It’s been nearly a year since we added to our equipment roster, choosing instead to concentrate on infrastructure improvements, organization, and storage. While I’d like to say we’ve been busy doing that, progress has been almost nonexistent. If anything, we’ve taken a few steps backward. The latest setback is preparations for hurricane Helene, hurriedly cramming everything in the garage, and making a shambles of any progress organizing it.
One great feature we added long ago is the storage drawers for the old Bachmann ten wheelers and passenger cars. More recent acquisitions concentrated on diesel equipment, mainly freight oriented, but the USA Trains heavyweight passenger car set upstaged all the Bachmann passenger cars. And while those ten wheelers are well suited to the Bachmann cars, the heavyweights would look out of place behind one.
Most of the other steam engines we have are more suited for logging applications, like the three truck shay and mallet. There’s that 2-6-0 we were going to modify to match the “Orange Blossom Cannonball” that we used to ride from Mount Dora out to Tavares and back, then realized it was the wrong prototype to start with and would require massive modifications. It would be much better to start with something closer, but the original has long since ceased operation anyway.
Limited Choices
Few manufacturers make anything more than “novel” steam engines. LGB is one of the few remaining, but predominantly European designs. USA Trains has one offering, the UP FEF-3 Northern, with a price tag of $4,000. Not for the feint of heart, or pocketbook. Considering the only other offerings are live steam, usually in the $5,000-$7,000 price range for just a little 0-4-0, pretty slim pickings if you’re in the market for a modern steam engine.
Before they went out of business, Aristocraft used to make some decent modern steam engines, like a 2-8-2 Mikado, and a 4-6-2 Pacific. LGB also had a 2-8-2 Mikado offering. No one makes them anymore, which leaves the aftermarket, be it eBay or online dealers. Of all the hobby shops I used to frequent, I can only think of one that may still be in business, and it’s paired with a photography store. Trains on one side, cameras and such on the other.
There was one time way back, when we were shopping after going out to dinner, we thought we found a new one. Walking in we were told they just sold all their inventory to another dealer. I don’t want to call those types of deals “predatory”, so let’s just say the online dealers I’ve seen, brick or mortar front or not, seem to want exorbitant amounts of money for what’s left of those “rare” items.
Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware)
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve found a few good deals online, but not many. That leaves eBay. My experience with eBay has been mixed. If you’re looking for deals on eBay, you really have to know what it is you’re looking for. You need to “do your homework”, so to speak, and go in with “eyes wide open” as they say. Many of the sellers are established, and most are fair and honest and want your return business.
But even though some sport good overall ratings, they’re shady nonetheless. Back when I was restoring classic motorcycles, I had a seller refuse to refund my money when he had obviously posted a deceptive offering. When I gave him a poor review, he retaliated and said I was the one that was lying about the whole deal and trying to get something for nothing. Live and learn, and NEVER deal with them again!
Sadly, the best deals I’ve found is when the seller doesn’t no what they have, offering the item for much less than it’s worth, or mislabeling it where most others looking for the item wouldn’t think to look at that auction. Long gone are my days of sniping items at the last second. I’m more of a buy it now type these days. I know what I want and what I’m willing to pay for it. These latest deals were one of those “Make an Offer” types.
Shiny and New?
From eBay? Nope. As luck would have it, I got a great deal on an Aristocraft Milwaukee Road Mikado from an online dealer! Listed as “Very Good” and in the box, the price was already lower than anything I’d seen on eBay for similar items. Couple that with a 10% off coupon and it’s a deal. That 10% almost covered the tax and shipping. I think they priced it low because the tender had been modified with some sort of aftermarket electronics added to it.
Talk about a deal! I’d even call it a steal. The only way I knew there was something in the tender from the pictures was the handle of a toggle switch protruding from beneath the floor. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but knew it was some sort of electronics. For less than $450 delivered, I had a “new to me” Mikado. Of course the first thing I had to do was see if it ran. Normally that would be as easy as applying power to the wheels. Not this time though.
I did a quick internet search for the manuals and such. Near as I could tell, the plugs and wires I could see kind of matched the schematics? The front pilot was fitted with an Aristocraft coupler and the “cow catcher” was missing. One of the cast steps from the tender was broken off and missing too. There were other loose parts floating around, like the whistle and rear pilot, but not those parts.
Oh well. For what I paid, I can’t complain, although I might argue with the “Very Good” rating they gave it.
Such a Deal
One of the first things I did was take the shell off the tender to see what electronics lurked inside. Not that I’d know what I was looking at mind you. There’s a built in circuit card, and additional circuit card, a speaker, a small battery pack, a couple of switches, one in the tender floor and one in the tender shell, and a bunch of mix matched wiring, complete with wire nuts. Ugh. Thankfully there’s a connector to the switch in the tender shell.
