I have the typical slipping main drive gear issue on my 4-4-0. To have a look at the gear box, I removed the 8 screws holding the cover plate, but I can't remove it; it is stuck on something that I can't see, perhaps a wire. The problem seems to be on the rear portion of the plate near the chuff sensor on the rear axle. There is a little give to the plate, but it is definitely not coming out. I can only lift it a few mm. Has anyone had this issue, and can you advise me how to solve it?
do you have the owners manual? there are exploded diagrams there that might help
The chuff contacts are attached to the bottom cover.
Recommend to pull the chassis from the boiler, and then un-pinch the wires and can proceed from there. Can pull the wires through to with some tweezers to give you enough wire to pull the cover.
Pay attention to the ashpan flicker board, which nestles in a recess in the motor block.
(information courtesy of Dave Goodson)
Quote from: dart-frog on October 05, 2025, 07:00:19 PMit is stuck on something that I can't see, perhaps a wire.
That's the chuff triggers - there's a piece of plastic sticking up (down if you have the loco upside down,) with 2 brass fingers attached to it. You have to wriggle the bottom plate away from the chassis carefully so the chuff part slides out, and the wires attached to the fingers are under the axle and out the back. You can't remove the bottom plate unless you wriggle the wires under the axle and up to the bottom plate. Just push it to one side - see my photo.
It's you Pete, right?
Can I use your picture on my site?
Helpful for others.
Quote from: Greg Elmassian on October 10, 2025, 11:31:30 AMIt's you Pete, right?
Can I use your picture on my site?
Yes, it's me. Sure you can use the pic.
Thanks will give you credit of course...
Greg
p.s. over 800 pages on the web site and reaching 25 million hits soon... it's been what I wanted to do, to honor George Schreyer..
George was one of the best!
I apologize for the off topic following:
I had the privilege of meeting George face to face several times, and he even came down the coast from LA to run trains once.
Many people might not know that he worked for one of the aerospace companies designing systems on rockets.
So we were sitting outside at one of the big train shows in Pomona or Ontario california, and the fire marshal would not let the live steam people run inside the building.
Unbeknown to me he was sitting about 6 feet behind me. (you will have to excuse the following), but a person came up, and asked a pretty dumb question, and when I replied all I got was arrogant pushback. George then replied with a very detailed and technical answer.
The arrogant guy then said: "what are you, a rocket scientist?" trying to put him down.
All George said was "yup", and the place broke into uncontrollable guffaws of laughter... yes George was indeed a rocket scientist...
Fond memories, and the impetus to carry on his tradition of his web site.
Amen
Dang, I hadn't heard about George Schreyer passing. I used to look over his website a lot in the late 90s early 2000s.
I just realized I need to swap the gear in my 4-4-0 as well. I have spares that I procured a few years ago but I might have to swap the axle as well.
Quote from: Mark Oles on October 29, 2025, 04:12:27 PMI might have to swap the axle as well.
You can file the "D" off the latest gear [carefully] with a round file and tap it onto the old knurled axle. I drilled out one gear, and that worked, but you have to hold the gear steady to avoid getting an offset hole. Better to file it and then clean it up with a drill.