Hi everyone, So I have some older brass Steam engines and will be looking to hopefully acquire a few more. I’ve been looking at @spookshows website and he has great information about how to make the engines run better, but I also know there are ways to get smoother running and more pulling power via modifying the mechanisms and upgrading the motors. I don’t see many threads about this, so any you have some references or information you can share. many of you have probably converted brass engines to DCC. I’ve done some searching here, but some threads are older and I’m not sure whether the technology is up to date. Would some of you be able to recommend dual DC/DCC decoders for brass engines that would be appropriate for steam, ie; pecos river/key/hallmark varieties? thank you, brian
Brian, 1st - Welcome to TrainBoard. There are a large number of very talented experts here that are willing to help with questions from anybody, even old guys like me. So take advantage and ask away. I am going to post some images of a brass loco that I recently completed a re-furbish job on. This is a Key Imports UP 4-6-6-4 Challenger that I purchased used in 2000. It was manufactured in Japan by Nakamura for Key in 1985, so it's been run quite a bit. 1st image is of the loco partially disassembled shows the original factory installed motor.... This was its analog DC version, you will note the rubber tube connection for motor and worm drive shafts. As it turns out the motor was fried so I decided to repaint into the UP two tone grey scheme, add a new motor, u-joints for motor/drive shaft connection, also a new LokSound V5 Micro DCC decoder and a sugar cube speaker. Used a lot of Kapton tape as brass locos are prone to shorts, I think. I used a lot of nylon screws also. BTW, the tender is not the brass one but rather a plastic one from Athearn. Here is that image on my workbench, a cookie sheet. Here is an image showing her as completed. Since this was made I removed the plug and only have hard wired the tender to the boiler. BTW, I added pickups to all tender axles, plus power is picked up by the drivers as well. I just realized the last axles of tender were not on the rails. Sorry for rambling but I wanted to show what is possible, If I can do it so can you. Stay safe and well, Carl
Thanks for the Carl! Great to see that this is possible. And it gives me hope. Would you be able to elaborate a little more on the remotoring work? What did you use and how did you come to the conclusion to use what you did? I see names thrown around like “Faulhaber” but other than trying to find the smallest motor i can on eBay, not sure what other specs I should be considering.
Brian, here is a 1-1/2 minute video of it in action. I did this yesterday at our "run day". I will have to dig out some info regarding the motor so I might be able to make sense. Carl
Hi Highball, I never remotored anything, but some years back (10? 20?) when I was considering it, I wrote to Faulhaber, and they sent me a three ring binder with their small coreless or 'Glockenanker' motor info. I don't remember whether it was in German or English, since I seem to have dumped the contents of that binder. I'm sure these days it is all online, but I thought I mention it, since they seemed pretty supportive. Cheers, Stefan
Brian, I apologize for being too long in responding. I have three images and a suggested address for you to check out. This 1st image shows the front engine gear tower and it shows the heads of the nylon screws that hold the gear tower retaining plates.... This image shows the rear engine gear tower & screws as well as the u-joints..... The last image shows the motor & u-joints, the motor and shafts line up well as motor is actually level............ If you want to check out motors here is a link to the one I purchased; nfpshop.com Look up "Coreless Mini Motor 12vdc Used for train model" Below is the one I bought - it is 10x20mm double axis I ended up cutting off the rear shaft as there just was not enough length in the boiler shell to add a flywheel. Also the shaft was 1.0mm diameter and the worm shaft is 1.5 so I had to add a sleeve to the motor shaft and then put on the NWSL u-joints. BTW, the cost is hard to beat but be aware they ship DHL and that gets expensive, if I remember correctly it cost me $20 for the order. They shipped promptly and kept me advised. Stay well, Carl
