Hope you all like it!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Well done! Seems to run pretty good! I like the winter scenery. Not many people do the winter time scenes. How hard is it to keep the Snow White and not grey from dust

 

It has been not very hard at all. With what I used & how it is held down. I just use a shop vac with a small tip on it every so often. It’s been up now for 2 1/2 years now.
Sometimes I add a little fresh snow on it. ( just the snow in a can )
It vacuums up well when it starts to dull.
Thanks for the comment!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

That’s really cool. I’ve built a couple snow plow mow type things for my layout but they just sit idle if they’re even on my layout because mine is scenic to mid summer in the mid west.

 

Nice work. 👍 Looks good for the amount of punishment it's taken. It would appear to be one of their premier runs with the graphite smokebox and blackened handrails.

I can see the flyweel on the back of the motor. Do you see any benefit from it?

 

Nice work. [emoji106] Looks good for the amount of punishment it's taken. It would appear to be one of their premier runs with the graphite smokebox and blackened handrails.

I can see the flyweel on the back of the motor. Do you see any benefit from it?

I do notice the flywheel helps smooth it out on lower speeds now. The smoke box & hand rails I did myself. I figured while it was in pieces why not add some detail to it.
I plan on adding some other decals someday. Lol

Thanks again guys for the compliments


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Iron Mask. "I have just been inspired!"

The Berk holds a place in my heart from my childhood lionel days.
Two years ago, I semi-intentionaly ended up with a 'gutted' Berk' from a fleabay 'auction lot' of stuff.
Over time I willy-nilly, aqquired a good quiet original motor, drive sytem, lower boiler, NYC? Tender, and other parts. I worked on it. Worked on it again. Broke some things too via frustration. Live & learn. Finally got something I liked. Call me Dr Feankenscott, I like bringing trains back to life. Thats the hobby in a nutshell for me.
Runs strong and quiet. (Those pizza cutter wheels though!). Pulled 18 cars easily at that time. Surprisingly not 'jerky' at a crawl either. Yay me.
Shelved it then to be painted/detailed at a later time when my muse might suggest.

It's time to mess with it again. Thank you for the inspiration.

Now. Please Show us a 'side view' video of your Berk passing by.

 

I would like a little more information about how you re-motored the Berk. I have an old Rivarossi berk (Motor is in the cab) that I would like to remotor and install a decoder and LED lights.

 

Ok I will start a thread on my next one. I am waiting on my motor & another gear set to come in. When it does I can do a whole “how to” on it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Great Thanks!

 

I know that a guy on eBay called cvbackshops sells can motor kits for the rivarossi locos but they’re small motors so I wouldn’t plan on pulling more than 10-15 cars with it. My brass northern will pull that many heavyweight passenger cars with the cannon dn22 motor and factory gearing

 

I have used that motor on one of my rivarossi berks. It did a great job pulling , unfortunately my loco was never heavy enough to pull more than 6 heavy weights. It would just spin wheels. Unfortunately that was one of the motors that died on me with my controller problem... it will turn now, but it makes a awful growl & pulls a lot of voltage.
The bachmann motor I use now seems to do a great job now. It also comes with a flywheel & caps. For $20... I know I have that much for the other motor.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I have used that motor on one of my rivarossi berks. It did a great job pulling , unfortunately my loco was never heavy enough to pull more than 6 heavy weights. It would just spin wheels. Unfortunately that was one of the motors that died on me with my controller problem... it will turn now, but it makes a awful growl & pulls a lot of voltage.
The bachmann motor I use now seems to do a great job now. It also comes with a flywheel & caps. For $20... I know I have that much for the other motor.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sounds like that Berk needs new traction tires, as the old ones are likely hardened if it's spinning its wheels.

That's the problem with CD-ROM motors. That have extremely fine precious metal brushes, which are just thin metal wipers that wear through under continuous duty and high current draw. Those motors are designed for light duty: either opening or closing a disk tray occasionally, or spinning the disk itself at a few hundred RPM under very little load. The brushes just don't hold up to our model railroading needs.

