3Rd Rail locomotive Repairs

Well, I’m in Minnesota, if you can’t find an east coast guy, let me know. I’m listed on the 3rd Rail website as an authorized repair shop.

Today is Tuesday, they are closed.  I will call them tomorrow.

bruce

Look here 

http://www.3rdrail.com/repairs.htm

Yes. Roy Andlotte of Roy Trains is a dealer and repair man for Scot at 3rd rail. He has done a lot of work for me and I have several locomotives on order from him. He is in Mich. 

Bruce you can go direct to Scot and if they have parts for the engine would sell.  If your talking about repairing brass and other mechanical items that may be out of stock, your probably better off with some of the recommendations received above.  G

Earlier imports used a brass axle gear.  Brass is a horrible material for gears.  They went to bronze, and may have replacements.

The repair is simple, but requires someone who knows how to quarter drivers.  If you are skilled enough to get the bad driver out and back in, it is not hideously expensive, but if you have to ship the whole locomotive you are looking at $500 before it is over.  Shipping alone will eat up $100 of that.  The gear is either free or a dollar ninety eight.

Wow, What is labor rate on that, and how many hours?  G

Royz is the really the only place to go for out of warranty 3rdrail engines for repair.

With that Stated, 3rdrail customer service has gone downhill ever since they moved and Gary their parts guy did not go with them in the move.   For one 3rdrail only accept calls on Mon, Wed, and Friday.   While the woman you talked is very nice, I've tried to get of hold of there parts guy,  everytime I've called he's not there, leave a message and no return calls.   Also you were used to be able to email Scott directly, and I don't get responses anymore.  the Info@3rdrail.com email address not responses.   Only time I hear from them is when I they want payment.

Now I understand they can't keep parts for every engine they have made but at least can be helpful in finding traction tires or something like that.

My other concern is with 3drail now selling ERR products, who do you call if you have an issue????

Yeah, I’m with GGG, that seems shockingly high. To change out a gear and run thru a loco with a tune up ought to run about 3 to 4 hours labor and shouldn’t exceed about $150 on the high end.  Scott usually has parts available. 

Superwarp, I have not heard anyone who shares in your experience and I just had an email conversation with Scott the other day. The communication and customer service from 3rd Rail has been in exceptional in my experience. 

Yeah - I don't do much of this kind of work because I don't like to work for free.  I get $80/hr flying, and was at $50/hr doing repair work, but a really nice guy took me up on that and I couldn't get to my own projects.  So I raised that to $75 out of self-preservation.

I agree, three to four hours for a gear change.  That's $150-200, for each engine, or $300-400 for an articulated (if they are brass gears, you need to change both).

Shipping has become a giant cost driver - count on a minimum of $50 each way.  There is your $500.

But if you pull the driver out and ship only that, it takes a half hour each to press and re-quarter.  And shipping drops precipitously.

There are hobbyists who work for less than minimum wage, and some are quite good.  Find one of them!  My buddy found a guy who would fix PSC stuff for $6/hr.  I wouldn't work on it for any amount of money - each tender truck had 170 pieces, and they were shorting out.  Yow!

If it's an older model and, the parts aren't available, Gary Yoesle is your best bet.  He was their primary technician/in house repair guy.  When they moved to San Ramon he retired.  He has many of the older parts.  I have some of the gears also.  Would need to know for sure which gear...if, in fact, that's the problem.  Could be a belt with broken or missing teeth.

Jay