Rivarossi Big Boy query

[tac]

Any Rivarossi mavens out there?  I've been offered a Big Boy - mint in box - out of a collection - it is at least fifteen years old, and I need to know when Rivarossi changed the design of their motors to the more modern style.

I'm not about to ask if I can dismantle this one to find out as the owner is, shall we say, delicately poised on the precipice of reality at the best of times.

TIA

tac
www.ovgrs.org

[r0bert]

the old version had the motor in the cab, an easy spot, while the later versions have the motor inside the boiler.

[hotrainlover]

I have one from "15" years ago.  It has the motor in the boiler.  It was the last one Rivarossi made, before Hornby purchased them.  The version with the motor in the boiler, is already isolated.  It was easy to convert to DCC

[tac]

Thank you both for your answers - this one most definitely has the motor in the boiler, and if it has ever turned a wheel under power, I'll eat it with a sauce of your choice.

The seller wants $100 for it.

He has about 300 more hidden away, he says, and I'm hoping that I get to see them, or at least, some more of them, before he and the real world part company.

Thanks again.

tac
www.ovgrs.org

[Nigel]

Thank you both for your answers - this one most definitely has the motor in the boiler, and if it has ever turned a wheel under power, I'll eat it with a sauce of your choice.

The seller wants $100 for it.

He has about 300 more hidden away, he says, and I'm hoping that I get to see them, or at least, some more of them, before he and the real world part company.

Thanks again.

tac
www.ovgrs.org

One thing to watch out for - and improve - is the number on electrical pickups.  Rivarossi used kind of a brush backed by a coil spring in cylinder.  There are not enough pickups, and if the motor becomes the slightest bit overloaded, the pickups that are there over heat and start melting the surrounding plastic. 

It is easy to make additional pick-ups from phosphor bronze strip, and solder them to a thin PC board you add on the bottom between the drivers.  The bronze strip rubs against the drivers.  Or you can get Tomar or similar sliders - see Walthers.

[tac]

Thanks for that info, Nigel.  This loco is the latest version, I have now been shown by email piccy.

Best

tac
www.ovgrs.org

[PhilipCal]

Greetings Tac, IMHO. $100.00 for the locomotive is pretty reasonable.  Go for it.