Amtrak F40ph

Starman

New Member
I brought this EMD F40PH AND I AM HAVING TROUBLE GETTING IT TO RUN.I HAVE TRIED TO CLEAN IT BUT THAT DID HELP A LITTLE,MY QUESTION IS WHAT CAN YOU USE TO GIVE IT A GOOD CLEANING THAT WILL NOT HURT IT.I BROUGHT THIS FOR A LITTLE CHILD WHO DOES NOT HAVE MUCH MONEY AND HIS PARENTS ARE IN A BAD SITUATION RIGHT NOW AND HE JUST LOVES TRAIN'S SO I AM TRYING TO HELP HIM OUT.PLEASE GIVE ME SOME WAY'S TO DO THIS.I DON'T LIVE CLOSE TO A HOBBY SHOP SO I THOUGHT THERE MIGHT BE SOMETHING AT HOME I MAYBE ABLE TO USE.
THANKS STARMAN
 
Please lower the caps and bold, Does it run at all? or just slowly and crappily (lol)
It could be the track from bad conditions, or maybe its just old and the connections inside are corroded (my old engines have rust inside on some connections; woops nvm u said u bought it lol) If its brand new it should run fine, I would assume something is wrong with the track or power or something of that sort...

MY unprofessional opinion.

~Kenny
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
There have been at least 2 companies who have manufactured the F40ph, and I think there may have been 4. One of the companies did it first with the cheap pancake motor drive which is virtually impossible to make run. The other models are variations on the Athearn drive design, but all use different style connections to rout power from the wheels to the motor. We need to have a make listed before we can go farther.
 

Starman

New Member
It is made by life like and i did get it to run not perfect but it is running.I use some alcohol on it and cleaned out what i could and then put it on my track and let it run for some time and it seem's to run but not perfect.
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
If it is a cheap Life-Like engine with a pancake motor (one "disc-type" motor mounted directly above the drive wheels), the only thing that will help it is a good cleaning of the wheels and possibly some added weight. Cleaning the track will help make it run better too.

Hope that helps.

Andrew
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
If it is the cheap Life Like with the pancake motor, it may not last long. If you have access to a local train show or swap meet, an old Athearn gp35 chassis will fit I think, and make a much better model. You might find one of those old gp35's with the wide hoods cheap at a train show or swap meet.
 
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