Wow. Someone went to a lot of trouble to swap the drive. I guess the only thing they really wanted was the drive and didn't care about the electronics. Maybe they had already gutted their other engine and had it all set up with lights and sound.

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.

Oh, sorry! I missed that.

I do run REVO for most of my main railroad but for the temporary holiday display out front, I use a regular transformer so I can run either my REVO trains or analog trains. I also have a back and forth shuttle track using the LGB sort start/stop unit.

Rats! Well, I start working on assembling the outdoor display pretty soon so I will upload it to youtube and then post another!

Trolley

I'm just curious as to what happened?! The tender wheels show wear, the annie wheels do not. It even shows the new drawbar style. I guess it is just odd to me because this new version big hauler is seemingly superior in every way to all previous big haulers. It's like they took the original battery big hauler drive mechanism and put it under an annie (which wouldn't work anyway). In a way, I kinda feel bad for the selller because it is such a weird thing he's trying to sell. If it was maybe $50, I would think more seriously about buying it.

On the flip side, this makes me more confident in a future anniversary big hauler purchase! Love the drawbar arrangement and large connectors!

OK, will check.

Don't you think it would be cheaper to sell just the component pieces instead of assemblies? I bought a bag of the aristo couplers from Bachmann and I had to do some assembly work. Not that much but some. Anyway, Bachmann also sells individual gears for their other large scale trains so I guess it is just a question of order quantities.

Hi Greg,

It's been a little while since you and I have interacted, nice to chat with you again!

I now see what you're talking about on the axles. Only one of mine got sort of bad but no where near the racing that you posted! I will add the heavy gear oil (I have been using medium for a while) to my shopping list! Do you have a part number you can post?

Here in Central PA, I don't leave the trains outside and they generally live a good life in the basement storage areas. To be honest, our schedule is so packed that I normally have no time to run the trains at all. I ran them a half dozen times or less since May and now with colder weather setting in and an oak tree that's about to dump all its leaves, I don't expect to operate more than once or twice again this year! I will be setting up a track out front for the holidays but normally just run my analog trains on that and no prime movers! Just LGB stainz's and Bachmann Annies!

Back to my original product request, I would like to be able to purchase new worm gears, new helical gears and new axles. Based on your discussion of the power pick up, maybe there's a way to improve that design and offer it as an upgrade. I do believe my rear drive train of my older mallet suffers from this problem and only has one working power pick up.

If new steam engine wheels for the mikado/mallet/e-27 and the pacific were made, I would buy them too.

Wow! I've only seen wear like the second one down not the extreme like the ones attached to the gear!! Gads!!

Heavy oil? I've got medium oil. Think that works good enough?

Hi guys!

Interesting conversation. I looked closely at it again a few more times. I think this is a South Pacific Coast (81095) chassis based on the paint scheme and valve gear design. And it is clearly the V7 tender and it appears to be the boiler shell from the NP&S from the V7 production.  Nothing about this makes much sense, unless somehow the original drive somehow was damaged or scavenged and this one added. The guy did offer a lower price to me as well but I was more curious than interested in buying.

Hi Greg,

From this side of the computer, I have been operating my Hershey trolley with the replacement motorblock since 2019 on an intermittent cycle. Mostly during November and December on a layout I build outside in the front yard. It is built up on boards, has minimal grades and usually operates when it is getting cold out (20-40F). I have had a headlight go out but otherwise, it runs pretty well with relatively clean track!

I do think I want a new Blue/cream trolley though. Just like the paint scheme!

Dear Bach-man,
Thanks! Even if they were offered as an assembled unit, it would be helpful!

Hi Greg,
Good to hear from you! So what I am finding is that starting with my oldest aristo prime mover equipped loco, a Reading Mikado, there was some racing at the axle/ball bearing. Likely this started to cause some minor arcing which resulted in creation of grooves in the axles. I thought I remembered you had dug in to these back in the oughts when you discovered the springs pushing the ball bearing for power pick up would fail. That was part of the reason I checked those when I disassembled my motor blocks.

The other thing I noticed on my most recent prime mover rebuild, a 2nd generation mallet, was that at least one of the hex drives on the worm gear was partially or fully stripped. This was noticable in the form of a bit of a herky jerky movement of the wheel. I note this gear is the one closest to the motor and therefore is subject to the highest torque.  My opinion is that this particular locomotive had never been lubricated and run hard and put up wet in outdoor storage. Why? Because the axles felt 'gritty' as I worked to clean that locomotive. Maybe someone mistook WD-40 for lubricant? Anyway, I had two spare 3d printed worm gears so after the heat/destroy a #2 screwdriver/melt red loctite method to remove a steam locomotive wheel, I was able to replace the axle with new spares and also open the gearbox, lube and seal it back up. I did make sure to lube the axles of the locomotives and will double check my other engines as well.

Hi Guys,
I was looking at an ebay listing and came across this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/297518397386

At first glance, it looks like the newest Anniversary loco but on closer inspection, the chassis has been swapped on the engine. I did reach out to the seller for a clarification and he is looking in to it.  ANyway, would the old chassis actually work with the new electronics?

Hi Bachmann,

While I understand some reationale for not returning the entire Aristocraft line to production, could it be possible that you could do runs of the prime mover gear boxes? Specifically the worm gears, helical gears and axles. These components do wear out over time but the way the gearboxes are made, it is relatively easy to replace these parts. Technically, I could purchase the 3 axle motorblock but I really only need the gearboxes. I currently have 48 gearboxes in operation at various stages of life.

It is nice to be able to purchase gears for the other locomotives in the lineup but it would be great if we could get these components as well.

Thanks!

Hi Battleflail,

Last Fall, I also got the urge to have a Polar Express. Since there's nothing readily available in G scale and I had some unused coaches in the collection, I repainted them and lettered them using a cricut air 2 vinyl cutter. Lettering on the locomotive tender could have been a little smaller but overall, I like how the sky blue / cranberry colors came together with the gold striping. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/162GgjDxhH/