I have to start by saying I’m a sucker for switchers. The odd, small, center cab, end cab, I guess it doesn’t really matter, I like them all. My fascination with the GE center cab started when MR ran a series of articles in the mid ‘80’s on the Arcade and Attica. The orange and black little switches where fascinating and quite the contrast to the big black N&W monsters that passed by my bedroom window every night.
About this same time Bachmann introduced the Spectrum line of locomotives and the GE 44 tonner was one of the first offerings. I remember being in the hobby shop with my dad and seeing one run on the display loop, just barely moving along. I HAD to have one. I didn’t get one that day, even though I seem to remember trying to convince my dad we HAD to have one. A few years ago I found one sitting on a hobby shop shelf marked with a bargain price of only $40. I figured why not, brought it home and put it on my shelf for the next few years.
So the other day I slid it down from the self thinking to myself “lets see what I can do with this”. On the test track it went. I let it run for a while and then started to test out its slow speed performance. Let’s just say it got the nick name Lurch. At first I thought the grease had dried from all the years of sitting. So off came the shell and I tore the thing apart and cleaned off all the old grease, checked the gage of the wheel sets and reassembled with new grease. Test run two wasn’t much better but with the shell off I could see what going on. The universal shafts flailing about, so much so they rub on the metal chassis. I took the drive line back apart and closely inspected all the pieces. Come to find out the universal cups are not molded concentric to the hole for the shaft. One end appeared to be worse than the other so I assembled it without the universal joint parts on the one end. Better, but still not the silky smooth running I was looking for.
Next I tried running just the motor, no universal joints. As I suspected the motor lopes at low RPMs. I thought I might be able to compensate for some of this with a good decoder. I had a Digitrax DZ123 decoder on hand for this project so I wired it up and placed the unit on the programming track and started adjusting CV’s with the laptop and DecoderPro. Better but still not what I had hoped for. An email to North West Short Line inquiring about universal joints ended up in an order for a repowering kit, motor, fly wheel (chasses modification required), and universal joints. I am now anxiously awaiting my NWSL parts and shopping for some orange and black paint. We’ll all see how this little project ends up.
About this same time Bachmann introduced the Spectrum line of locomotives and the GE 44 tonner was one of the first offerings. I remember being in the hobby shop with my dad and seeing one run on the display loop, just barely moving along. I HAD to have one. I didn’t get one that day, even though I seem to remember trying to convince my dad we HAD to have one. A few years ago I found one sitting on a hobby shop shelf marked with a bargain price of only $40. I figured why not, brought it home and put it on my shelf for the next few years.
So the other day I slid it down from the self thinking to myself “lets see what I can do with this”. On the test track it went. I let it run for a while and then started to test out its slow speed performance. Let’s just say it got the nick name Lurch. At first I thought the grease had dried from all the years of sitting. So off came the shell and I tore the thing apart and cleaned off all the old grease, checked the gage of the wheel sets and reassembled with new grease. Test run two wasn’t much better but with the shell off I could see what going on. The universal shafts flailing about, so much so they rub on the metal chassis. I took the drive line back apart and closely inspected all the pieces. Come to find out the universal cups are not molded concentric to the hole for the shaft. One end appeared to be worse than the other so I assembled it without the universal joint parts on the one end. Better, but still not the silky smooth running I was looking for.
Next I tried running just the motor, no universal joints. As I suspected the motor lopes at low RPMs. I thought I might be able to compensate for some of this with a good decoder. I had a Digitrax DZ123 decoder on hand for this project so I wired it up and placed the unit on the programming track and started adjusting CV’s with the laptop and DecoderPro. Better but still not what I had hoped for. An email to North West Short Line inquiring about universal joints ended up in an order for a repowering kit, motor, fly wheel (chasses modification required), and universal joints. I am now anxiously awaiting my NWSL parts and shopping for some orange and black paint. We’ll all see how this little project ends up.
