Love seeing all your repair jobs on the old engines, being a model RR myself for over 59 years. Seeing all one can find inside them. Carpet fibers, pet hair to name a few. Bringing life back to them, that some gave up on getting to run again. Sine I do all scales I'v always have something to do to keep myself busy making repairs on my own equipment or for others, or running trains on my train layouts. Seeing the joy on kid's faces especially seeing their engines ruining again is priceless to me. At the same time teaching others to making there own repairs helps keeping the hobby alive and well for the next generation. Keep up the great work you're doing.🚂🚂👋👍👍👍🚂🚂
I changed over 150 pieces of rolling stock to metal wheelsets and changed all talgo trucks to body mounted Kaydee couplers. As I went along I weathered each piece of rolling stock. Took me over 6 months. Cheers - TN
It's really interesting how there are so many approaches to powering these HO diesels. Especially when the Athearn design is just so good and simple and works so well (not counting the Hi-F "rocket sled" of course!).
@@Benthetrainkid They were actually still made by Varney, but specifically for Gilbert with slight modifications. This was common in the 50’s and 60’s when HO was still in its early phases (Athearn produced for Lionel and Cox, Bowser made some castings for Varney, Varney made models for Gilbert, etc.).
I collect anything from the Central of Georgia since that's the road name I model. I am still lacking a few models for my Central of Georgia. So if you ever have any Central of Georgia I'm game for them. I also replaced all the magnets on all my open frame motors with rare earth magnets. It really makes a difference. Cheers from eastern TN
As someone who has only dealt with modern British OO Gauge stuff, seeing a manufacturer go for a rubber band drive is like something straight out of bizarro land.
I love watching your videos, I'm an English man who's locos consist of mostly 2 differnt drive systems which are crap in their own way so watching you open up all these engines with so many different types of drives and gearing is mesmerising
Having to go to OJ's for my train needs makes me miss my ho stuff. I am so glad I called up the railroad club in fort Myers and they came and picked up my train layout. Some deserving kid is going to get a great present. It was nice to for interconnection ovals with an atlas turntable. You could run for trains at the same time.
Thanks again Darth Santa Fe, for another excellent, and very informative troubleshooting video! Your various excellent skills are amazing! (I have been watching this video, while finally unboxing, and upgrading my 50 year old model NYC subway cars, with Ancient Bowser drives).
I like the new series you've got going here. The I wish the mantua locomotives had bolts instead of Rivots, although it's not too hard to drill them out it just seems unnecessary compared tp other brands.
The MU-1 motor from the Talgo train and metal Sharknose were screwed together and much easier to work on, but from a manufacturing standpoint, the rivets are faster and do save a lot of extra cost over time. The Mantua F7 was one of the best runners in the collection though, so that definitely says something for their reliability!
This is a great idea ... man I wish I knew all thats in your head to be able to work backward and do these repairs as you do so easily. I love the old ones even though they might not be elite quality
Great work on the Mehano re-engine. I have a couple of those that I have torn down and taken the smoke unit out of them as they seem to heat up and melt the stack. One was bad enough I had to cut the melted stack out and replace it. Thanks for the great tutorial. Also if you are willing to snap off the plastics tracks on a Tyco MU2 you are able to access the commutator for cleaning. Little bit of clean up and hell superglue and the the trucks look good as new.
Thanks! I might have disassembled the truck more if I was keeping it, but I didn't want to damage the rivets this time. :) The MU-1 from the original metal Sharknose was screwed together, so that made it a lot easier to work on. I wish they'd at least kept the bottom plate screws for the MU-2.
Considering that lifelike was a late comer into the Industry and apparently got everything from everyone's cast off, they certainly did their best. Especially considering that you can still find them everywhere. And whk knows how many folks got into the hobby through the cheap Christmas sets that were in just about every outlet imaginable. There must have been something in this company, as I understand that Walther's felt it worth their time to buy them up.
They certainly made a big impact when they brought out the Proto series! For the older F7 in the video, the disappointing thing about it was that they had all the good tooling from Penn Line but over-cheapened it instead of making it as-is.
