I found a Pacific with tender. I am considering buying it, As I have looked it over I noticed that the drive wheels has some side to side movement. Is this normal?. If not is there a simple fix for it?. Both tender and loco cost is 160.00 used. Don’t know much about them yet, but wanting to get something othere than my 4-6-0 I have. any help or opinions appreciated… Travis
Yes, it is “normal”. All large model “steamers” have this arrangement or they could not negotiate a curve. Your 4-6-0 gets around this by having a blind center driver. If it’s in good shape $160.00 is a very fair price. Make sure it runs first!
You might want to know if it is a first gen or later model as the first runs had plastic side rods where as the newer ones had metal. Also the older version is wired a lot different and is not plug and play. Later RJD
On the vintage Pacifics there is a builder’s plaque on the bottom of the smoke box. The date on mine reads 1994, but I needed a magnifier and good light to read it.
(http://ovgrs.editme.com/files/PhotosLoco/Pacific.jpg)
The front drive wheels swivel from side-to-side, the center ones move up and down and from side-to-side, and the rear ones are rigid. All the drive wheels are flanged. I had no trouble negotiating 5 foot radius (10 foot diameter) curves on the club railway, but did have trouble with the pilot truck derailing in the switches in the yards. It may be a gauge or weight problem, but I will not know until next spring. The vintage Pacifics have a basic sound card and speaker in the tender and a large plastic knob on the bottom of the tender to turn it on and adjust the volume. A nine-volt battery under the water tank cover is needed to power it. The bell is not manually controlled, and there is no whistle. The chuff sound like some hitting a steel oil drum and the bell is piercing. But it’s free and makes enough noise to annoy even someone as deaf as Fred. The new Pacifics do not have the sound card. If you plan to add a radio control however, the new Revolution with steam sounds works well. The chuff is better, and the manually triggered, hand rung bell and whistle sound great. The bell only peals 8 times and then shuts off, the whistle sounds a deep and lonesome sequence Johnny Cash would be proud of. I changed the old speaker out and replaced it with a good one from Phoenix Sound. The new Pacifics have the “prime mover” motor block with metal rods and shiny black chrome wheels. The old Pacifics wheels had white-walled tires. If it has been run a while, the wheel threads will display a copper colour.
(http://ovgrs.editme.com/files/PhotosCNR/Pacific1.jpg)
I painted the wheels on mine semi-flat black, as this ol’gal is going to be used in freight service. I still have to paint the brass handrails and grab irons black like those in this picture. Some people have replaced the old motor block with plastic drive rods with the “prime mover” motor block with metal rods. They were not in stock when I restored my vintage Pacific. But Aristo-Craft had all the parts in their on-line ordering service I needed to restore my vintage one, except the sliding cab windows. I made them with CD case plastic and pin-striping tape.
Ok, Thanks for all the replies this has helped out alot…Travis
Not all old Pacific’s had white walls must have been a Canadian thing. Later RJD
Tip, could not pull two pass cars up 1%. Grade, I found the balance off on the loco, added 16ozs behind headlight into the boiler. Used packs of steel BBs. Pulls great now!