heritage 2-8-8-2

[e-paw]

Well Lutz the loco started running slow, so I removed the motor to check for a bind in either the front or rear engine (already went through that once with this engine). That is when I heard something loose inside the motor. I gave it a shake and all kinds of little pieces of the brushes and commentator started falling out of it .

From right out of the box this engine has been nothing but trouble. When I first opened it, it was missing a few detail parts. Then the valve gear on one side bound up and basically self destructed. Then one of the eccentrics started to continually fall off the driver. No matter what kind of glue I used nothing would hold it in place, I ended up using a soldering iron to soften the plastic enough that I managed to melted it in place without damaging it or the wheel.. I got real lucky on that repair. The spring on the draw bar would fly out from under the cab if you looked at it to hard, that got fixed with a good crimp and bend from a set of pliers. And there was an intermittent short in the wiring harness from the tender to the engine.

The drive is now smooth, minus the motor . and hopefully that will be the end of this loco's breakdowns.