Old Rivarossi UP FEF upgraded

[Schraddel]

Hello Folks!

A long while ago i got a basket case of an Rivarossi UP 4-8-4, not complete and some parts like the tender shell and pilot truck were missing. As i am not an UP man or an enthusiast of big big steam, this basket case remained resting in pieces until a few days ago. A friend of mine, who also owns an loco of exact the same type and manufacturer, have had the idea to make out of these 1 and 3/4 engines one engine which runs.
With old Rivarossi stock you have a couple of problems:
- deep flanges of traditional toy train style
- traction tires, unfortunately all of them were mounted onto the wheels of the left side
- old motors drawing a lot of amperes an with a nasty running culture
- high speed gears, this also a typical toy train feature

What's to do?
1) turn down the flanges in accordance to NMRA to a height of 0.6mm
2) remove all wheel with traction tires and replace them with thoses without rubbers
3) replace the gears to create a higher gear ratio
4) substitute the motor with a modern can type with less draft an more output
5) make new cardan shaft between motor and gear
6) make an 8-pin DCC socket according to NMRA


Here a new axle gear was mounted. The Rivarossi axle was turned down at the center portion to enable the mounting of the gear with a bore of 2.6mm to press fit it.
Otherwise after the mounting of the gear a thin bushing was mounted onto one axle stub to correct the axle diameter to 3.0mm as it was before turning.



The other part of the gear. A new worm mounted onto the old shaft. A pair of shims under the bearings will adjust the correct mesh between worm and axle gear.

Before, factory mounted: gear ratio was 1:16 with a module of 0.6
After conversion: gear ratio is now 1:29 with a module of 0.4
The new gears are from Roco and made out of technical plastics.



Here the new can motor is glued into place. Lateron there will be an additional screwed bracket to fix the motor.
A new cardan shaft was made with parts out of the grab box.
It is now ready for fitting the electric stuff.

Lutz