01-16-2011, 04:29 PM
This is the biggest piece of junk that I own. 
The proto 2000 heritage usra 2-8-8-2 was given to my as a Christmas gift a few years back and I am glad that I didn't spend any of my own money on it. Sure It's a well detailed and accurate model but it has been nothing but trouble right out of the box. Once it was opened I realised that the power reverse was missing, So that needed replacing. While I was breaking it in on the test track the valve gear exploded and replacement parts were needed again. This year I put it under the Christmas tree to run in circles. At this point I'd say it has about 2 hours of run time on it total, when it slowed to a crawl and stopped. The only thing that worked was the directional lighting. :? Over to the work bench It went for disassembly and I found this. ![[Image: 001.jpg]](http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/gronku2/001.jpg)
The brush assembly or commutator had shredded itself and jammed the motor. You can see the lose parts that fell out of the motor when I removed it from the frame. If you shake the motor you can hear that there are more of them in there. Has anyone else had similar problems with P2k units or did I just get a lemon. 
I own 30+ year old Bowser and Mantua steamers That have never had Issues like this before. At this point I am thinking of fixing it one last time and putting on a table at a show. It can be someone else's problem.
The proto 2000 heritage usra 2-8-8-2 was given to my as a Christmas gift a few years back and I am glad that I didn't spend any of my own money on it. Sure It's a well detailed and accurate model but it has been nothing but trouble right out of the box. Once it was opened I realised that the power reverse was missing, So that needed replacing. While I was breaking it in on the test track the valve gear exploded and replacement parts were needed again. This year I put it under the Christmas tree to run in circles. At this point I'd say it has about 2 hours of run time on it total, when it slowed to a crawl and stopped. The only thing that worked was the directional lighting. :? Over to the work bench It went for disassembly and I found this. The brush assembly or commutator had shredded itself and jammed the motor. You can see the lose parts that fell out of the motor when I removed it from the frame. If you shake the motor you can hear that there are more of them in there. Has anyone else had similar problems with P2k units or did I just get a lemon. I own 30+ year old Bowser and Mantua steamers That have never had Issues like this before. At this point I am thinking of fixing it one last time and putting on a table at a show. It can be someone else's problem.
My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew