The brass pony collection

[electrical whiz kid]

I have recently purchased some brass on Ebay, nothing larger than a 2-8-0; and I am in the process of track-testing them, and although they are a bit cranky, they track well, and run smoothly.  I will be lubing them, cleaning old grease from the gears and replacing same, etc; but I am going to want to install DCC sound also.  Realizing that the tender shell is a pretty good conductor as is not plastic, I am going to have to insulate this stoff pretty good.  Besides getting the motors insulated from the frame, has anyone got some feedback regarding ins and outs, etc?  All feedback appreciated.  From what I have seen, all of the motors are Pittman open-frame.
Thanks in advance.
Rich C.

[richg]

First thing I would do is to measure the motor current at 12 VDC. Put a little pressure on the motor shaft if you can reach it. Many brass had fiber gears and could be damaged with too much pressure on the drivers.
I have a metal HO MDC, 4-4-2 with Pittman that measured about 2 amps at 12 VCD. In my case, I sent it to NWSL and they did a motor replacement.
The new motor draws about 700 ma.



Parts



Get yourself a digital caliper to do some measuring. Micro Mark has some good ones under $50.00. Most brass was made over seas and Metric is the norm.
Some years ago I did some gear and motor, plus flywheel replacement and NWSL supplied everything I needed.
There are some online places that have, motor,gear, flywheel stuff.

Rich

[richg]

I am quite sure you know the loco and tender frames will be "hot".
If you can use the old motor, use a layer of Kapton between the motor and frame and use a nylon screw to attach the motor in case one side of the motor is hot. I had to do that with a diesel as there was no way to isolate the motor brush on each side of the motor.
Kapton is a tough tape and quite thin compared to black electrical tape.

Rich

[ryeguyisme]

Rich, if you need help with Brass I'm only right down the road from you, plus I have experience  working with the Caboose in Wolcott, I have a decent collection of brass now. They're so much more forgiving and stronger than plastic/diecast, well at least if you know what you're looking at.

[Doneldon]

whiz-

Double-sided foam tape is good for mounting open motors as it isolates
them from the locos' frames. It's often easier to just use can motors as their
outsides are isolated from both sides of the motor. Just be careful about the
length of your mounting screws.

                                                     -- D

[jonathan]

If I may piggyback on the good advice you've gotten already...

The old Pittman motors draw allot of current, and are not particularly smooth.  Before spending over $100 on installing sound, I would spend less than $30 each and put in can motors. There are more expensive ones out there, but the NWSLs work just fine.

Are any of these brass models PFMs?  If so, I know a little trick with the stock gearbox.  A couple of paper thin thrust washers, from an Athearn worm mechanism, placed on the outside of the stock thrust washers, will remove any lateral play, and really get the box smooth and quiet.  Cool trick.  I think I have a photo somewhere, if necessary.

Also, if your 2-8-0 is a PFM, there was no sideplay designed into those drivers.  Even though small, the PFM 2-8-0 doesn't like anything less than 24" radius curves.  For some reason, they designed in the play on the 0-8-0s.  Those will operate on much tighter curves. One can file just a hair off the outside edge of the axle bearings, and get the 2-8-0s to run down to 22" curves.

For DCC/Sound, you will also need some of those mini plugs from Miniatronics--for connecting the tender to the loco.

Have fun tinkering!

Regards,

Jonathan