I took on the servicing of a friend's Rail-King Pennsy F-3 ABA Diesel set, PS2 equipped I believe, #8970, 8060, 8971. Things were not running right, and when it did run, it looked quite "sparky" under the engine.
After opening, I found the much discussed "white NiCad battery" and have ordered a NiMh 9v replacement. I did make what I now think was a mistake by running this engine before removing the shell on the powered A unit - when I turned off track power, all sounds went away immediately - that was clue #1 that the battery was bad, or at least needed charging. After reenergizing everything and letting it sit for about 15 min with the throttle around 12 volts, the battery seemed to take a bit of a charge, and everything seems to now work OK, at least on conventional (all I have available.)
Cleaning the gears, I discovered one spot where they locked up solid. After a thorough wash job in mineral spirits and fresh grease, everything's operating smooth as silk - must have been some debris stuck to one of the gears.
The smoke unit was dry, the smoke switch was on, and the wick looks like this:
Does this wick need to be replaced, or is it ok to just move an unburned area up around the heating elements? And is there a recommended technique for "wick stuffing"???
