Quote from: jbrock27 on December 28, 2014, 07:51:10 AM
Are these Athearn motors the ones with brass or grey metal flywheels?  Athearn/Horizon Hobby may have the brushes and springs, so might Ebay.  Are there brushes and springs missing?  Why are you looking for replacements?  Make sure you put the brushes in the proper way, some have not realized they have a curve to them and that is the end that sits on the commutator.  
Do you have soldering skills?  If so, I suggest a total tear down on these to clean everything, including the motor and ditch the metal contact spring that runs across the top of the motor to both trucks.  If you want more info, just let me know, I would be glad to share.  You would be properly pleased with how quiet they can run.

I don't get it; if you found the GP30 ran it's quietest after you used the Conducta Lube, but don't think it was bc of the Conducta Lube, what do you think made it ran its quietest ever

Yes, I have soldering skills.   They are the brass flywheels.   I'm missing one spring and another I had to stretch, it was almost totally compressed (don't ask me how, I don't know) and the brushes are worn pretty good on one motor.  I do realize they are curved.   I haven't yet taken a motor completely apart but the dead one seems like a good candidate.  How do the flywheels come off?

I'm guessing soldering a couple of flexible wires from the clip to the contact arms to get rid of the spring, yes? 

The noise from my GP30 seemed to be mainly gear clatter, not accounting for the worm gear bearings when they run dry.   I used the bachmann pink snot on the gears this time (first time I used it)  instead of a thicker grease.  I think that's why it seemed quieter during the test run.   I don't think it had much to do with the drop of oil on the commutator.  It just sounded like less gear chatter.  

Quote from: jbrock27 on December 27, 2014, 12:16:15 PM
Bachmann Plus GP35s can also be noisy.  Mine is.  That was my first post here; got a lot of suggestions on what to try with the shell but never got any real answer about the motor.  I have yet to try it, but was going to next try to put some Conducta Lube where I believe the brushes to be inside the can motor.

Love Blue Boxes.  Very easy to take apart, clean, modify and get very quiet.  Only pain is that open frame motor/commutator setup.  Gets dirty.  On the plus side, easy access to it.

And I use a Labelle like oil w/needle on brass or bronze worm gear bearings.

I got a second blue box running yesterday.  The first old motor I tried was dead.  I had a couple others and got it running.  I need to find carbon brushes and maybe the brush springs.  I guess athearn would have them?

I have several athearn bb locos and price I paid is still on the boxes, all in $25 range, all were new when I bought them, years ago.  No upgrade motors for me either,  the beauty is in how little they cost.

When I put the Bachmann gp30 back together this last time,  I put a tiny drop of a conductive oil on the commutator.  It's the quietest it has run so far but I don't think that was the reason.  And I've only run it for a few minutes to test.   I've used several different lubes now,  on different parts to stop that squeal.  Currently the worm gear bushings are lubed with a drop of ATF.  When it squeals again I'll only oil those to confirm that they are the culprits.  We'll see what happens.

Quote from: Len on December 27, 2014, 09:35:28 AM
It's probably the worm gear bearings. They're made of solid brass, rather than the oilite castings other mfg's use, and have to be lubed every couple of hours if you run a lot. Otherwise you get the squeal.

Working powdered graphite into the bearings, instead of oil, helps some.

Len

As mentioned, those worm gears were #1 on my list to single out.   If they turn out to be the culprits, I'll give the graphite a try.

Thanks!

I posted a few weeks back that I got my train and track back up and running after a long hiatus.   The loco is a Bachmann Spectrum GP30 and I've had it for a long time.   From reading up I see that they are notorious for being noisy.  I notice that the truck gears are kinda sloppy and I think that makes for the noise.  I'd call it a "rattle" but not sure that's exactly accurate.  At any rate, I'm not worried about that noise.  What I'm trying to pin down is more of what sounds like a bad bearing.   I can clean and re-lube and get maybe 2-3 hours of quiet running (aside from the aforementioned rattle) and then I begin to start hearing that intermittent bearing noise again.  It remains intermittent but gets more frequent and louder.  Occurs in straights and curves and forward or reverse.   I have searched and found similar reports but didn't find a concensus solution.  One suggested checking the worm gears for binding but mine spin freely.   I've been focusing on the gears in the trucks but I don't believe that's the source.  I believe it may be the worm gear bearings and I'll target those specifically with a drop of lube when it starts acting up again and either rule them in or out as the source.  Clearly, I'm not sure it's a bearing, that's just what it sounds like to me.   I'm not an expert on fixing or troubleshooting these engines.   Any ideas where I should put my focus on to try and solve this particular issue?    

On the plus side, I have gotten one of my old Athearn blue box engines back running if this Bachmann defeats me.  

Had another question but it has slipped my mind for now.

Thanks in advance.

Quote from: jbrock27 on December 12, 2014, 07:31:14 AM
Why keep something that works a secret?

Sorry, it wasn't that I was trying to keep my own discovery a secret.

It's not on the consumer market (yet) and may never be.   It is in commercial use but, I think, kind of still being tested.
I have a friend that has access so I have a little bit (that I use primarily for other things).   But, my understanding is that it is similar to a product called CorrosionX.   CorrosionX has dielectric properties which is why I mention that it has some undesirable properties.  Although, since it's not the same as CorrosionX, maybe it doesn't.  

Quote from: Doneldon on December 11, 2014, 10:31:33 PM
Dar-

Count me in as for going with all metal wheels. Plastic just doesn't cut it.

As for keeping your track clean, well, that could be a problem seeing as how it is placed high in the sky. But there are certainly a number of things you can do.

