We are getting ahead of ourselves, but one of our LGB m2075 battery locomotives, Christmas Thomas, decided to eat his gears as he rounded the Christmas tree. This was the second of two of these positively rotten little toys with high sentimental value that we married to STAINZ chassis to (See Challenge Accepted - Large Scale Fantasy Locomotive and Rehab of the Missile Sponges Part the Second - Christmas Thomas). These were, at best, partially successful forays in terms of results, though both were incredible learning experiences. As getting these two tank engines to work well was part of Triple O - 2025 Plans & Objectives , I authorized Kid-zilla to commence repairs on Christmas Thomas.
Initially, the little tank engine wouldn’t pull. We attributed this to being underweighted. We weighed a “real” m2075, then we added tire weights to Christmas Thomas until we were close and the little fellow could actually pull. Then we heard the sound of gears eating themselves…I am not sure if the weights did this, though we had tried to center them over the drivers, or the damage was a consequence of something else, but there we were.
Naturally, I cannot find my photos of all of this, but I let Kid-zilla take lead on the project. He removed the motor to see if the loco would free-wheel ahead of a powered tender. Nope. We noted the tender wheels spinning, but there was still too much resistance to push. He poked around and decided to take off the shredded drive gears. I had to help a bit with that, but, after a while and with a little help, he got the rods back on and the chassis reassembled. It almost worked, but the tender still spun its wheels. I noted it lacked a traction tire, so I gave him one and let him have at it. No joy…Then we both remembered that we could use the “real” 2075, Big Thomas, to simulate a double header. Success! This will get us through Christmas, at least.
The big lesson here was that you CAN have a powered unit push the dummy, something we tried before, IF the dummy is weighted so that it won’t ride up on the coupler, if the dummy smoothly free-wheels, and if the powered unit can grip the tracks. The goal here, however, is to restore Christmas Thomas and Little Thomas to normal operations, so more thinking lays ahead. But, of course, first the MIK. There is always the MIK!
I’ll post photos if I can find them.
Eric
