Yes, the belt drive. Club members call it a "rubber band" drive even though it's not a rubber band. We call anything that is not geared a rubber band. Glad to hear that it is probably DCC ready. The motor appears to be isolated. Now all I have to do is figure out why it is not running in DC mode even though it was when I put it in the box several years ago when I converted my home "layout" (loosely used term). I took it apart and all the wires look good. None broken. I just burnt up a TCS A6x in a Walthers diesel locomotive (yes, the motor was isolated and the decoder was wired correctly so I don't know what happened other than it looked like a steam locomotive running down the track) so while I'm on a roll, I think I will put a decoder in it and see what happens. Maybe I can have smoke without actually having to buy a smoke generator unit. Model railroading is fun.

Jerry

Disassembly was exactly as described. Spectrum's are well designed and come apart and go together easily. I am also working on an older Genesis Mike and after getting everything back together I found I still had 2 screws on the bench. Hmmm! Another question, the tender has a circuit board with an 8 pin plug. Does that mean this locomotive is DCC ready? I, fortunately have found the original box and paper work but there is no mention of DCC (or a date). I know (think) I bought this at least 8 years ago when the only Hobby Shop in Corpus Christi went out of business. It has the rubber band drive. I don't know if Spectrum still uses this type of drive.

Jerry

Thanks, I will give it a try.

Jerry

I have a first generation Spectrum Mountain that has been in the box for several years and it would not run when I put it on the track. I want to get it running and put DCC and/or sound in it. Does anyone know how the shell comes off? I downloaded an exploded diagram for the new models but it doesn't seem to be very clear about shell removal.

Thanks,

Jerry Hunt