Last year I posted some questions about the 4-6-0 Red Comet I had.  I finally ordered the new chassis and have almost everything disassembled and I have a few questions.

1) The new chassis has two switches where the old chassis only had one.  I was going to just replace the smoke box cover with one that had slots for both switches but they are out of stock.  Would it be a problem to only install the one switch for the smoke unit and leave the direction switch loose inside?  I only plan on running it on the oval track that it came with so its not like I'm going to be doing anything fancy with it.

2) Is there a way to avoid re-soldering the wires for the light besides just cutting and leaving them loose?

3) The back of the new chassis has two plugs.  The tender only has one cord for the sound.  Why do the new ones have two and what is the best way to modify the shell to accommodate the second plug?

Thanks,

Mark Sumner

Hello,

I recently picked up a Red Comet on Facebook Marketplace.  I had one as a kid and was really excited when I found this one.  After wiping the track and wheels, I found that the gear on the drive axle was cracked and the axle was just spinning inside the gear.  After fixing that with a little JB Weld,  I find that it is still sluggish especially in the turns, and will randomly stop as if it lost connection.  With a small push, it will start again.  The problem seems to be power related but I cannot seem to narrow it down.  The motor runs well especially when it is not actually driving the train (put front wheels to track with drive wheels suspended).  Now even though I did clean the track and wheels with rubbing alcohol and goo gone, there is still a significant amount of black stuff on them as they are pretty old.  I guess I just need to know whether to look into replacing the chassis, track, or power supply. 

Thanks,

Mark