Rare drive mechanism

J

jeffrey-wimberl

Active Member
Oct 25, 2006
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Sundown, Louisiana, USA
You guys ever see a drive unit like this? Yes, that's an open frame motor you see. The chassis frame is two pieces, upper and lower, the drive line is somewhat like Athearn, with metal gears.

oldbach1.jpg


Believe it or not, this is the chassis of a thirty year old Bachmann that I recently converted to DCC. It was made in Germany in the 70's and I've seen very few like it.
 
looks like an older bachmann drive from the early to late 70s, before the pancake motor, noisy and not a great drive system, i have one of them in a gp 40 or gp 30
 
That's what this is in is a GP40, and you're right, it is noisy. I'm thinking about removing the open frame motor (which looks like a Mehano motor the more I look at it) and replacing it with a can motor, maybe a Mashima motor.
 
jeffrey-wimberl said:
The result of a very cheap camera.
Click to expand...

Ouch.

Hmm...I kind of like the look of the engine itself, glad you're not going to just toss it out entirely. I dunno about the manufacturer, but I would go with the cam motor instead of the open frame one any old time.
 
the lack of detail and other problems with the shell, i am not sure it is worth the price of re motoring and putting in new grears ( the trucks are also nosiy in mine) , after all that cost and hard work i think you might be better off to park that monster, fire breathing unit on a siding and let nature take it course. ( I have mine all painted in white primer and it seats on a sliding most days when the leasing company does not need the extra horse power to break down)
Take the extra money and put it into a new repalcement GP 40 and start with something good
 
I decided it was time to remotor this beast. I had planned on using a Mashima motor but couldn't find one in my parts box. I did however find a PPW motor that I had gotten to remotor a 4 axle switcher, which I never got around to doing. Removing the old open frame motor was easy enough. It was getting the can motor to go in that was the tough part. It took a little grinding, a little coaxing, some kind words and some glue to get it place, but it's done. It's a shotgun wedding if ever there was one, but it's a 300% improvement. The locomotive used to hitch (jerk) when going from low speed to high speed. No longer. Now it's a smooth acceleration from low speed to high speed. And it's much quiter. Before it sounded like a small pepper mill. Now it's almost silent.
 
Good deal! I know some folks snub their noses at some of the older Bachmann and Tyco stuff, but I have some of it that I'm not willing to part with. My take on it is "I like her, so I'll keep her". My Tyco 0-4-0 looks kinda funny running around with brass GP-20's and Atlas GP-40's, but hey, I enjoy it and that's what matters.

Besides, I've seen some real silk purses made from some pretty old, troublesome engines. All it takes is some details and some imagination.

Now, back to rebuilding that fleet of Tyco flat cars...
 
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