Old Diesel Loco Spares

[AndrewMabin]

Hi all - I am new to this forum and located in South Africa, far from available resources.  I am putting out a general call for help.  I have an early Bachmann EMD GP50 diesel loco (Eirie Lakawana) and one of the "stepped" gears in the gearbox has split into 2.  I am hoping that someone out there might even have a replacement gear or complete bogie for me or alternatively can tell me where to source these old parts.  Unfortunately, I do not have a service sheet for this loco but there are 2 of these gears in the motor bogie.   Perhaps someone else has experienced a similar problem and come up with a solution.  Your assistance/guidance would be appreciated.  Andrew

[Trainman203]

Unfortunately, into today's import-based model railroad world, parts availability is more often than not sporadic, a luxury of the days of yore.  By the time you invest in multiple blind alley searches, a new engine is probably an easier and better deal.

There are many and frequent such requests on this forum.  I think it's only a matter of time before some opportunity sensitive visionary creates a 3D printing business to supply this need.

[Trainman203]

Anyone ever thought of re-mating split gears with CA or epoxy with two reinforcing dowels made of 010" wire?  Old guitar string, very stiff, would work very well.

[jward]

There;s been alot of talk about repairing split gears over on the Tyco Depot. You may be able to find ideas you can use there, or ask away. Those guys live for resurrecting old locomotives many of us have written off.

http://tycodepot.com/

[Trainman203]

Disclaimer:  no Bachmann content- but lots of nostalgia!!

I was looking at the Tyco Depot.  Thanks for the link!  I had no idea!  It's a travel back in a time capsule, a blast from the past!  Especially the threads about the Mantua, Roundhouse, and Varney steam engines!  Lumps of lead that sort of looked like steam engines!  You could throttle them down all the way to a slow switching speed of a scale 20 MPH!   And we loved them!  The kits generally cost about $15-20 back then, in orbits just within the reach of our lawn mowing/paper route incomes.  The valve gear was always a challenge, I never got any of them really working right but it didn't matter!  We were model railroaders!  Right up there with the big dogs like John Allen! We all murdered those engines trying to modify and superdetail them, all of mine died horrible deaths, but all provided us with unbelievable fun and are fondly remembered in the golden mist of memory.

[jward]

Best of all, those guys have FUN!. They aren't too hung up on rivit counting. Instead, they come up with new and ingenious ways to keep those old clunkers running.Did you checque out the thread called Tyco Power Torque performance upgrades? Somebody figured out how to make decent runners out of those locomotives using slot car magnets. This is the sort of stuff you USED to buy the model magazines for, until they made themselves irrelevant.