Irv athearn was a model railroader in 0 scale 2 rail. He sold o'scale Parks long after other companies gave it up. What I loved about afternoon was that they were made in America. Forgive the poor spelling my smart phone is stupid
Great videos! You are a wealth of knowledge. I love your calm attitude to fixing trains no matter what issue you find. I have a question: I’m 63 and want to get back into trains for retirement and then to pass the trains on to other family members down the road. What top three manufacturers, in preference of order, do you recommend for HO based on quality, longevity, low maintenance and cost? I’d like to get something quality but not break the bank. Thank you in advance for your reply!
Thanks! For diesels, Athearn is a good choice thanks to easy maintenance and readily available spare parts, and they run forever if maintained. Mantua/Tyco metal steam engines are also easy to maintain and last for a very long time, and they were available both as kits and ready to run models. For a higher quality brand of diesels, Kato is one of the best there is for smooth running and reliability.
Hello again Darth, i started to clean the wheels on my first engine an AHM MDT UP Switcher. Still no power so I removed the cover and hooked up test leads to motor itself and actually found that a brush was missing. I searched the computer for replacement brushes and the only information I could find was the number for the brush holder. AHM & Rivarossi HO scale P-140-039 however no information on the brushes themselves or where to get them. Since the holders don't have the brushes there has to be a way to replace them. I sure could use your expertise in locating and instructions on how to attach the new brushes.
The brushes for those are long out of production, but there might be ways to replace them with something newer. One possibility would be to solder 2 sides of an Athearn brush down flat and bond one side to the metal brush arm, making sure there's electrical conductivity. Another option is to find an old motor or a cheap damaged/non-working model and take a good brush from it.
Yup, they did that with the Globe F7 and their GP9 (GP7). Those had better metal trucks, so the plastic ones were a step down but still ran pretty well.
I love old school HO F-units because every manufacturer came up with drastically different mechanisms for achieving the same goal of a simple train set loco. I have a Varney B unit and was always curious what the inside of its A unit would have looked like, the motor truck design is so delightfully retro! The Penn Line unit with the FT body looks great as well - How did you mod the Bachmann shell to fit?
I always enjoy your videos, Darth. Some say the commutator segment gaps should be scraped out with something non-metallic, but sharp. It seems like using that Dremel buffer wheel with trace amounts of polishing compound already on it to clean the commutator might be actually depositing "debris" in those gaps. What say you?
It depends on the motor. Flat commutators don’t need any further cleaning after a good polishing, but I do check on the round commutators since the stuff can get stuck in there during cleaning. A fine stiff brush can clean it out well, but sometimes I’ll use an X-Acto blade to clean the harder crud out. As long as you don’t have current running through the motor, it’s perfectly fine to use a metal knife first between segments.
There used to be various flywheel kits for these. I think someone even sold a centrifugal clutch system to fit the belt drive versions for a short time.
Ernst used to make gearing kits for the RDC and newer Hustler. Hobbytown also had an RDC repower kit. As for the F7 and GP7, there haven’t been any kits that I know of.
The lackawanna engine was made by Varney for American Flyers ho line in 1955-56 Varney also made F3's with B&O, Northern Pacific,And Sothern pacific road names for American Flyer HO Hope this helps with the history of this this engine
I forgot to mention that I am refering to non DCC equipment. I am attempting to get very old, 50-60 year old locomotives back into operating condition after sitting in storage for approximately 45 years. 3 locomotives are not picking up power from the tracks.
The motor came from a computer CD drive. Most have a motor like that for ejecting the tray, so I’ll pull them out from old drives that are being thrown away.
It went alright, but I was in kind of a bad spot for what I was offering. I did at least come out without taking any losses and then put the rest on eBay, where most of the collection has now been sold. It was a good experience though, and I'm sure I'll do another show eventually!
Hi - I have an Athearn F7 Rubber Band Drive . It has sentimental value. Do you know if the shell from my Athearn will fit on a Stewart / Kato Chassis with little / no modification ? Thank You !
