Wow, it's been a while, but I'm back, and once again I'm in need of some help with my trains. A long time ago, I purchased a TYCO Chattanooga 638 2-8-0 and I asked if it was worth working with: http://www.zealot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=163494
Well, a little over a year and a half later, that engine is now torn apart and is in pieces, awaiting the day that I stop procrastinating and get it running again. So far all I've really done is remove the smoking mechanism, which looked like it should have been disposed of years ago, and the wires are all disconnected so the tender-drive doesn't work anymore (it hardly did, anyways) but all the other parts are still around and I need some help with what to do from here.
Namely, I need to remotor it, the new motor being mounted in the actual engine boiler (like any decent modern steam engine), and with that I've got a whole list of problems associated with it:
-What are the specific specifications of the new motor? (I hear NWSL's motors work best for repowering TYCO's, but there are so many measurements that necessitate different engines that I don't know where to begin)
-How will the drivers be reworked so that all four driver axels are working?
-How can I retain the old "boxy" tender but scrap the worthless tender drive and install a DCC set-up in it that's wired to the front motor?
-How can I modify the front truck to not derail every time it hits a switch?
Any help at all will be appreciated, and I'm willing to try alot since I'm not loosing a whole lot if this project goes south.
Well, a little over a year and a half later, that engine is now torn apart and is in pieces, awaiting the day that I stop procrastinating and get it running again. So far all I've really done is remove the smoking mechanism, which looked like it should have been disposed of years ago, and the wires are all disconnected so the tender-drive doesn't work anymore (it hardly did, anyways) but all the other parts are still around and I need some help with what to do from here.
Namely, I need to remotor it, the new motor being mounted in the actual engine boiler (like any decent modern steam engine), and with that I've got a whole list of problems associated with it:
-What are the specific specifications of the new motor? (I hear NWSL's motors work best for repowering TYCO's, but there are so many measurements that necessitate different engines that I don't know where to begin)
-How will the drivers be reworked so that all four driver axels are working?
-How can I retain the old "boxy" tender but scrap the worthless tender drive and install a DCC set-up in it that's wired to the front motor?
-How can I modify the front truck to not derail every time it hits a switch?
Any help at all will be appreciated, and I'm willing to try alot since I'm not loosing a whole lot if this project goes south.