Here's a shot of what was ultimately left of the wipers after I'd installed this motor in an old Tyco 2-8-0 tender drive.

Btw, those caps on the Bachmann motor are just for RF noise suppression, to reduce brush arcing that can cause radio and TV interference (assuming someone's still using an aerial), and are mostly used in Europe where the regulations (and often living accommodations) are tighter. They can also cause erratic running if used in combination with a decoder, so may need to be removed if you go DCC.

There are some new 6 pole motors that are great for repowering jobs. Tons of torque, low RPMs, and quiet.

Pardon Our Interruption...

 

Thanks for all the info!!
& yes the traction tires where old & hardened. They have been replaced , but that motor was just not having it! Lol

I think I will try one of those motors on my 2-8-2 I have. It’s needs a little slower rpm , but good torque. The direct drive doesn’t allow me to swap gears like the berks do.

I’m sure there could be a gear set out there. I am just unaware of it yet. lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Hmmm more to think about!! lol thanks again man!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

It makes me wonder if they’re as good of a motor as the cannon dn22. I have been using them to remotor my brass and those are better than the sagami motors I’ve used in my blue goose and 3463

 

You can join the Repower & Regear group at Groups.io and ask, but the top members there claim it's the best motor ever available for HO locomotives.

The only reservation I have is that the brushes are precious metal wipers instead of carbon brushes, but they are significantly heftier than those that failed in the disk drive motor I posted. Even if they do eventually give out, at this price you can easily buy a backup supply. And most modern can motors like the DN22 have non-replaceable carbon brushes anyway, so maybe the point is moot.

The guys who have torture tested them have had no complaints.

 

Well I have had my cannon for 6 -7 years now on my berks. I liked them , but they just seemed to get louder as they aged. Also I seemed to keep adding voltage to them to keep pulling the same cars. I even updated all my rolling stock wheels to steel ( kaydee 33” steel) & I tried to keep my weight between cars not more then a few grams.. that way if I switched cars I knew it would not change my pulling weight a lot. 20-21 cars is all I ever pulled with it. I do have a couple of 2% grades for it to work up, so that would hold me back from over working my motors.

I will let you know when I get this one installed! I am hoping it out performs my bachmann motor. If it does I will probably get a few more & repower the rest of my rivarossi stuff!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

My 2-10-4 is powered by a dn22 and it has never skipped a beat. I pulled a 40 car train with it the one day and it just slowed it down a bit

 

That is awesome!! I’m sure I have probably slowly killed my cannon motors. At Christmas time I tend to run my polar express that I built myself. They are rivarossi heavy weights. Full interiors with lights. They are heavy, have some drag because of the lights & I always pull 10 of them... up & down the grades. I add about 1oz of weight on the loco & use frog snot on a extra wheel so it will pull up the grades.
I’m sure that never helped the motors.
I am working on LED lights for my heavy weights. Also better pick ups to help take away all the drag they have.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I’ll have to order a few and try them on the next few locomotives I do motor swaps on. My main motor swaps are on brass but I’ve done others like mdc and rivarossi locos. I also buy motor swap kits off eBay that have couplings and flywheels and what not. Those kits along with keep Alive cap banks and I never have any trouble with dirty track and things like that

 

I am looking at adding the keep alive kits. I might look at something like them for my coaches... however it will add a little more weight... but if I can reduce drag & not worry about flickering anymore...... hmmm [emoji848]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Ok so my motors came today along with my gears!!! Guess what I will be doing over the weekend!!! WooHoo!!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Ok I have got one loco done with this new motor.
So now I have one that has the bachmann motor with a flywheel & small caps on it.
Then now this one with this 6-pole motor with no flywheel.
I tried to add a fly wheel , but I don’t have any new ones. The used ones I have are not letting go of the shaft they are on! Not even with my press!! Lol

So I did a side by side run. Both move at the same speed, almost. The 6-pole is just a bit faster.... not by much! It took about 16 rounds to catch up to the bachmann. So in comparison one might be at 35mph, the other at 36.3mph??? Lol
In other words .. not to far off on speed.
Now for power....
the bachmann motor pulls a bit more amps when pulling 7 rivarossi heavyweights with lights & interior.
The 6-pole actually seems to not skip a beat with the same cars... however it does make a bit more noise.... it could be because I put a driveshaft in that one. The bachmann is a direct coulper to the transmission box.

