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 Posted - September 15 2015 : 5:52:21 PM
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For the longest time I've had an old Conrail GP9 sitting around. The mechanism was one of the later ones and ran flawlessly, but the shell was minus handrails, all the detail parts were missing, and a child had colored all the grilles and fans with a black marker. On Saturday I acquired a custom-painted, detailed Conrail GP9 dummy, thinking I could easily swap the shells and have an excellent locomotive for cheap.
Not so! I realized that I had to swap the truck sideframes, to keep the brake cylinders and truck hangers... and then I realized I had to move the air tank pieces over. That was the mistake. The frame had been painted a slightly lighter grey, and I realized that if I only took the air tanks over, the shiny black fuel tank would look odd next to them. I figured the solution was to take the entire drive train and powered trucks off the powered frame and install the whole shebang on the dummy frame. After a bit of tinkering, I realized that I needed to remove the paint from the contact surfaces where the frame contacts the trucks and the motor. Having done so, though, connectivity still sucks, and the thing will only move when I push on it or lean it to one side. At this point I'm considering just isolating the motor and hard-wiring all the electrical connections. How did I mess this up? Any suggestions?
--CRC
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Country:  USA ~
Posts: 930 ~
Member Since: January 25 2012 ~
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Posted - September 16 2015 : 02:31:51 AM
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Put the motor back on the original chassis and basically just swap the shells.
John
I don't have a one track mind. It depends on the turn-out.
"I love your catenary!"
Is that a power-trip or just another pick-up line?
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Country:  Canada ~
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Posted - September 16 2015 : 6:45:26 PM
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Make sure there isn't even a speck of paint left between the frame and truck contact points. All it takes is the tiniest flake to separate the metal to metal contact! I powered a dummy Trainmaster a while ago, and it took quite a bit of work to get perfect contact between the frame and trucks.
Darth Santa Fe, doing weird and challenging projects for the fun of it!
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Posted - September 17 2015 : 12:39:31 AM
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quote:Make sure there isn't even a speck of paint left between the frame and truck contact points. All it takes is the tiniest flake to separate the metal to metal contact! I powered a dummy Trainmaster a while ago, and it took quite a bit of work to get perfect contact between the frame and trucks.
Originally posted by Darth Santa Fe - September 16 2015 : 6:45:26 PM
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Files and sanding sticks won't reach the contact points on the frame, I already scraped my darndest with a chisel-blade knife, and my bench grinder (which I, despite all warnings to the contrary, often use for precision work) is too big to fit... I'm starting to think a Dremel might be my best friend for that task. I borrowed my neighbor's one to notch out the truck mounting posts on a fleet of Varney ore cars a week ago, so there is one available. Will reply if I can get any cleaner, smoother surfaces with better contact.
--CRC
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Posted - September 17 2015 : 06:31:39 AM
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A Dremel with a stainless steel or brass brush wheel works wonders for this.
http://tycodepot.com/
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