I don't know if it will be a direct fit, but it shouldn't take too much work to get it on. The geared Athearn Blue Box chassis is also a great runner (especially the super-weight gold motor version) if you want to make sure it's all a perfect fit.
Some F-units had a MARS or gyralight in the same lens as an emergency braking light, which was red. On my Genesis F3, the red light is wired to light up in reverse on DC. There might be more functions beyond that, but some details seem to be hard to find out without working as an engineer back in the 40’s and 50’s.
Hello Darth!, I'm a novice to HO scale modelling and my first question is I see in your videos you use test power leads to test run the motors. My question is what is the best gauge strand wire to test run my motors using the the old style Tyco power pack?
Hi! For one motor at a time, 22 to 24AWG will be perfectly fine for test wires. The wire inside the model can be as thin as 28AWG for most HO models, but I usually use 24 for older motors that need more power.
The gear drive is louder because of the extra mechanical noise. With the rubber band drive, as long as the bearing are oiled, all you hear is the wheels on the track and some of the motor noise.
Earth… I found an old pos5 in which you addressed the issue of noisy brass engines. I acquired two (2) ALCO Models brass U25B engines. I have a couple of questions and would like to ask you. Is it possible to DM you?
I’ve got an 0-8-0 steamer that ran when I bought it. The two wires connected to the power coupler from the motor to the tender have come loose. My eyesight is poor enough to not be able to solder them back. Can you help me?
I had a Barney f3 in New Haven paint scheme and I was afraid of my brother stealing it so my mom put it in her closet but he stole it anyway. All locomotives should be diecast. The weight makes them good 👍 pullers. It is also more prototypical, no one makes a real locomotive with a plastic body.
I think Walthers has a DCC ready powered AB set for the Rio Grande, Walthers stuff looks fine and run very well and will last 40+ years with little to no maintenance at all lol
Register your Business and take full advantage of every single write-off you can. Otherwise you pay tax on everything, and not just the amount above what you paid for the model.
Love seeing all your repair jobs on the old engines, being a model RR myself for over 59 years. Seeing all one can find inside them. Carpet fibers, pet hair to name a few. Bringing life back to them, that some gave up on getting to run again. Sine I do all scales I'v always have something to do to keep myself busy making repairs on my own equipment or for others, or running trains on my train layouts. Seeing the joy on kid's faces especially seeing their engines ruining again is priceless to me. At the same time teaching others to making there own repairs helps keeping the hobby alive and well for the next generation. Keep up the great work you're doing.🚂🚂👋👍👍👍🚂🚂
Best of luck at the show!
I changed over 150 pieces of rolling stock to metal wheelsets and changed all talgo trucks to body mounted Kaydee couplers. As I went along I weathered each piece of rolling stock. Took me over 6 months. Cheers - TN
I liked this video so I went to ebay and bought one of the engines..This guy does great work.
It's really interesting how there are so many approaches to powering these HO diesels. Especially when the Athearn design is just so good and simple and works so well (not counting the Hi-F "rocket sled" of course!).
That's a lovely collection of wonderful machines.!
1:16 AC Gilbert/American Flyer also produced the Varney F3 tooling (likely under license)
@@Benthetrainkid They were actually still made by Varney, but specifically for Gilbert with slight modifications. This was common in the 50’s and 60’s when HO was still in its early phases (Athearn produced for Lionel and Cox, Bowser made some castings for Varney, Varney made models for Gilbert, etc.).
@@DarthSantaFe Think Bowser also produced toolings for Penn Line
Attaching the motor with the tubing to the other motor to clean the commutator is a great idea!
Another virtuoso performance. Good luck with your new venture.
I collect anything from the Central of Georgia since that's the road name I model. I am still lacking a few models for my Central of Georgia. So if you ever have any Central of Georgia I'm game for them. I also replaced all the magnets on all my open frame motors with rare earth magnets. It really makes a difference. Cheers from eastern TN
Great video! Wow!
As someone who has only dealt with modern British OO Gauge stuff, seeing a manufacturer go for a rubber band drive is like something straight out of bizarro land.
Great idea for a series. You shared lots of useful information. Many thanks.
I love watching your videos, I'm an English man who's locos consist of mostly 2 differnt drive systems which are crap in their own way so watching you open up all these engines with so many different types of drives and gearing is mesmerising
Having to go to OJ's for my train needs makes me miss my ho stuff. I am so glad I called up the railroad club in fort Myers and they came and picked up my train layout. Some deserving kid is going to get a great present. It was nice to for interconnection ovals with an atlas turntable. You could run for trains at the same time.
Classic Old School trains and a great video! Thank you for sharing your knowledge, and best of luck with your new venture.
Loved this video. The European electric is Swiss National Railways.
Jaw dropped to the floor! I am so impressed with your expertise of these units!!! Wow!
very therapeutic asmr watching & listing to your rebuilds. Is that a layout expansion that I spy?...
Yup, once I get the track plan figured out, the size of the layout will be doubled!
Just wanted to say I really enjoyed watching your videos. You do some awesome work.
Thanks again Darth Santa Fe, for another excellent, and very informative troubleshooting video!
Your various excellent skills are amazing!
(I have been watching this video, while finally unboxing, and upgrading my 50 year old model NYC subway cars, with Ancient Bowser drives).
I like the new series you've got going here. The I wish the mantua locomotives had bolts instead of Rivots, although it's not too hard to drill them out it just seems unnecessary compared tp other brands.
The MU-1 motor from the Talgo train and metal Sharknose were screwed together and much easier to work on, but from a manufacturing standpoint, the rivets are faster and do save a lot of extra cost over time. The Mantua F7 was one of the best runners in the collection though, so that definitely says something for their reliability!
This was a big hit, I learned a lot from this video. Thanks for sharing your repair techniques 🚂
I love all wheel drive trains.
This is a great idea ... man I wish I knew all thats in your head to be able to work backward and do these repairs as you do so easily. I love the old ones even though they might not be elite quality
Your 'Swedish' electric is actually Swiss :)
Great work on the Mehano re-engine. I have a couple of those that I have torn down and taken the smoke unit out of them as they seem to heat up and melt the stack. One was bad enough I had to cut the melted stack out and replace it. Thanks for the great tutorial. Also if you are willing to snap off the plastics tracks on a Tyco MU2 you are able to access the commutator for cleaning. Little bit of clean up and hell superglue and the the trucks look good as new.
Thanks! I might have disassembled the truck more if I was keeping it, but I didn't want to damage the rivets this time. :)
The MU-1 from the original metal Sharknose was screwed together, so that made it a lot easier to work on. I wish they'd at least kept the bottom plate screws for the MU-2.
Considering that lifelike was a late comer into the Industry and apparently got everything from everyone's cast off, they certainly did their best. Especially considering that you can still find them everywhere. And whk knows how many folks got into the hobby through the cheap Christmas sets that were in just about every outlet imaginable. There must have been something in this company, as I understand that Walther's felt it worth their time to buy them up.
They certainly made a big impact when they brought out the Proto series! For the older F7 in the video, the disappointing thing about it was that they had all the good tooling from Penn Line but over-cheapened it instead of making it as-is.
Irv athearn was a model railroader in 0 scale 2 rail. He sold o'scale Parks long after other companies gave it up. What I loved about afternoon was that they were made in America. Forgive the poor spelling my smart phone is stupid
Great videos! You are a wealth of knowledge. I love your calm attitude to fixing trains no matter what issue you find. I have a question: I’m 63 and want to get back into trains for retirement and then to pass the trains on to other family members down the road. What top three manufacturers, in preference of order, do you recommend for HO based on quality, longevity, low maintenance and cost? I’d like to get something quality but not break the bank. Thank you in advance for your reply!