That said the noise is not very loud compared to my other locos.

Now the bachmann with the flywheel does pull smoothly through my switches. No real hesitation. The 6-pole will stutter at the frogs not enough to stop it, but you can hear it in the couplers. They will make a slap noise when it does.

So I would say yes , a flywheel does help! I can also say for the price you can not go wrong with that 6-pole motor!! I only wish the drive shaft would of been 1/4” longer! I could of probably put my gear right on it & not needed a split shaft for the motor/transmission.... ehh can’t be picky! Lol [emoji23]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Well if any are following.... looks like I may have got a faulty bachmann motor. I have been running it most the weekend along side my 6-pole just to see if anything different will happen between them. Both pulling about the same amount weight around the track.

Today I noticed my bachmann motor was sluggish to start , then it was hitting dead spots around the track..... hmm [emoji848] must be a little dirt on the wheels... pulled it. Cleaned the wheels still same trouble!
Hmmm.....
Now the 6-pole is just running around fine. No dead spots just the same hesitation on the switches as normal...

So I figured it’s the bachmann motor...
yep!!!!! Opened up my loco , and I noticed a bunch of black residue on the back & front of the motor where the input shaft is. Took it out & noticed that the shaft has a little wobble in it.

Could it be just a faulty motor doomed to fail?? The residue feels gritty... maybe the brushes are chewed off?? Maybe bearings are toast??
Good thing I have another 6-pole.

I think I might call bachmann just to ask what they might think.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Sorry I got back to you so late. I haven't been around and got no notification.

I assume it's the Bachmann standard can:

Motor (HO SC-44/ALC-42 Charger) [Motor-88128] - $58.94 : Bachmann Trains Online Store!

Bachmann Trains Online Store! Motor (HO SC-44/ALC-42 Charger) [Motor-88128] -

estore.bachmanntrains.com

When you say there's play in the shaft, do you mean side-to-side? That would indicate bearing wear. End play -- front to back -- is nothing to be concerned with so long as it's not excessive. Are the bearings oiled?

The erratic behavior makes me more suspicious of a dirty commutator. If there's one flaw to those it's that they have tiny brushes -- almost more suitable to an N scale motor -- and small commutators with narrow gaps between the segments that can easily foul with brush dust. Excess oil on the brush end bearing will wick onto the commutator and make it worse. It can result in erratic performance, or even imitate a shorted winding when the dust shorts between the commutator segments.


The end bell has a series of slots for ventilation, creating a center rib that I cut away on each side so I have access to the commutator for cleaning. The slots can be cleaned out with the tip of an X-Acto blade, or a very thin metal strip, then cleaned with alcohol.


The brushes should still be a decent length since it's a new motor. I tend to suspect brush dust since I've been through that with these motors a number of times.

 

That is some good info!! I will look into it a bit more. The play I have in the shaft is side to side. [emoji53] I do have the new 6 pole installed & it has been a beast!! Just pulling like nobody’s business!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

That's weird. The bearings have to be strong enough to support the weight of the flywheels and shouldn't wear like that.

Glad the 6 poles are working out for you. 👍

 

I appreciate you getting back & I really don’t mind if anyone take along time to respond. I mostly post here so I can reference back to it as I sometimes need help remembering! Lol [emoji23]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I’m thinking maybe a just got a “Friday “ motor. I have used other bachmann motors with out issues. 2-8-2 is running great with the same type of motor in it. Also my mallet uses a bachmann motor with no issues.
Maybe a shipping issue [emoji2373] it got damaged in route & I did not realize it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk