Large Scale Central

Aristo-Craft Ball Bearing Motor Blocks

Problem Solving
#1

I repaired a friend’s track-powered Aristo-Craft FA-1 locomotive that hesitated and stalled when I tested it. The motor blocks were opened to find the brass track-power pick-up wires (parts AA and Z) were broken on both sides of the motor.

It appears that the brass wires were subjected to high current, expanded, touched the motor casing, melted and fused to the casing. The owner did mention that he and his brother had problems with locomotives stalling on their USA Trains #6 switches.

The track power pick-up wires are .015” brass rod. I purchased some .020” brass rods (K&S part number 8159) and bent some new ones. The loop around the bearings was bent around the 10mm brass tube I use to repair USA Trains split axle sleeves on their drive gears. The motors now run well.

This summer I am going to visit his and his brother’s layouts to see why a lot of their Aristo-Craft and USA Trains motive power has ended up in my train workshop to repair melted track-power wiring.

#2

This is very common Paul, many people have blocks where no pickup from the axle with “wires”, but only the larger power conduction strips to the “flexy” axle.

I’ve had them melt so bad that it was hard to pull the block apart.

This, of course, is one of the typical results of a stall/short on a switch, where the short is between trucks, or, sometimes between the axles of a single truck.

I’ve outfitted all my Aristo stuff with extra polyswitches:

This helps eliminate most damage from shorts, although it is protecting truck to truck shorts, the most common.The thin wires in the motor blocks are very susceptable, since they don’t make such good contact in the first place (to the bearings), so a little heat, more corrosion, more resistance, etc.

http://www.elmassian.com/trains/motive-power-mods-aamp-tips/aristo-motive-power/rs-3/rs3-improvements

#3

Hi Greg!

These wires were fused to the blocks as well. At first I thought someone has glued them in.

I like your idea of adding the self-resetting fuses. I should do that before handing this one back.

Last year I had to complete rewire a USA Trains F3-A/F3-B set for him. The insulation had been melted off the track power wires from the motor blocks so long the copper wires had turned green.

Both units were controlled and powered from a Revolution Super Receiver in the A-unit. As it is polarity sensitive, when I re-wired the units each track power wire from the motor blocks had a self-resetting fuse added. Each set of wires was also routed through a 5 amp bridge rectifier so that proper polarity was maintained no matter what happen on the track to each truck.

#4

Good stuff… next time I am “inside” the 2 axle Aristo blocks, I’m going to see if I can add 2 polyswitches inside, on the “thin wires” to the “solid” axle. That should completely do away with melting anything, unless you leave your loco on the track for hours on a dead short.

It would also be neat to do it to Aristo 3 axle blocks since they are so long, but no way and no room.

Regards, Greg

#5

What Polyswitches do you use?

#6

Section on polyswitches, with your answer and more.

http://www.elmassian.com/trains/dcc-battery-rc-electronics/misc-electronics/electronic-components

Regards, Greg

#7

Your fix is good, Paul, and Greg’s won’t hurt either. But for goodness sake tell your pals to lose the USA trains switches while you’re at it. I would never touch another one myself. I had one once and everything that could break down or go wrong with it, did… Never again…
I don’t generally like to stoop to vulgarisms, but in this case I make an exception. I know you can spell crap as well as I can.

#8

The USAT #6 are a weird product, nice looking, especially the frog, but the electronics are a disaster, and often fail. Just not a reliable power setup to the frog:

http://www.elmassian.com/trains/track-aamp-switches/usat-6-switches

#9

What about water?

#10

Does not look very waterproof:

#11

I want to go on record as saying that Aristo-Crafts motor blocks are very confounding and not very well made. Of course, this is simply my opinion based upon a few years of dealing with repairs on them. I have Piko engines and USA Train engines as well. By far and large, the Piko engines are vastly superior in the motor block department. I suspect this is directly attributed to German engineering versus American/Chinese engineering. Ironically, the Germans are notorious for “over” engineering their products, but in this case, their motor blocks appear less complicated to me as far as actually working to resolve those pesky little issues. In all honesty though, these Aristo-Craft motor blocks need to be well cared for. Especially when operating under extreme conditions outside. High heat and low temps can affect their overall performance. I have several Dash 9’s and while I do not currently run anything outside, I must confess, I might re engineer another option for the motors if I ever do. jmo

#12

Stacy, while I agree that the quality level, and especially the QA and assembly of Aristo motor blocks is inferior to LGB, for example, this is not the place to really go on and on about how German is better than Aristo, and you have mentioned this in several threads.

This thread (and the forum) is about problem solving, and how to take something and make it better or repair it.

You have made your point about Germany vs. Aristo and USAT… I get it…

Greg

#13

Greg Elmassian said:

Stacy, while I agree that the quality level, and especially the QA and assembly of Aristo motor blocks is inferior to LGB, for example, this is not the place to really go on and on about how German is better than Aristo, and you have mentioned this in several threads.

This thread (and the forum) is about problem solving, and how to take something and make it better or repair it.

You have made your point about Germany vs. Aristo and USAT… I get it…

Greg

Well then, we are in agreement. Please have a wonderful day. :slight_smile: