To all you HO Steam engine gurus... I recently completed building a repowering kit from Bowser for an old Bachmann CB&Q 4-8-4 Northern that I have had sitting around with split axels. I'll note that this is my first attempt at repowering a steam loco, so maybe I over-reached my skill level. Anyway, I followed the directions given in the kit to build and install it into the old shell and tender, but have some issues that I hope can be resolved by someone who has already installed one of these kits and can give me some guidance. 1. How do you keep the bolts the hold the driver rods to the wheels from working themselves loose? After about 10 - 15 minutes of run time, invariably one of them works itself loose and then pops out. 2. The trailing truck on the tender does not want to stay on the track around curves. I suspect that the axel wiping pickups might have something to do with this, but would like feedback! 3. The axel wiping pickups aren't all that reliable, I find that unless I keep the loco going close to full speed it tends to sputter because of poor electrical contact. - Wildstar
1. for the screws: use a tooth pick to apply a 'tiny' bit of Carter's Rubber Cement to just the inside of the hole in the offending driver. NOT enough to fill the hole! Wipe any excess off the wheel, wipe a film of shoe or auto paste wax on the wheel side of the side rod. NOW carefully insert the screw through the rod and carefully re-insert the screw into the wheel. Tighten the screw just enough to hold the rod in place, but not tight enough to bind. Do any other loose screws, then allow to set for two days undisturbed. 2. Loosen the king Pin a tiny bit then try it on a curve where it usually derails. These wipers should be free enough to swivel along with the truck frame on curves. 3. Clean the rails, axles and wheel treads to obtain better current flow. Check the wipers on the engine also. Keep them clean and do not use too much oil anywhere.
I built one of these mechanisms for an ATSF 4-8-4 last year, and it turned out pretty good. My only complaint is that darn, noisy open-frame motor! [] For the tender truck derailing - check the wire attached between the truck and the inside of the tender. It may be too short or is catching on something, which won't let the truck swing freely enough. If it's too short, you'll obviously just have to replace it. I actually used the super-flexible 50-strand NWSL wire instead of the wire that came with the repower kit. For the electrical pickups on the tender, if I'm not mistaken, they are just strips of thin brass attached to the underside of the truck. I found that they work a lot better if you remove them, then take a flat blade, ruler, whatever, and scrape it across the length of the strip to make it curl. Similar to what we'd do to make paper curl for craft projects in elementary school. Then reinstall with the curled side down so that the strip is now kind of self-spring-loaded and is making positive contact with the top of the wheel axle. (I hope all that made sense)
