Repowering an old ConCor/Kato Hudson

[wm3798]

Yes.  I have a silk shirt and a plaid leisure suit.  My white zipper boots need some polish, though.  I dropped fondue on them.

Lee

[Point353]

I have a silk shirt and a plaid leisure suit.  My white zipper boots need some polish, though.

Sounds like a "Full Cleveland" ensemble.

[peteski]

Lee,
Glad the motor has worked out!!

Also been meaning to ask you this but do you dress in retro clothing while modeling?   

Jon 

Polyester Leisure Suits, or turtleneck sweaters with bell-bottom jeans?

EDIT: looks like I replied without reading later replies.

[peteski]

Rivarossi steamers have the same faux dimple on their side rods.  For example, their 0-8-0 and 2-8-2 have only two of the four driver axles pinned or screwed onto the side rods, with all driver axles geared with brass gears.  Contrast that with the MiniTrix 2-10-0 decapod which has all five axles screwed or pinned onto the side rods, with all five axles having brass gears and two of the five axles having traction tires (four traction tire wheels).

There are others too. Kato Mikado, and old Bachmann 2-8-0 and 2-8-2 have 2nd and 4th crankpin-less drivers. IIRC, also the current Bachmann Class-J loco.

[mmagliaro]

On closer inspection, I can verify that the side rod has a faux pin dimple, not a hole, and that there are no traction tires or grooves for same on Any of the drivers.  What you see in the picture is a tidy line of oxidation/ dirt.

Given that the counterweight is out of whack, I suspect the front driver was likely replaced at some point with one of the non TT axles. 

I suppose I could send Max to the post office yet again with another tiny parcel from his endless parts yard, but my own experience with traction tires has been less than successful.

Job one will be resolving the clearance issue over the trailing truck, and getting all 6 drivers solidly on the railhead to see how that might improve traction.  After that we'll see about adding a tire.

Lee

Sounds reasonable.
Meanwhile, while I highly doubt it, I will see if the later generation Hudson drivers fit in the 1st-gen frame, and how the rod pin holes look.  If a later-gen driver set will just drop in, I can send you one of those with the traction tires on it, and you could replace your rear driver set with it.  That will get you the pulling power you seek.  The 2nd gen Hudsons are outstanding pullers.
Yes, you will have to pry out the crank pins on the rear driver, but it is not hard on this model.  These things were build for easy tinkering.
If the fact that the drivers don't match bothers you, I can probably hunt for a whole 2nd-gen driver set. 
(Of course, this is kind of breaking the "rules", isn't it?  If you change all the drivers, the engine is creeping toward being a 2nd-generation model).

[Doug G.]

In my last post, I was thinking of the post-Kato made Con-Cor Hudsons which DO have the side rods connected to the front drivers.

Doug

Doug

[wm3798]

So what you're saying is if I change the handle twice and the axe head three times, it's still my grandfather's axe?

[wm3798]

I suspect that by the time I go through all of that, it would make more sense just to find a second generation Hudson to add to the collection. Hopefully I can Tinker with it this evening

[mmagliaro]

I suspect that by the time I go through all of that, it would make more sense just to find a second generation Hudson to add to the collection. Hopefully I can Tinker with it this evening

Heh heh... I was kind of nudging you in that direction.  The second gen engines are a lot better than the first.  Between the built-in tender pickup, the better motor, and the new plastic siderods (maybe not as strong as the metal, but they looked better), it was a big step up.  In your case, if you can get enough pull to suit your needs by getting the trailing truck out of the way (so it doesn't short WITHOUT the tape in there),  I would stop there, as that's about as far as you can go with it.  If stalling becomes an issue, wiring some pickup from the tender would be worthwhile, especially if you can find a later generation tender floor to just stick in there with the pickup strips and later style trucks.