N Scale Hi Rail - Retro Hollow Core Door Layout

[peteski]

Repairs of Lee's stuff continue this weekend.

[wm3798]

Goodness!  The surgery is in full swing!  I better get to work fitting that Life Like motor into the E60 Chassis.

Lee

[wm3798]

Another land slide of retro goodness arrived by post yesterday.  A discussion of the current issue Atlas GP30 elsewhere in these pages led me to pine openly for my old set of Roco-drive geeps, which I had obtained from a member of the Baltimore Society of Model Engineers back in the late 1970s.  It was a pair of 30s and a pair of GP9s, all in Santa Fe blue/yellow, the nines in handsome Warbonnet motif.

At some point in the mid 1980s, I paid JnJ to repower two of the drives with then-new Kato motors to quiet them down and smooth them over.  These upgraded drives rode under the GP30 shells, which I had repainted to become B&O units.  I had repainted the 9s into Conrail Blue and IIRC, a black PC/CR paint out. (no photographic evidence of these exists, although the remains of their original drives can still be found in my parts bin)  Not sure what became of their shells.  Ultimately, I sold off the GP30s when I converted my fleet to DCC, and I've mildly regretted it ever since.



Well, my lament was heeded by one of our fellow travelers, @reinhardtjh down in Texas, and he offered up a bunch of Roco drive Atlas engines to get them off of his shelf and onto mine.  Not only did I reclaim the exact same selection as I had enjoyed in my youth, but he supplemented it with more Roco FA1s, (two Readings and a Frisco!) to round out that corner of my fleet.

I really like the warbonnets, and probably won't paint them over, but I may do something with the 30s...  Maybe I'll keep the original shells intact and seek out replacements in the aftermarket to deface with my marginal painting skills.  These are all in pristine condition, so I'll hold off doing anything radical right away.  In the meantime, I'll be putting them through their noisy paces over in the corner.

Lee

[CRL]

If you really want to go retro, just brush paint a couple of locos with thick unthinned paint... the more brush strokes, the more retro. Then decal it with left over model airplane decals.

Exquisite!   

[wm3798]

One of the GP 9s has a bum gear in the front truck.  The back truck runs fine the front one sits while the worm gear spins.  I'll have to do a little surgery.  Hopefully I have spare parts to replace what I need to.  Until I get it apart, I won't be sure if it's the main gear or an idler between the axles. 

I'm also coming up empty with the replacement original truck frames to put Rapidos back on the modified 30...  But I'm sure they're out there somewhere in the Great Garage of Doom.

All I have to do now is fix the truck wires on my E-7 and I can have a full on Atlas Roco Night!

The RDC isn't too far off from running again, too... so maybe an All Roco night with all 6 available tracks!!

Lee

[wm3798]

... and I'll just pop back in to note what a wonderful sound system they have...  They actually have a little throaty "thrum" to them like a proper 567 should, especially when run in tandem.

And pondering a question for the ages...  After the FA-2 was released with its fairly potent and reliable can motor, one has to wonder why they put the smaller motor from the GPs into the E-7...  There was plenty of room to go with the bigger motor...  I imagine cost and interchangeability of parts with the newer locomotive models had something to do with it.

Anyway, back to work...
Lee

[peteski]

One of the GP 9s has a bum gear in the front truck.  The back truck runs fine the front one sits while the worm gear spins.  I'll have to do a little surgery.  Hopefully I have spare parts to replace what I need to.  Until I get it apart, I won't be sure if it's the main gear or an idler between the axles. 

IIRC, all 3 gears inside the truck are metal! So is the worm.  I have never seen those get damaged or even slip on the axles.  But I think these locos have that funky cup gear engaging the pinion on the  motor  shaft.  I think the cup gear is plastic.

Update on your stuff:  The trucks are fixed, cleaned and lubed. The 2-8-2 is getting close to being completed.  I have photo evidence of the repairs and will post them along with detailed write up.  And the package coming back to you will be little larger than the one you sent to me.  But I'll let it be a surprise. 

[Doug G.]

The Roco GP, F, and, I believe, E7 locomotives have all red plastic gears.

Doug

[reinhardtjh]

Well, my lament was heeded by one of our fellow travelers, @reinhardtjh down in Texas, and he offered up a bunch of Roco drive Atlas engines to get them off of his shelf and onto mine.  Not only did I reclaim the exact same selection as I had enjoyed in my youth, but he supplemented it with more Roco FA1s, (two Readings and a Frisco!) to round out that corner of my fleet.

Nice to see the old gals putting in some revenue service after all these years.  I hope they give you many years of fun.

[peteski]

The Roco GP, F, and, I believe, E7 locomotives have all red plastic gears.
Doug

And Con-Cor (Roco) RDC have those too.
Did Roco make GP9s?

[Point353]

Did Roco make GP9s?

http://www.spookshow.net/loco/rocogeep.html

[nickelplate759]

So far the Roco/Atlas GP9 is the only Phase 3 GP9 ever offered in N-scale other than brass.  I keep hoping Atlas will do them with their modern mechanism.

[wm3798]

Red plastic gears.  @peteski Is thinking of the Arnold GP9/30  models, which have brass gears and a cup gear.



Hers the problem child.



Half the teeth are shorn off.  I can disconnect the one worm and roll with one powered truck, but that would be cheating!

So anyone have a red gear floating around?

[wm3798]

While the soldering pencil was out, I repaired the truck wires on these old dogs (again!)


Life Like Lead Sleds... The gift that keeps on giving.

But man, when they run, they purr, and they'll pull the rug off the floor.

Looks like it's going to be Conrail day today! (at least until the solder joint breaks... AGAIN!)
Lee

[dem34]

While the soldering pencil was out, I repaired the truck wires on these old dogs (again!)

Life Like Lead Sleds... The gift that keeps on giving.

But man, when they run, they purr, and they'll pull the rug off the floor.

Looks like it's going to be Conrail day today! (at least until the solder joint breaks... AGAIN!)
Lee

There a possibility that what you're soldering to is Aluminum or Steel?