Umm, is that upper left wheel (the one your forefinger is on in the 3rd photo) missing a traction tire or something? What is the ridge on the outside of that wheel for? Although I can't tell if the opposite side wheel on that axle has one...
Yes, both traction tires are off. Going to install new ones with Bullfrogsnot to keep them in place, soon.... Have spent the morning getting my buddy back into the hospital for a bit.......
I think it is the last bit..... the big C has gone aggressive. Refuses further treatment. Just morphine.
Thanks guys. It has been a rough year for him, very rough. He is on a lot of morphine and such. It's about all we can do. Again, thanks guys.
On a torture by T-1 note. After reinstalling traction tires, fussing with the bearing blocks a bit more and test running it again, I set it to work with a passenger train! The Kato Broadway Ltd. of course. She headed around the layout towards staging at a nice 45 mph, beautifully with no hiccups! Sweet! I stopped her at the entrance to staging and there she sat. Got tracks lined up for a pull through, and throttled up, lots of sound, no go. The motor quit responding, at all. No hum or even torque on the gears. Dang! Tried all versions of resetting things, power on - off, F8 reset and hard reset. Still nothing. So it is back in the box and awaiting a response from BLI by email. On the buddy's health, am awaiting an opening in a nursing home, with no insurance for that and not much cash, this could be ropugh.
Here's some pics of the last bit of work I did on the T-1. Used good tweezers to take off the rod pin, Gently! There is a bushing between the rods to not lose! New tires! However, I had to re-disassemble it to correct the stuck bearing blocks. As you can see, there is a problem with the wheels contacting rails on this bit of flat track! #1 engr side is off, #2 & 3 on the fireman side are lifted as is #3 on engr side! After dis assembly, clearing of the block sliders and a bit of the crc, they sat much more nicely! However, it was right after this shot that the motor quit. BLI sent me a work order and so I will be sending it back to them.
Out of curiosity, after the motor died, did you do any thing to check it out? You did quite a bit before. Do you know that the rods were not bound? This is the second T1 that has been talked about on this forum that just died. This is where I say I have to get to the bottom of this. Is BLI charging you to do the work? I miss the earlier discussion, how old is the model? The traction tires being gone indicates some age or use. The tire material tends to harden with contamination from the track and also from age. Just wondering what is the source of these issues.
I got it in Jan of 20. Used it for a month or so until the decoder resetting itself at every little hiccup caused me to set it aside. During that time of running it, it burned off it's tires when the train it was pulling hung up on something and it sat there merrily pulling away to nowhere. Sans the tires that spun off. I still worked with ways to get it to do better with power pickup, weight in the tender, cleaning pickups, etc. Got no clear improvement, so I put it away for a different day, where it sat until now, more or less. After this long, I took it out and went through the cleaning process and such as described above. And it all looked good until the motor stopped. There id no binding in the rods, or gears, which all wiggle as they should with adequate free play. Tried everything but taking it all apart to check the motor. BLI is going to check it out for me, even tho it is out of warranty, which I thought was nice. The first one I got did zilch, nothing at all. This one worked for a bit, and then again for a bit. So, I am glad they are going to fuss with it for me and let m e know what it's issues are.
So it has been a few weeks. Busy ones. I haven't done much more than run a train every now and again. Today I decided to try another time, just because I could! So, the NPBH 7 is waiting at Cabin Creek for the Empire Builder to clear on it's diverted route across south eastern MT. Must be a special going to the Black Hills. A break in the clouds added drama as the train crossed the creek, which makes it even more fun! On another note, the CNW 2361 took a leap to the floor last weekend and came apart a little bit. No serious damage, got to really appreciate how rugged the MP/MRC loco is built, but the plug between loco and tender came apart. No more motor action. So, I guess I will be having to hard wire the loco, as I planned anyway. Then maybe it will even get a good coat of paint??? And on my buddies front, he is still home, slowly working on his exit. It isn't any kind of fun, but I do feel privileged to be able to care for him as much as I can and as much as I can arrange for CNA's and such to get in there.
I decided to not send the T1 to BLI and waste postage. I tried it again, and it rolled a few feet before it stopped again. So, I decided to just swap decoders and see how that goes. Here's a few pics and descriptions, I started early on the 4th of July, and made a bit of progress opening it up and documenting wire codes. Would have been nice if they had stuck to NMRA standards, but at least the board is labeled. I fished the wires for the Tsunami2 through the drawbar after removing the BLI decoder and wires, Made this list, checked it twice........ Then the rerouting and prep work, Voila! The decoder is wired to the board, Have to, have to add a firebox flicker LED! Wiring in the decoder is pretty straight forward, sure do wish they had added more tender truck from the track pickups, though. Ready to test,
And it tested out ok, the headlight didn't work as the polarity was backwards and the motor went backwards too. But it works! So, a reire for the motor hookup today about 5 am, and flip the headlight polarity, and it worked. Now to figure out why the number board LED's won't light up. They are wired to fx3 on the Tsunami, and the firebox is to fx4, which works good. Since the primary stuff works, insulation applied. Next up is solving the fx3 issue and affixing everything nicely and assembly. Then a test run and see if she will pull the Broadway again! In other news, I found this under a house I have been working on that was made from two NP boxcars, Yes, it is only a single board, but it gives me a true color sample, and it is just really neat!!!!