Thanks! For diesels, Athearn is a good choice thanks to easy maintenance and readily available spare parts, and they run forever if maintained. Mantua/Tyco metal steam engines are also easy to maintain and last for a very long time, and they were available both as kits and ready to run models. For a higher quality brand of diesels, Kato is one of the best there is for smooth running and reliability.
Hello again Darth,
i started to clean the wheels on my first engine an AHM MDT UP Switcher. Still no power so I removed the cover and hooked up test leads to motor itself and actually found that a brush was missing. I searched the computer for replacement brushes and the only information I could find was the number for the brush holder. AHM & Rivarossi HO scale P-140-039 however no information on the brushes themselves or where to get them. Since the holders don't have the brushes there has to be a way to replace them. I sure could use your expertise in locating and instructions on how to attach the new brushes.
The brushes for those are long out of production, but there might be ways to replace them with something newer. One possibility would be to solder 2 sides of an Athearn brush down flat and bond one side to the metal brush arm, making sure there's electrical conductivity. Another option is to find an old motor or a cheap damaged/non-working model and take a good brush from it.
Athearn introduced gear towers in 1957 as always still an interesting video.
Yup, they did that with the Globe F7 and their GP9 (GP7). Those had better metal trucks, so the plastic ones were a step down but still ran pretty well.
@@DarthSantaFe Thank you for answering my reply.
I love old school HO F-units because every manufacturer came up with drastically different mechanisms for achieving the same goal of a simple train set loco.
I have a Varney B unit and was always curious what the inside of its A unit would have looked like, the motor truck design is so delightfully retro! The Penn Line unit with the FT body looks great as well - How did you mod the Bachmann shell to fit?
I actually didn’t modify it at all! It fit straight onto the chassis, so filing down and replacing the tabs on the chassis was all I had to do.
At onee time, Mantua made their F-7's with dual powered trucks and they could really pull. Rare today, Wish I had kepot mine.
I always enjoy your videos, Darth. Some say the commutator segment gaps should be scraped out with something non-metallic, but sharp. It seems like using that Dremel buffer wheel with trace amounts of polishing compound already on it to clean the commutator might be actually depositing "debris" in those gaps. What say you?
It depends on the motor. Flat commutators don’t need any further cleaning after a good polishing, but I do check on the round commutators since the stuff can get stuck in there during cleaning. A fine stiff brush can clean it out well, but sometimes I’ll use an X-Acto blade to clean the harder crud out. As long as you don’t have current running through the motor, it’s perfectly fine to use a metal knife first between segments.
Varney F-7 - why not put a small flywheel on the end of the motor shaft? you have it open, and it could benefit from it.
There used to be various flywheel kits for these. I think someone even sold a centrifugal clutch system to fit the belt drive versions for a short time.
Did someone like NWSL making a gearing kit for the Atheran H-Fi rubber band drive ?
Ernst used to make gearing kits for the RDC and newer Hustler. Hobbytown also had an RDC repower kit. As for the F7 and GP7, there haven’t been any kits that I know of.
The lackawanna engine was made by Varney for American Flyers ho line in 1955-56 Varney also made F3's with B&O, Northern Pacific,And Sothern pacific road names for American Flyer HO Hope this helps with the history of this this engine
I forgot to mention that I am refering to non DCC equipment. I am attempting to get very old, 50-60 year old locomotives back into operating condition after sitting in storage for approximately 45 years. 3 locomotives are not picking up power from the tracks.
The wheels and contacts likely have heavy tarnish/oxidation after sitting that long. A good cleaning should be enough to get them powering on again.
Well dam I just saw this video and was not aware there was gonnabe a show within driving distance
That was an amazing endeavor you undertook. What motor did you use for the Santa Fe C-Liner? You have my curiosity piqued.
The motor came from a computer CD drive. Most have a motor like that for ejecting the tray, so I’ll pull them out from old drives that are being thrown away.
@@DarthSantaFe I understand. Very good choice for repurposing the motor.
The European electric power bogie that concerned you has been hrld in by this design by Lima, Hornby and Heljan, and works perfectly well.