There are track cleaning cars including ones which use a fluid on a roller, a mild abrasive or even electrostatic cleaning. And there's always hand cleaning which is, unfortunately, where you need to start. Once your tracks are clean you just have to worry about maintenance.

An old modeler's trick that dates to the days when just about all track was brass, is to use the rough side of a small piece of Masonite to buff the rails as it was pulled in another train. Two nails (ten penny should do) are driven up through the hardboard with their heads flush with the rough surface. The nails pass through the bottom of a house car (box car, reefer, caboose, covered hopper or whatever) with loose holes for the nails so the Masonite is rubbed on the railheads, constantly polishing them. The cleaner car becomes quite inconspicuous and a piece of the hardboard will last many miles. Just replace I when I gets grooves in it which interfere with curves rails.

Another trick is to use the tiniest drop of Wahl clipper oil on the rails. Your train will spread the oil around, protecting the brass from quite so much contact with oxygen.

Congratulations on getting your cloud line running again. I wonder, does this have anything to do with grandchildren?
                                                                                                                                                                               -- D

I saw a video of the Masonite trick.   I understand that everything needs to be pretty well centered but that shouldn't be a problem.   I may give it a try before investing in a cleaning car.  

Good guess ...  getting it running again actually does, in a roundabout way, have to do with grandchildren, and Christmas.   My wife has been on to me to get it running so I wanted to do so before Christmas.  Then, on short notice our grandaughter who is almost 2,  was coming to stay for a couple of days.   I knew she would love it so I got my butt in gear and got it up and running.  She indeed loved it.  It was awesome.  Guaranteed it will be the first thing she looks for next time she visits.   So now, I guess I have to keep it running!

I've cleaned the tracks.   I am also trying a product (not marketed to the model RR community) on the rails.  It's plastic safe and seems to be working really well so far.  I apply just the lightest film of the stuff.    I'm not going to name it for a couple of reasons.   I'll just say that it has properties that are desirable and also not desirable for the application so it's somewhat counterintuitive that it is working so well.   The undesirable properties should have showed up immediately so at this point I have high hopes that it offers some long term benefits.    

One thing I was surprised about was that I did not clean any of the cars plastic wheels because I was not sure I could get the line up and running.   They all had that silvery, waxy stuff on them (not sure what it's called by hobbyists).   After running for a while and knowing that it was going to run,   I took the cars and loco off to do a better cleaning. The plastic wheels were clean!  All the gunk was gone.   Never seen that before so I assume it has to be from the unnamed product.   Of course, it had to go somewhere so I re-cleaned the tracks and reapplied the product.   

Quote from: jonathan on December 11, 2014, 12:43:17 PM
Some companies, like Exactrail I think, offer "semi-scale" wheels, meaning the wheel treads are narrower to look more like the real thing (prototype).  I have tried some.  They can be problematic, unless your trackwork is near perfect.  I found I had a few derailment issues with semi-scale wheelsets.

Most HO scale rolling stock is equipped with 33" wheels.  36" wheels are for rolling stock over 100 ton capacity and passenger cars.  That's a generalization, but you get the idea.

For replacement wheels, I have used Bachmann, Kadee, Intermountain and Proto 2K sets.  Not all trucks have the same sized journals (the holes where the wheel points go).  So, I mix and match to get the best fit and the most free-rolling.

Regards,

Jonathan

Excellent.  Thank you Jonathan, very helpful.    Thank you all.

OK gents, I'll give some metal wheels a try.  Now, what to look for.   I see 33" and 36" most common and also saw some listed as semi-scale width.   I assume the 33" and 36" are listed in reference to scale?   Not sure what the semi-scale means.   I'm not sure what other specifications I need to be aware of so any advice on determining what I need to look for would be appreciated.   A direct replacement for the plastic wheels would be great.   The wheels on all the cars that I currently have are the same size and interchangeable. 

Hi all.  I have a unique and very basic setup.  The track is up high and runs around part of the living room then through part of the kitchen and back around.   It's been up for over 20 years although it hasn't been functional all that time.   In fact, after not running for 3 or 4 years, we just got it back in service a couple of weeks ago.   The biggest issue has been dust and dirt and since the track is up 8 feet high,  it is an additional chore to keep it clean.    So that's the basic background story.

All or our cars were pretty inexpensive.  Most under $10 when we purchased them back in the early 90's.  Most are Athern I believe.  All have plastic wheels.  I replaced all the couplers with Kadee back when we first set things up.   I have been reading opinions that plastic wheels pick up and transfer more dirt to the track.   If this is true,  I would consider replacing them with metal wheels.   But our track is brass.  We aren't willing to replace the track.   I've also read that brass track is problematic because the Locos wheels are generally nickel and the dissimilar metals leads to faster oxidation.   I'm wondering if swapping the plastic wheels on the cars to metal, which I assume are nickel plated (?) would exacerbate the problem and/or otherwise negate any benefit of switching to metal.   Thoughts?

Thank you.

PS.  I'm also considering buying one of the cleaning cars.  It will have to be one of the lesser expensive models though.  I will ask advice on that later.
   

Thanks gents, and thanks for the video, Hunt.  That seemed too easy.   I gave up and lubricated without removing the cover before seeing the video but will give it another go soon enough.   I'm a bit afraid to try and pop them off with the trucks still attached to the body as all that holds the truck assembly in place is a small screw into plastic.   But, maybe that's the ticket to removing them.   

Anyway, thanks again. 

New here.   I have a GP30 that I can not, for the life of me, figure out how to get the truck side covers off.   It's been sitting for a years and I need to take a look, clean and re-lube the truck gears.   It looks like it's pry and pull but since it's a one piece truck cover,  it isn't going well and I dont want to snap the cover.   I have a feeling I may be missing something.   Any and all input appreciated.