Well, it happened. I pulled out my recently aquired Big Boy to run for my 2 year old, he wanted to see the "Big Union Pacific Steamy" run, and it decided to fry the motor. A comutator segment came loose, jammed on a brush and it proceeded to melt down. Too bad, this was an almost brand new original Rivarossi release, before Concor. It originally came from the UK. This loco is eventually going to become the basis for a Kitbash of a B&O EM-1 but I want to get the mechanism running best as possible before starting the transformation. I have a second chassis with a running motor but the motor is fairly weak and I figure it will suffer the same fate eventually. What is the best suggestion for a motor? I was looking at an Atlas diseasle and it looked like that motor could be fitted with out much pain. I was also considering a Kato diseasle motor but the only Kato loco's I own are Mikado's. Another inexpensive option may be the LifeLike 5 pole motors. Other than that, which Faulhaber or Sigami motor should I be looking for? I assume an email to Micro Loco motion is in order.
Could just be as simple as taking measurements. The Faulhabers are in mm, like a 1016 is 10mmx16mm. Then you just need the right shaft dia. or another way to couple it to the drive train.
If the two engines on the BigBoy by Rivarossi are like the two on the Rivarossi 2-8-8-2, you might want to see how freely the wheels rotate without the motor and worms present. On my 2-8-8-2 the engine frames warped and allowed the center drivers to drop down which also dropped the idler gears and locked the mechanism. This could have happened to yours and that was what got the motor. I think on those motors if they get too hot one or more commutator segments will come loose. Al
The loco ran like a swiss watch before the failure. The frames are in good shape. I just pulled the front worm to check and it free wheels quite well. I got an e-mail back from the Motorman and pricing ranges from $20 for a replacement armature up to $70 for a coreless cobalt motor. Now I just need to decide how much I want to spend. I may try one of the atlas or kato motors first. I think a kato motor may almost fit with very little trimming if the shaft size is right. Now I just need a motor to try. I think the Life Like motor is a bit too big.
I know this doesn't help much, but here is a scratch built big boy in Z scale: http://homepage3.nifty.com/yuzi/bigboy/bigboy_ub.html http://homepage3.nifty.com/yuzi/bigboy/bigboy.html
motor for big boy Tony I had to replace the motor years ago on my big boy. Apparently pulsating dc was not a good thing for the original motors as it fried the windings on the armature. There was an article years ago on how to replace the motor which I did. I believe I might have an extra can motor around that was used in the retro fit. I will have a look tomorrow and let you know what I did and if the spare can motor is the same as what I used. Brent
Brent, Any motor reference you can find is helpful. I know there was a Sagami can motor that could be made to work a few years ago but Sagami motors are no longer available. I'm considering the coreless options but I have no experience with them in railroading. The only coreless motors I have messed with are in RC servos for planes. Not exactly an application that translates well. I have been told that coreless motors don't like pulse power Dc or certain DCC systems. I eventually will end up with DCC but for now it will be DC with an MRC Railpower 350. Will this cause an issue with the coreless motors? If so, I think I will just get the replacement arm from motorman and deal with serious remotering later.
Chris333, channelled onto your Z-Scale UP Class 4000 link and was absolutely enthralled by the modelling; as I have aspirations in this area for the future I appreciated your listing the materials used in the "Big Boy' construction. Something, however, appears to have slipped past me in the fog. I am not acquainted with these Faulhaber motors; can you enlighten me on them or provide a link where I might find out more about them? Appreciate it and keep up the good work.
You can look up specs of each motor here: http://www.micromo.com/ You can buy them much cheaper from here: http://www.micro-loco-motion.com/ Faulhabers are pretty much just like Maxons: http://www.mpm.maxonmotor.com/
