A merry week to all - this past weekend my family was involved in the Montana Renaissance Festival at Zoo Montana. We had a good, sunny time, and hope lots of people were able to enjoy it.
In the Train Room, the roster has changed significantly. The heavyweight train, MRL freight, trolley, and C&NW steam switcher have all been safely stored. The new track lineup is as follows:
Track 1: C&NW Doodlebugs
Track 2: Caboose Train led by IC GP9
Track 3: Fast Reefer Freight led by RI 4-8-4
Track 4: the Rocky Mountain Rocket
When I last attempted to run the Lionel Rock Island 4-8-4 steam locomotive (7 years ago), it was not working properly. It received track power fine, and the lights and smoke unit worked fine, but the motor seemed like it wasn't strong enough to move the locomotive. So, when I placed it on the track this week, the first thing I did was lubricate it with grease and oil. I removed the shell, which allowed me to add oil to the wick on the motor. This did not resolve the problem.
Next I removed the motor assembly for inspection. This locomotive uses a very similar design to the #726 Lionel Berkshire 2-8-4 locomotive built over 60 years ago. In fact, a motor from the 726 could be transplanted into this one, which was built in 1987. I checked the worm gear and made sure that there was sufficient lubricant surrounding it. The rotor spun freely when manually turning it, so this proved that there weren't any foreign objects obstructing it. The same was true of the drive wheels, which move freely with the motor detached from the chassis.
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| Shell-less 4-8-4 locomotive |
I removed the brush plate to view the brushes and the armature assembly. The brushes look like they have seen a lot of service, and could be the cause of the problem. I put the motor assembly back together, and placed it on the chassis to ground it. Then I applied power to the track and cycled the engine. The motor, though not attached to the worm gear, still behaved erratically, having great trouble making more than a few revolutions. Obviously this narrowed down the problem to the motor assembly itself, and not the worm gear, drivers, or anything else on the chassis.
The next day, I looked up this problem online. I found that this locomotive and its clones are notorious for motor problems. So, that made me feel a bit better! The online microferroequinologist community have a lot of content regarding fixes for this engine. Three problems/solutions, or a combination of the three, seem to be common:
1. The brushes that came with the locomotive are the wrong diameter, so they need to be replaced with correctly-sized brushes
2. The rear and front motor bearings need to be replaced
3. The angle of the motor needs to be adjusted to properly contact the worm gear
With this information, I felt more equipped to address the issue. Last night I did some more troubleshooting, suspecting the brushes as the main culpret in the locomotive. After disassembling and reassembling the motor again, I applied power to the track, and at the same time applied some pressure (via a screwdriver point) to one of the brush springs. This resulted in a lot of noise and movement. The motor started running at top speed immediately while sitting on the chassis. This was surprising and fortunate, because my observations of the motor assembly proved that a motor bearing replacement would be a major undertaking. I cycled the E unit into the opposite direction, and the motor whirred to life again, although not perfectly smooth.
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| Motor with brush plate removed |
I placed the motor assembly back on the worm gear for testing, and it just spun and spun without engaging. Well, this just taught me that the motor has to be fully affixed to the frame to actually cause locomotion. So, I screwed it back on, but the locomotive still seemed to be having great trouble moving. I loosened the motor mount screws a bit, and it began spinning again. With a bit of testing, I found a happy medium point where the motor armature appropriately engaged the worm gear, and... ta da! The locomotive sprang into motion again after many years of sitting in the roundhouse!
Rock Island 5100 still has several more tests to pass before it can be given a clean bill of health for active duty, but last night's endeavors proved very encouraging. The shell is still off, and I have not tried putting a load on the engine yet, but I will address this very soon. With the shell off, it is easy to view the "puffing smoke" mechanism in action, which is basically a plate that moves up and down in time with the drivers to let smoke come out on queue. And speaking of smoke, the smoke fluid from 7 years ago is still in the locomotive and is puffing today!
The 1987 Rock Island "Northern" engine was the flagship of the Lionel catalog at one time, and sported a new sound feature called "Mighty Sound of Steam". It isn't that mighty compared to the sound systems of today's engines, but it matches the somewhat clunky nature of the locomotive's motor, so I think it fits just right. It is a visually striking scale locomotive and I hope a little bit of service will keep it running for decades to come. As a youngster I remember gawking at this engine in the catalog, and it is special to have one of my own now in my own train room.
Now for the fifteenth part of the future passenger train series: The Rock Island's Rocky Mountain Rocket. The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific (known as the CRIP to you Rail Baron players) had a fleet of streamlined passenger trains which had "rocket" in their names. One of these was the Rocky Mountain Rocket, which ran between Denver and Chicago. It began service in 1939, and for its 27-year run it faced a lot of competition for passengers from other railroads along the route. The passenger cars were silver stainless steel, and the locomotives were painted maroon, red, and silver.
My RMR is actually an amalgamation of a Rocket and the Golden State passenger train. The same types of locomotives and sleeping cars were used on both the RMR and Golden State, so my consist isn't that far off. The Golden State train was a joint venture between the Rock Island, the Pennsylvania, and the Southern Pacific, and ran from Chicago to Los Angeles starting in 1902 (with significantly different equipment at that early date.) Anyway, Mark's Rocky Mountain Rocket is pulled by two Williams E7 engines, and currently consists of 5 aluminum Golden State passenger cars manufactured by K-Line. The cars are headed by an RPO car, followed by a coach, two dining cars, and a flat-end observation car. Sometimes, the flat-end observation is replaced with a special business car, which is currently dressed in a "K-Line Millennium" livery. This car is prototypical except for the livery, and has very low collector's value, so I would like to alter this car in the future to match an actual railroad.
This train is unique in that it has two dining cars and no baggage car. So, passengers can eat well, but they can't take much with them! The Rock Island 4-8-4 steam locomotive would also look good heading this train, although in real life this was an all-diesel consist. My Rocky Mountain Rocket will travel from Silver Falls to all points on the layout, and will be available for special dinner trains between Pinecone and Cedar Valley, and between Fence Lake and Iron Horse National Park.