I have a Cary E-3 on a HtoB chassis, but like to run on Marklin tracks with 360mm radius. Any advise?
DArth,
Great video. I think you said you werre planning to set up a table at the nxt train show and offer these for sale. How did that work out?
It went alright, but I was in kind of a bad spot for what I was offering. I did at least come out without taking any losses and then put the rest on eBay, where most of the collection has now been sold. It was a good experience though, and I'm sure I'll do another show eventually!
Hi - I have an Athearn F7 Rubber Band Drive . It has sentimental value. Do you know if the shell from my Athearn will fit on a Stewart / Kato Chassis with little / no modification ? Thank You !
I don't know if it will be a direct fit, but it shouldn't take too much work to get it on. The geared Athearn Blue Box chassis is also a great runner (especially the super-weight gold motor version) if you want to make sure it's all a perfect fit.
@@DarthSantaFe Thanks !!!
What's up with the red head light on some of those loco's ? I'm new to the hobby so I was wondering about that .
Some F-units had a MARS or gyralight in the same lens as an emergency braking light, which was red. On my Genesis F3, the red light is wired to light up in reverse on DC. There might be more functions beyond that, but some details seem to be hard to find out without working as an engineer back in the 40’s and 50’s.
@@DarthSantaFe Hello and thanks . Very interesting the things and the way that use to be done.
Hello Darth!,
I'm a novice to HO scale modelling and my first question is I see in your videos you use test power leads to test run the motors. My question is what is the best gauge strand wire to test run my motors using the the old style Tyco power pack?
Hi! For one motor at a time, 22 to 24AWG will be perfectly fine for test wires. The wire inside the model can be as thin as 28AWG for most HO models, but I usually use 24 for older motors that need more power.
I've got a question for you. What is louder rubber band driven model trains or the gear driven in one.
The gear drive is louder because of the extra mechanical noise. With the rubber band drive, as long as the bearing are oiled, all you hear is the wheels on the track and some of the motor noise.
41:18 sorry this is not a Swedischmodel tis is a Switzerland🇨🇭 Model of Typ Ae 6/6 Swiss Gotthard Lokomotive 🇨🇭Greeting from Switzerland
Earth… I found an old pos5 in which you addressed the issue of noisy brass engines. I acquired two (2) ALCO Models brass U25B engines. I have a couple of questions and would like to ask you. Is it possible to DM you?
Yes, you can email me at darthsantafe@gmail.com
I’ve got an 0-8-0 steamer that ran when I bought it. The two wires connected to the power coupler from the motor to the tender have come loose. My eyesight is poor enough to not be able to solder them back. Can you help me?
Yes, I think I can help with that. You can contact me about it at darthsantafe@gmail.com.
I had a Barney f3 in New Haven paint scheme and I was afraid of my brother stealing it so my mom put it in her closet but he stole it anyway. All locomotives should be diecast. The weight makes them good 👍 pullers. It is also more prototypical, no one makes a real locomotive with a plastic body.
What kind of Lathe is that? I might have to buy one for myself
It’s this one here: www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07HKZPDDD
It’s cheap, but I’ve gotten a lot of good use out of it!
How much for the UP steam loco/tender? Is it still available?
Sorry, everything’s already been sold.
Love Watching People Repairing Engines When it comes To Rubber Band Engines I am Gonna Have to Pass No Offence.
They filled a need 60 years ago and work surprisingly well, but there is a reason Athearn stopped using it in all but the RDC and Hustler.
If it matters the green electric locomotive is a Swiss federal railroad.🙂
Oooo I could go for a rio grande powered f unit
I think Walthers has a DCC ready powered AB set for the Rio Grande, Walthers stuff looks fine and run very well and will last 40+ years with little to no maintenance at all lol
Varney F-3 looks like a Penn-Line clone.
It’s actually the other way around. Varney made this design for at least 10 years before Penn Line brought out their version.
Register your Business and take full advantage of every single write-off you can. Otherwise you pay tax on everything, and not just the amount above what you paid for the model.