Locomotive mystery part

[spookshow]

I found this thing laying on the floor in my train room and haven't the faintest idea where it came from. Any guesses before I start going through my locomotive collection one at a time?



Thanks!
-Mark

[spookshow]

FYI, the whole thing is an inch long, so it's pretty small.

-Mark

[Showme]

Maybe a Japanese prototype locomotive? I have a Kato EH200 and the universal on the worm gear end looks similar to that.

Bob

[spookshow]

I don't have any Japanese prototype locos, although I do have quite a few Kato US prototype locos. I checked my screwless SD70's and SD40-2's (the ones that have that style of driveshaft/worm), but they're all fine.

It does seem a little greasy for a Kato, though.

-Mark

[spookshow]

Yikes, I figured it out - it's from my TurboTrain. The whole danged truck is missing 

-Mark

[spookshow]

Whew, found the truck and got everything put back together. What a colossal pain in the rear - you have to pretty much disassemble the entire unit to get that thing back in there, and the 30 miles of wiring running hither and yon sure doesn't make it any easier.

-Mark

[Showme]

Awesome!

That EH200 was a pain to replace the broken driveshaft. It's articulated and had to be completely disassembled to fix it.

Bob

[ednadolski]

That looks like the flux capacitor I picked up on ebay a while back, to install in my DeLorean.

Ed

[Hansel]

Could this be a connection from an Athearn/Roundhouse 2-8-0 or 2-6-0?

[Point353]

Yikes, I figured it out - it's from my TurboTrain. The whole danged truck is missing 

Any idea how the truck and driveshaft piece became separated from the train?

[spookshow]

The truck is two pieces of plastic (base and lid) that clip together, so I must've done something to pop the clips (and then failed to notice when everything fell apart). My guess is that it happened when I was moving it to my wall shelf (the temptation being to handle it like a big snake, which is probably not the best way to go about things  )

-Mark