run. Took the bottom plate off the truck and I could see that where I drilled the holes were perfectly in line with the solder connections to the wheel wipers, and the ends of the wire loop shorted the whole thing out. Couldn't have done it better if I was trying. Bent the wires out of the way and all is well.
Questions on the B unit: There is a vaguely diamond-shaped hole, a slot, and some screw holes in the bottom, and some supports around the diamond-shaped hole inside the body. I read somewhere that some B-units had a horn installed; might this be what those holes are for? Also, I'd like to semi-permanently attach the B-unit to the A so I can install some wheel wipers and run some wires up to the A unit for more consistent electrical pickup. It would be a lot easier if I could get the B unit open (and add just a little weight while I'm in there), and it seems like it should be easy--there are little nubs that fit into holes in the body, and the sides of the body pull out to release them, just like the main locomotive, but something is still holding it in, like the ends are glued. Any hints to offer? I'm also planning to put a DCC decoder and LED lighting in the main unit, unless somebody tells me it's a dumb idea.
Also in the box was this, which doesn't actually say AHM or Rivarossi on it, but does say it's made in Yugoslavia, and it's got the same motor as the C-Liner:
Unfortunately half the front pilot is busted off, but it runs like a bat out of hell. Doesn't quite look like the F-units shown on the AHM reference page.
In the box, too, were a Silver Streak with caboose, and a few odds-and-ends boxcars, mostly missing trucks. I was tempted to sell/trade the Silver Streak, but now my son is telling me he really likes it . . .
--Bob
|
Country:  USA ~
Posts: 70 ~
Member Since: January 20 2010 ~
Last Visit: March 06 2011
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - January 20 2010 : 11:35:57 AM
|
Welcome aboard Bob.
The Burlington FT might be an American Track and Train (ATT)
Wipers on the B unit trucks would help with electrical pick up but may limit the number of cars it will pull. You could add another A unit for an A-B-A consist, ad wipers to both trucks on the B unit and wire both A units to one decoder.
Ray
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 1285 ~
Member Since: December 14 2005 ~
Last Visit: May 16 2019
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - January 20 2010 : 11:37:40 AM
|
hi farace,welcome,the loco marked yugoslavia is mehano,made locos for most makes including ahm and this att one ken
check the link out
http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/atttrainsresource/id106.html
Edited by - catfordken on January 20 2010 11:46:02 AM
|
Country:  United Kingdom ~
Posts: 8294 ~
Member Since: September 28 2006 ~
Last Visit: October 20 2021
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
farace
Switcher
Status:
offline
| |
Posted - January 20 2010 : 10:37:10 PM
|
Ray, thanks, I'll see what I can do to keep the friction down on the wipers. Maybe a touch of Caig Moving Contact Lubricant? This loco will probably be pulling the seven (so far) New Haven streamlined Athearn passenger cars I've got. Currently being pulled by a Bachmann H16-44 New Haven model, which I'll probably switch to freight.
catfordken, thanks, it's nice to know what it is that I picked up.
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 70 ~
Member Since: January 20 2010 ~
Last Visit: March 06 2011
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - January 20 2010 : 11:51:16 PM
|
| Any chance you could post a photo of the B-units "diamond-shaped hole"? I pulled a few of my C-liners out and can not locate such a hole.
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 715 ~
Member Since: May 03 2006 ~
Last Visit: March 03 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - January 21 2010 : 08:24:49 AM
|
Bob,
You're right about the horn in the Rivarossi B unit. They were available at some point in their history, so I guess that's where the buzzer was mounted. The slot must have been for a switch. The shell spreads and the chassis drops out in the same manner as the A units, but the Rivarossi shell is much sturdier and takes more effort to remove. Hopefully no one glued it in place.
I have a pair of New Haven A's, but they are the earlier versions with the five pole motors.
I think every instance of that ATT FT I've seen has had a broken pilot.
You can find the history of the Rivarossi B units here: http://www.rivarossi-memory.it/ENGLISH_VERSION/Riva_American_Locos/Riva_FairbanksMorse_Eng.htm
The Tyco Depot
Edited by - NickelPlate759 on January 21 2010 08:30:58 AM
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 3927 ~
Member Since: June 20 2007 ~
Last Visit: November 19 2015
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
farace
Switcher
Status:
offline
| |
Posted - January 21 2010 : 09:58:52 AM
|
quote:Any chance you could post a photo of the B-units "diamond-shaped hole"? I pulled a few of my C-liners out and can not locate such a hole.
Originally posted by Hypoponera-January 20 2010: 11:51:16 PM
|
Here you go:
You can see the vaguely diamond-shaped hole has four screw holes around it. The rectangular shape to its upper left is the slot; through some trick of the light it doesn't look like a slot, but it is, it goes all the way through. There is no evidence that anything was ever actually mounted there, no markings around the screw holes, etc., so I don't think anyone removed whatever it's designed for. The screw holes have sort of struts inside, so the screws would have something more to bite into.
--Bob
Edited by - farace on January 21 2010 10:00:19 AM
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 70 ~
Member Since: January 20 2010 ~
Last Visit: March 06 2011
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - January 22 2010 : 10:38:06 AM
|
| "Ah, I see" says the blind man. None of my C-Liners have that opening. Most of mine a the later units made for IHC by Mehano. But I do have a couple of the older version with those screws on the underside of the truck. But none of the old version B-units have the opening. Mine must not be old enough.
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 715 ~
Member Since: May 03 2006 ~
Last Visit: March 03 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
Home
Forums
Events Calendar
Forum Admins & Mods
Register
