PE Wire Greaser car (Suydam)

[60103]

This is an old Suydam model of a PE work car. When PE changed from wheels to shoes for overhead pickup, there was a lot of friction created with the wire. Their solution was this wire greasing car.
The middle pole was for power. The ones at the ends had a tube below the shoe that held a stick of grease which was pushed pneumatically agains the wire as the car ran.

 

[60103]

Now my car has a problem -- not surprising as it's 35-40 years old.
One of the gears in the train on the powered truck has split.The car runs one wheel turn in either direction.
Adding to the problem, the truck is assembled with nice small screws that are hard to access, until we come to the side frames which are soldered on. :curse:
So I can't even pull the axle out.

Any ideas? Anyone have an old, broken flat motor with replacement truck?

 

[TinGoat]

Time to Re-Truck

Hi David,

Last things first. I'm afraid that you are going to have to de-solder those side-frames. :curse:

Hold the side-frame gently with a pair of needle nose plyers and apply the tip of the soldering iron to the inside of the truck frame.

As soon as the solder is hot enough to melt, the sideframe will be released and immediatly start to cool. This should be safe on White-Metal castings.

I wouldn't worry about using de-soldering braid. Just clean up the inside faces of the Side-Frames with a flat file.

I would recommend that this would be a good time to not only re-truck, but re-motor your Wire Greaser.

In my bookmarks -> Folder "Railroading" -> Sub-Folder "Parts and Manufacturers"...

High Level (UK) has some powered bogies and un-powered bogies.

Bowser also has a selection of Trolley type trucks.

There's North West Short Line's Flea and PDT's.

Lastly, there's Hollywood Foundry's line of "Bull Ants".

You can also try to hunt down a Black Beetle.

Also, you can check eBay for "Trolley" to find new side-frames etc...

 

[60103]

Thanks Mr. Goat.
As far as I can see, thr's no white metal on the car -- all brass. My worry would be soldering the truck back together!

 

[TinGoat]

Time to re-truck

Hi David,

My worry would be soldering the truck back together!

Yes, I get that impression... sign1

Kind of a hassle to set up a jig for only one truck.

The side-frames are more than just Aesthetic, they're actually holding the ends of the axles.

I'm thinking that if one gear has split after a few decades, the others will likely follow. So I'd re-truck and/or also re-motor this baby now.

I'd suggest the The BullAnt LoBoy Trolley Truck from Hollywood Foundry as your best option. It looks like it would be and easy "drop-in" replacement.

File the backs of the Side-Frames flat and then you can either solder or glue them to the tabs on the new trucks.

 

[60103]

Ron: that looks like what I need. The conversion they use for illustration shows all the features of my trucks.
Now if I can just get the financing authorized...

 

[b1gy1n]

Hi David,too avoid taking everything apart have you looked at gluing the split gear back together,have done this on a few bogies that came my way with split gears,it might be worth a try,regards Marc