Repowering a Bachmann Metroliner

green_elite_cab

Keep It Moving!
Hello!

I have a Metroliner powered car. The thing runs ( and would probably run better if i did some extra maitenance on it and cleaned the wheels up) but its growl is getting on my nerves.

Does anyone have any expierience with this locomotive? I'll post pictures later, because the inside is surprisingly cramped.
 
Heya Green,

Is this one of those notorious Bachmann pancake motor drive Metroliners, or an earlier one with a worm-gear drive?

If it's a worm-gear drive, maybe a cleaning and lube job will do the trick..

If it's a pancake drive.. Oy. peasoup
 

green_elite_cab

Keep It Moving!
Oh no, this is a whole different animal. Its a older 30 year old can motor, with a geared drive (no worm gears). when i initally got it, it wasn't set right and the gears wouldn't mesh, but there were shims left inside the locomotive under the shaft bearings, so i took them and put the under the horizontal gears, and that solved the problem.

I do have picture of this part! its the motor case thats half the battle, i can't figure how i'll hook a new motor in there. The other issue is the shaft itself, I'm not sure how i'd hook the motor to that. i'll need to take another picture though.

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Several possibilities...

- You can try repowering it with self-powered trucks like the PDTs from Northwest Short Line (These things ain't cheap though): http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=&scale=H&manu=&item=&keywords=self-powered+truck&instock=Q&split=300&Submit=Search

- Or you can try repowering it with the chassis from a Proto 1000 RDC-- It has the same exact wheelbase as the Metroliner. I don't know if the P1K RDC is geared to run fast though.

- Or you can try fiddling with the existing mechanism yep... The growling is coming from the motors and not the gears, right? Yea maybe a new motor would help... You might have to use small diameter rubber hose as coupling though.

When I was a kid back in the 1980s I also got some Bachmann Metroliners, but they were the ones with the Pancake motor drive. POS died within a week. Now that I think about it, I was surprised I didn't give up on this hobby right then and there.. Most of my childhood friends did though because of cheap crap like that.

EDITED TO ADD: I don't have a Metroliner car set now, but if I get my mitts on some in the future, I'm going to try the Proto 1000 RDC chassis as a repower, because the Proto mechanism is also much easier to convert to DCC! :D
 

green_elite_cab

Keep It Moving!
LongIslandTom said:
Several possibilities...

- You can try repowering it with self-powered trucks like the PDTs from Northwest Short Line (These things ain't cheap though): http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=&scale=H&manu=&item=&keywords=self-powered+truck&instock=Q&split=300&Submit=Search

- Or you can try repowering it with the chassis from a Proto 1000 RDC-- It has the same exact wheelbase as the Metroliner. I don't know if the P1K RDC is geared to run fast though.

- Or you can try fiddling with the existing mechanism yep... The growling is coming from the motors and not the gears, right? Yea maybe a new motor would help... You might have to use small diameter rubber hose as coupling though.

When I was a kid back in the 1980s I also got some Bachmann Metroliners, but they were the ones with the Pancake motor drive. POS died within a week. Now that I think about it, I was surprised I didn't give up on this hobby right then and there.. Most of my childhood friends did though because of cheap crap like that.

I don't think the PDTs will work... I've looked into them but they'd require modifications i'm not sure i can handle.

people have reccomended the RDC before, but the bottom details will be off, and that will bother me, lol. i think if i can find a way to shoove a good motor in there, the problems will be solved.

It sounds like a Pancake, but i think it works. Its pretty strong to, but it only starts moving higher up at higher voltage. To be fair, when i first got it, i didn accidentally break one of the geared wheelsets, and replaces it with a spare part Dummy i bought, so its really only running on 6 of 8 wheels.

I'll definitely keep the rubber tubing idea in mind. I don't doubt that there will be a small enough motor to fit in there. I can probably get an SW style athearn motor in there, with some filing and cutting of the diecast frame. there are metal "half walls" that hold the current motor where it is. Maybe i can wire an athearn motor into it.


Yeah, I heard of the pancake motor ones. All of my dummy metroliners are the original first run (which have more details present on them, although the paint job sucks. I might repaint these one day.) the dummys had drawbars ( another desireable feature on something that runs back and forth) so i needed to find a first run power car. I got lucky and found a junk unit ( the shell is ripped up and dirty, but i might be able to fix it and use it for a cab car) but the mechanism, after running and lubing it, worked, and after correctly orienting the shims and truck covers, and a new shell from a spare dummy, it all seems to work well, apart from the noise and heat.

The motor probably won't die anytime soon, but its not the best quality, and i think it would benefit greatly with an update.
 
H

haberbeckbrandao

1976 Bachmann powered Metroliner car

Hi,

Unfortunately I posted some pictures of my work on a Metroliner powered car in other topic and didn't see this one.wall1
No problem.
I had to change the drive of my unit and I found a particular manner to assemble the new motor (a double flywheel Atlas motor) in the existing original Bachmann chassis. I used the original shaft couplers combined with a transmission shaft. The metal original axles were cutted to fit the assembly
longitudinal length.
These are some of the images taken after the job finish.
Carlos
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H

haberbeckbrandao

Hi, good night:thumb:

Reading all these old posts I could understand that the problems in repowering a Metroliner set is common between its owners, including me,
living outside North America. I attempted to change the original motor and
transmission according to the attached pictures below:
The motor is a dual flywheel Atlas
The transmission is a custom assembly with Bachmann and Frateschi parts.
The powered unit is running very well, in spite of the usual gears' noise.
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H

haberbeckbrandao

repowering metroliner with atlas double flywheel motor

Hi,
I made my own upgrade on my Metroliner powered unit.
The old Bachmann transmission system offers few options to modify it.
These gears type are more recommended for slot cars, certainly.
Anyway, living outside the US, it's very difficult (and expensive) to get
alternative transmissions to fit here.
I found a double flywheel Atlas motor and made elastic couplings in each axle.
The solution improved the engine's speed but didn't reduced the system's noise. Anyway I'm trying other solutions over this assembly.
Regards
Carlos

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H

haberbeckbrandao

repowering metroliner with atlas double flywheel motor

I made my own upgrade on my Metroliner powered unit.
A double flywheel Atlas motor with elastic couplings in each axle.
The solution improved the engine's speed but didn't eliminate the system's noise. Anyway I'm working on it.

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H

haberbeckbrandao

Metroliner repowered

An alternative solution to change the original Bachmann motor by a
dual flywheel Atlas one

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H

haberbeckbrandao

An alternative solution to change the original Bachmann motor by a
dual flywheel Atlas one

Hi for all,

It's very hard to change foreign railroad models living outside the US, where there are few dealers of your main commercial brands, and high expenses to import spare parts from overseas.
My last post here was in September 2010, and I was trying to find another way to solve my repowering problems with my old 1976 Metroliner engine.
Finally, using local made parts, and remaining original Bachmann components, I got a very unusual manner to get a smooth and a relatively
silent running (similar to the earlier Athearn or Atlas engines).
Basically I used two Frateschi B-B power trucks (from regular G-12/G-22/
FA-1 and U5B engines), the same Atlas dual flywheel motor, and Frateschi power axles (extended) and a GE U20C chassis. The rest was a lot of imagination, many leveling shimes and adhesive resin.
I prefer to share the pictures with you. Remembering that it's only an exotic and specific solution for my case, here in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
After 34 years, I finally can enjoy my Metroliner. In our railroad model club
here, it's the only train of this model.
My best regards
Carlos

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