Heavy metal upgrade

[richg]

Quite a few months ago I picked up an old HO MDC, 4-4-2 off of ebay which is all metal, not brass, with all metal tender.
I have always like the older MDC/Roundhouse locos. This one I think is first generation, 1952, as it does not have the compound gear arraignment like the newer ones do. My plane is to convert it to DCC with a Tsunami.
First, it needed a new motor and gears. The old open frame Pittman type drive needed 2 amps at 12 vdc.
It now has a NWSL motor with new gears and the tender is being fitted with a Tsunami light steam decoder and 20mm x 40mm speaker.








The styrene base will have two large plastic washers over the post to seal of the tender chamber.
I have two small connectors to connect the decoder to the loco.
Need to figure out how to light the loco headlight as it has a jewel in the headlight at this time.

Looks like I will be able to put a firebox light in also.



Rich

[jonathan]

Rich,

Nothing quite so satisfying as breathing new life into an old loco.  She's gonna be a beauty.

Can't wait to see the final results.

Did the new gearbox fit on the original axle gear?  I'm assuming you had to extract the driver and do all the pulling and quartering.  Would love to know how difficult it was.

Thanks for sharing.

Regards,

Jonathan

[richg]

Rich,

Nothing quite so satisfying as breathing new life into an old loco.  She's gonna be a beauty.

Can't wait to see the final results.

Did the new gearbox fit on the original axle gear?  I'm assuming you had to extract the driver and do all the pulling and quartering.  Would love to know how difficult it was.

Thanks for sharing.

Regards,

Jonathan

No gearbox per say. Just the worm gear on the driver shaft and worm on the motor shaft. Below is a list of the parts. I had someone do it for me as I am slowly losing sight in my left eye, macular degeneration. Depth perception is not what it use to be.
I have the puller and quarter from NWSL as I use to do the upgrades.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macular_degeneration

A fellow in our club is very good at painting and decalling and he take care of those issues in the future.

Rich