Locomotive repair

[HMARKH]

I have a n gauge locomotive from the 1970's that was my father's. On the bottom it says ARNOLD rapido and MADE IN W.-GERMANY. I need the name of a company that can repair it.  

[Desertdweller]

Arnold produced locomotives for Minitrix, and also produced locos and cars in partnership with Rapido.  Minitrix and the Arnold line were distributed in the US by Model Power.

You may want to do a search for Model Power and see if they offer a repair service.  Otherwise, there may be private parties who might take this on.

The Arnold locomotives were pretty durable, especially the ones with the cast metal bodies.  But it is possible to wear one out.

A lot of times, these little engines just need a good cleaning: electrical contact problems; foreign material in gears, etc.  It takes up to twenty years to wear one of these out.  So, if it hasn't been subject to a lot of hard use, it may just need a cleanup.

What will kill these units in use is overloading them.  It can cause the gears to break.  After an awful lot of use, the motor brushes can wear out.

I've been in N-scale since 1978, and I've worn out a few locomotives, but not many.  Mostly, they were late sixties/early seventies designs that were not very robust.

Les

[Desertdweller]

As long as we are discussing locomotive repair, I hit upon something yesterday may be worth passing along.

About three years ago, while out of town on a job assignment, I purchased a Life-Like GP-20.  Work obligations kept me away from my model railroad, but yesterday I took out this still-new N-scale loco to give it a try.

It ran terribly.  Would only move short distances, and haltingly at that.  I took it upstairs to my loco repair shop (the kitchen table).

I brought along my tools, an old powerpack, and a short length of flex track.

Applying the powerpack leads to the track, the loco refused to move.  I took the body shell off, and went to work on it.

Applying the power leads to the wheel treads did not do much.  But when I applied them to the copper contact strip than runs along either side of the frame, it ran fine.  The problem had to be in the trucks somewhere.

I checked the contact between the wheel wipers and the loco frame.  No problem there.  Then I noticed the pickup wipers did not wipe the wheel treads or the back face of the wheels.  They contacted the outside face of the wheel.  But it was a new unit, and clean.

I've found that Life-Like has been lately using a heavy black blackening stuff to blacken their wheels.  I had already cleaned this stuff off the wheel treads, so they were shiny clean.  I put the power leads on the frame and got the motor running,  Then I took a small piece of 400 grit sandpaper and held it against the spinning face of the wheel.  The paper immediately became coated with black, shiny stuff.

I cleaned all the wheels with this method.  After the cleaning, the unit ran fine on track.

This unit is now working just fine.  It seems a little light, but there is no place to add weight.  Maybe they ought to make their frames out of depleted uranium?

Les

[James in FL]

You gotta start somewhere.
Open it up, take the shell off and have a look see.
Send a pic.
Arnold's are not difficult to figure out.

Good luck

[Desertdweller]

More locomotive repair ideas:

I was working on a Life-Like E-7 today that had a most perplexing problem.  The motor would run fine, but the wheels wouldn't turn.  I also had a Life-Like E-8 that was only getting drive power to one truck.  The front truck would work fine, the rear truck's wheels wouldn't turn.  It turned out they both had the same problem.

I removed the body shells and removed the inoperative trucks.  This is done by pushing out the little steel pins that the trucks pivot on.  That pin is also the shaft that the gear that engages the worm rides on.

On these E units, the trucks are not wired to the frame.  Electricity is carried to the frame via contacts.  So, when these pins are removed, the trucks come off freely.

On each of the three inoperative trucks, the gear at the top of the gear tower (the one that engages the worm) was installed backwards.  This gear has a second set of teeth on it to transfer motion to the other gears in the truck.  If it is turned around, this gear will not engage the gears that drive the axle.

So flip the gears over, reinstall the trucks, and push the pins back in.  The pins have a slight chamfer on one end that will help them be inserted.  Use a straight pin as a spud to line the holes up first.

Problem solved!

Remember the pickup problem I had with the Life-Like GP-20?  Well, I had pickup problems with four more Life-Like units: 2 BL-2's and 2 FPA-4's.  These, unlike the GP-20, had their pickup wipers contacting the backside of the wheels.  So, when polishing the wheel treads, try polishing the rear face the the wheel as well.  It really worked!

Then, about fifteen years ago, I bought a Bachmann Spectrum F-7 ABBA set.  One of the B units ran poorly:  it drew a lot of current and made a clicking sound, like it had a gear with a broken tooth.  Earlier this week, I pulled this one apart, expecting to find either a damaged gear or a ballast rock jammed in a gear.

Not so.  It turns out the clicking sound was caused by the armature contacting the field magnets.  This not only made a noise, it also caused the motor to run hot, and refuse to start when the armature was in a certain position.  I'll order a new motor for that one.

I don't think the problems I am solving with my models are unique to me.  So when I have a problem and find a fix for it, I'll pass it along to the rest of you guys.

Les