Arnold-Rapido FA2 Resurrection

[nkalanaga]

"I remember one flash combination was removed because the red and blue LEDs would flash together and appear purple from a short distance away."

Some of them still do.  I don't know if it's the way they're made, or if something is out of time on them.

If the first affordable red LEDs were in 1968, then the yellow probably weren't available until the early 70s.  Not too long after the loco was introduced, and it was still a "current" model, not a still-in-production antique.

I agree that the Roco FA looks better, but having had one, will also agree that was virtually useless as a locomotive.  It did run well, but couldn't pull anything.  It also didn't MU well with my Minitrix Fs, so didn't see much service.  The BN would put almost any combination of units on a train, so if they had run well together, I could have used it as a "self-propelled dummy".

[nickelplate759]

It's  A-L-I-V-E !



DCC conversion complete and LED installed (Decoder is in the fuel tank).
Now I have to refinish it.

[Doug G.]

Beautiful! Why, I'd swear that isn't any older than, oh...say...1968!



Doug

[nkalanaga]

Looks good!

Definitely a "toy train", in the same sense as classic Lionel and Marx.  Built to survive almost anything, and can be run almost anywhere.  No fragile parts here, play to your heart's content.  If I hadn't gotten mine, I probably would have given up on trains, because I never had any luck with the Lone Star 000.

[Doug G.]

The Treble-O-Lectric locos do take more maintenance, what with the drive bands needing periodical replacement. I love them, though, so I manage to keep my 30 diesels (Derby Sulzers, Baby Deltics, and F7's) and 4 Baldwin 0-8-0's running.

Being part of George's resurrection was adding a headlight, I will relate how I wanted to add one to my original UP F7 when I was a kid. Of course, being 11 or 12 years old, my mechanical skills were not fully developed and, even though I thought it looked pretty good, at the time, it really was botched with the hole in the die cast shell off center and a few scratches from the hand-held drill slipping. I just used a grain-of-wheat bulb stuck in the hole and wired to the motor.

Many years later, I spent a bit of time restoring it to original appearance (no headlight).

Doug

[nkalanaga]

"a grain-of-wheat bulb stuck in the hole and wired to the motor."

Which is basically what the manufacturers of the time did when they had a working headlight.

[nickelplate759]

Well, Kleenz Lacquer Thinner doesn't do much better than Wash-Away on the old Floquil.   The shell has been in the bath for hours and although the paint is softer, and a lot of it has come off, a good bit of it is still clinging to the metal.  I guess it can't hurt to leave it overnight, but I was hoping for an easier stripping job.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Try a quick dunk in aircraft passive stripper. That stuff works wonders in metal. It will also melt plastic (and skin), so be careful.

[nkalanaga]

Good old liquid paint remover, the nasty stuff for metal, works fine on these. 

[Doug G.]

Zip-Strip. Removes almost any paint you can imagine. Metal shells only, however!

Doug

[nickelplate759]

Well, it's all ready for paint finally.  No pictures, 'cause FA2 nakeness may not be for those of sensitive disposition...

I need to figure out one last thing - horns.  The original horns (plastic insert) are long lost, and I can't find any direct replacements.
The closest thing I have on hand is the horn assembly from a Con-Cor PA.  There two bells, one each direction, with a single mounting point in the center of the cab.  This is also what the original Arnold horns were, but the Con-Cor horns are a little longer.

Real FA2s most often had a pair of single chime horns, but not mounted together  at the center of the cab.  I'm not inclined to do that...

Opinions?

[nkalanaga]

I'd use the PA horns.  They're both Alcos, of the same era, and horns were often a customer-selected option.  No reason Alco couldn't have put PA horns on an FA.

[nickelplate759]

Drum Roll please ....
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Penn Central it is!
(Credit goes to Doug G. for the road name suggestion and encouragement)


I left off the horns, figuring bad horns were worse than no horns. I did find the original horn casting but it is badly mangled.  If I find a set I like I'll add them later.

To recap - original motor, DCC installed in the fuel tank, LED headlight with flared acrylic rod for a lens, NWSL HO-scale 26" wheels replacing the original wheels.  Scalecoat II paint, Microscale decals.

It still pulls like an ox, and sounds like a coffee grinder.  The brushes are pretty worn after 45 years, but still good enough for quite a few more years given that I'm unlikely to run it for hours on end.

Thanks for all the encouragement!

[nkalanaga]

It looks good.  The truck-mounted pilot gives it a toy-train sort of look, but then, in the 60s, N WAS "toy trains", very much in the tinplate tradition.  This looks like an N version of the "scale 3-rail" O models.

I don't know if the method would work here, but I made brushes for an electric razor, years ago.  It was an old razor then, inherited from my father, in the 70s.  I was too cheap to buy a new razor, and it still worked, but needed new brushes.

I had a chunk of graphite, salvaged from the BN dump in Pasco, which looked like it might have been a worn-out traction motor brush, judging by the size and shape.  A little work with a razor saw and I had new brushes.  I still have that chunk of graphite, although the razor finally died in the early 90s, after I made several more sets of brushes.

If you can find an industrial motor brush, you might be able to make replacement brushes for your motor.

[Doug G.]

It's beautiful, especially to those of us who like the PC black with white scheme. For comparison, here's an earlier stock version with the stock paint. Its horns are cast in. I also have a later version with the plastic horns and the molding isn't very good to begin with. I got the two after your thread was started.

Yeah, they're pretty loud.



Microscale decals are good, aren't they. I used the same ones for the Treble-O-Lectric F7 I turned into a PC version and they are so easy to use. They won't break and really don't need covering except to protect them.

Doug