The additional circuit card uses “modern” surface mount components. It has one large, apparently custom chip, with 40 – 50 pins and a large “sticker” on it. I try Googling the numbers from the sticker and other components but not getting a good match from any of them. I’ve never used the image search feature… Until now. That’s what it takes to get me a valid match. Turns out it’s a Phoenix sound system! Nice!
At least that’s what I thought, until I tried to find more information. It’s a BigSound™ 2K2, short for model year 2002 I’m guessing. But I’m too late to the party. They went out of business more than a year ago. Even though I’m able to find a saved version of their website on the “WayBack Machine” site, looks like none of the PDF or MP3 files were saved. Damn! That means no manuals, no sound files, nothing.
Now What?
I did manage to find the manual and more information on various large scale sites, and one user even brags he recently made a copy of the Phoenix site, but advises to just throw them in the bin. Great. Thanks for the help. Any information gleaned from a site no longer available, that might help support others willing to take the time to keep these things working, would be greatly appreciated.
If you’re reading this and have the sound files, and are willing to share them, please let me know. If you have the programming interface and installation CD, even the schematic, I’m interested in those too. The bottom line is I have one of these sound systems and it still works fine. I’d like to keep it working and not just throw it away because there’s something newer and better.
The good news is IT WORKS! Let me see if I can figure out a way to embed a video player here. I may need to link to one already deployed on the web site itself. It has chuff, dynamo, automatic whistle, cylinder cock steam hiss, and bell on first motion. The chuff must be speed sensitive since it has some sort of magnet/reed switch sensor on one of the tender axles.
Sound Works, But Does It Run?
One of the first things I did after diving into the sound system was to take the engine apart, both to clean it and see if I could just apply power to the circuit board and get it to run that way. I was able to download the manual and parts diagrams for it along with the schematic. It shows a “jumper board” that can be replaced by DCC or other means of remote control. It’s nice that one end has the power connection and the other end the ground.
It has a built in switch to select battery power or track power, but applying power to the pickups on either of the pilot or pony trucks doesn’t work, regardless of the position of the switch. That small battery pack is just to keep the sounds playing when track power is removed. I was hoping it was some sort of battery power arrangement for running the locomotive too, but no such luck. With the shell removed, I have access to the circuit card.
Connecting the adjustable bench supply using a set of test jumpers, I slowly increase the voltage. With the base of the engine laying on its side, the drivers slowly begin to move. IT WORKS TOO! Wahoo! Not sure why the power pickups on the engine aren’t working, but at least I know once it gets power it will move. Would hate to think it relies on just two axles on the tender for power, but a battery power conversion will fix that.
It’s Alive!
I am absolutely thrilled with these results. The next step is to get things working reliably. To that end, I begin disassembling the drive mechanism. This is a strange beast to behold though. Each axle has its own dedicated gear box, all connected together by drive shafts, with the last axle also connected to the motor by drive shaft. I start with the lead axle gearbox, carefully removing the side rods and the the gear box itself.
Or should I say rod? That’s when I find the engineer’s (right) side is missing the link between the first and second axles. Bummer. I can probably design and 3D print something that will fit, but these are all metal side rods, and I’d rather fashion something from metal than plastic. What are the odds of finding that replacement part for a 20 year old engine? Slim to none I would wager. Disappointing, but not a show stopper.
Digging deeper into the first gear box, I realize at least one of the wheels will need to come off to split the gear box halves and expose the innards. The gear box itself is plastic, the halves held together by two screws each on opposite sides. The worm is metal and the drive line components have ball bearings on either end of the worm shaft. The axle also has ball bearings. The weird thing is the wheel and axle is taper fit. Never seen that before.
Replacement Parts
Generally wheels and axles are keyed to each other in some fashion to ensure quartering is maintained between sides. This design relies on the taper fit to wedge the wheels to the axles. The tighter the wheel retaining screw, the tighter the fit to the axle. Again, not a show stopper, but I realize it’s going to take some sort of quartering jig to maintain ALL the wheel positions relative to each another and decide to stop with that first axle.
The ball bearings looks to be single sided metal shielded, and the one at the front of that first axle gear box is pretty rusty and crusty. Its movement feels rough too. Time to replace it, but I don’t have any bearings on hand that will fit. Time to grab the measurements and see what’s available. The nice thing about bearings is they’re standardized and can be identified with just the measurements.
I ordered a pack of 10 for when I finally decide to get in there. I’d do a total refresh of the gear boxes and such, but for now, it will be easy enough to just replace that front bearing without having to tear the rest of the driveline apart. Until I come up with a quartering jig, there’s no way I’m tearing it all apart. The goal is to get it running “good enough”. It would be a good thing to get the track good enough to run on first.
Next steps
As luck would have it, there are just enough spare run in stands to assemble together for the engine to sit on, and in matching black no less! It takes every last one I have that isn’t dedicated to another engine type. I’ll need to 3D print and assemble 8 more for the tender, but considering it can just sit on the rails with no moving parts, there’s no great hurry or need. For now, we’re all set.