Ahm/Rivarossi

I three railed an AHM 0-8-0 a while ago.  The original motor was pretty weak, so I replaced it with a Lionel can motor meant for a baby Hudson.  I also added a pilot truck to make it a 2-8-0.  It tracks pretty good on my Gargraves.

Well I did a lot. Wanting to prepare for three rail conversion, I shot ahead, not following the directions exactly, by order or example.

The important thing I discovered is, built as designed, this is an 0-42-ish locomotive, and will need a longer drawbar to even run on 0-36.

  It can't run on 0-31 because the pilot truck can't swing enough as is. Later I may relocate it from the fixed post, to an arm to allow more arc necessary to follow the noses overhang on 0-31 or smaller; but only if it does OK on Super-O's semi-correct flat top profile at 0-36. It barely clears gauge from the pilot posts overhang on 0-36; so I might have to grind a hair off from the truck's plastic, in the guide slot's ends too.

That said, no connecting rods , 2wd, a bridge rectifier and 1 diode for a voltage drop, it at least runs.  I think traction will be more a drawback than motor strength. Right now it seems it needs the former GG-1's pickup arm springs unwound a loop, and my custom pilot spring set up's downforce spring lightened or eliminated. Or more weight added?

I found this poking around today.

It looks almost like it could have been rejected AHM/Rivarossi box art.

And a ready to run version too.

Glue had to be applied and the frame juggled together without losing the position of the motor plate, spacers, and draw bars pin.

I also soldered the leads to. The pick up pin's terminals seen here and there.

The cabs rear supports kept straight for attaching.

End result and a couple better shots of the motor plate and freshly greased gear. The wheels are a no brainer, gear to the rear and the others slip into the correct holes. The center drivers have a copper spring plate that just sits on a peg held down by that axle and the gear cover.

Also if you look closely at each wheel between the frame and wheel flanges you'll see a small silver pin, than is actually a small plunger that rides the flange for electrical pick up. They just press through each of the terminals I pre soldered, wedging into the frame holes.

A cab support needs to be re-glued. Its weak and flexing there for some reason. Like that drop of glue won't cure. 24 hrs still flexes..??? (Newer glue there).

That's it for step "1" on the instructions. It looks harder than it is. The cab supports are the hardest thing so far. One step worse than the tender wall assembly.

The last few days centered around the pilot truck working on Super Is 0-36 curves, but the assembly was simple. Glue the frame halves to the center guide, insert wheel sets, cover with bottoms and tighten two screws.

The drivrrs are hitting the fenders as is. I may trim the curved edge, making the diameter bigger or shim them out later, but I'm leaving those and the brakes off for now.

The short connecting rods added, along with the black metal guide plate, where I mounted the bridge rectifier for running the DC motor on AC voltage. Both are mounted on the same screw, alonger replacement from my own box o screws. The long rod and valve gear wait till I'm ready.

The mtors worm was MASHED against the axle gear once assembled. 2 washers under the plate at the rear mounting screw #32 gave a nice mesh. After a slight break in of twenty minutes as an 0-6-0 frame, one washer was removed. After another hour or two, I'll try to remove the other. Also note, the many holes for screws #117, within the motors end cap are in a spiral patten for universal mounting. You have to turn and align the motor position till two cap holes face to match the width of the two plate holes/slots. The red bar to the right is the ballast weight. The pilot screw #118 screws into a hole at the bars tip; but I assembled this differently for 0-36. A screw will hold  the ballast bar there though, as you'll see next post.

I'm using a heavier wire from motor to bridge rectifier's + & -  output lega than what was supplied..

It is a closer match to the donor GG-1 roller wire(variable, ~ input on BR) and closer to the combined dia of the 4 wheel plungers wires actually supplied, all combined into one "common"(com on BR ~ input)

The gear/axle cover needed three holes drilled, stratigicly positioned fore and aft of a frame support. One small hole for an attaching screw, one large hole for the wire, one large hole for the centering tab. The centering tab was insulated with three layers of tape, stuck over the tab,  but under the roller.; sandwiched.

If you look into the frame near the lead drivers you can get an idea of how the bridge rectifier is mounted. The diode I had used to shave off 1.5v was removed. The motor likes over 12v just fine. It doesn't get as hot at 13.5 either. With the whistle circuit of the 1033 adding 5v, 18v sends it flying, minimal heat. The 0-36 pilot arm mod still needs to be added here, but pulls a few cars nice as a chassis...with some fishing lead to help weight.

Ididn't from follow these instructions to the letter. I did it my own way again. I want it to be able to be disassembled for painting, service, and upgades, so the boiler/cab will remain unglued from the floor/boiler belly. But it was used to brace the cab was for.glue cure, then for the cab to boiler glueing too, just to keep the whole thing staight, greatly helping on assembly. My way it will need two to four floor level.plastic plates made to go in the cabs corners to receive screws up through the floor boards to the cab/boiler to.hold it on nice. That can wait, its really just to close toe seams better; it's solid enough for the most part right now.

1st glued these two thickly. This area is going to have a nice strength to it when the other side gets the boiler too.

The blue tube, citrus based glue is slow curing.

Note the ballst bar at the belly's tip. The tapped hole for the long pilot screw/post goes there. Halfway down the belly is machine screw holding the bar again there. The two bosses at the rear attach the frame later.

The boiler nose is next.

Using the instructions illustration to locate parts led me on a wild goose chase for #70, a spacer like the frame has 3 of. There was no #75 on the tree nor a space for one. I could always drill it out if adding it hindered me, and  seeing a tab of use, I made my own and used it, assembling the half's around the tab. The assembly then got glued to the cab, and cured sitting loose on the floorboard/belly, to hold it in alignment.

Then I finally read the text , but no mention of it there . A withdrawn part but no edit to the illustration was done. This was before I knew Id be altering the pilot trucks attachment too. Its also the boiler's forward attachment point to the frame.

So I soon knew for sure I couldn't modify the post to work well. I opened the spacers hole and tried to let the weight assembly pivot but it wasn't enough, and so the long post and spring set was skipped, leaving a loose boiler. The added spacer plate being there can hold it by screw & washer now, so Im very glad I added that tab for no good known reason. If the screw head there wasn't short and recessed, as.it is now, and easiest to do now anyhow, it would need to have a long screw & washer to hold things secured to  the boilers square mount boss, and a  screw head there would interfere with the pilot truck . There was also another screw clearance issue that would have doubled the fun once the pilot truck got a different screw. Hunting hardware may have made this unnecessary, but taken hours...this is crude, but done, functions well, and there isn't much in the way of underside detail anyhow. It wasn't weakened much, but I may still fill the frame with JB Weld where I needed to clearance for the yellow pivot arms screw to the pilot. The yellow arm, screw, and square lock nut are modern mini- Erector Set pieces lol. It has run for over an hour without derailing now, but before I found the sweet spot, it took 3 hours of tweaking and clearancing to keep the pilot wheels planted for a lap. Once that spot was found however; no issues. Having the boiler on was the key. This thing has a balance over the center driver and needs a forward bias, while I was using a rear bias with sinker on the chassis trying to keep the load on the geared rear axle, and therefore less sideload strain on the only partially completed rod sets driving the fronts. Traction is lacking at this point. It's not heavy enough.  One lighted generals coach, or a wood reefer and two bobbers is its limit; but that changes.

nice story so far. I have a Casey Jones kit and I am watching you and your build. Funny how pics in your last post didn't show up.

Now weighing in at 1lb 8z. the light went in ...I bet it doesn't stay there though, lol. Not really a better place for an L.e.d., but till this dies, it stays...sort of.

The bread tie is to pull the wedged sinker out if needed. I filled the length of the boiler up pretty tight.

 It can pull two lit pass.cars &  two bobber cabooses, or 3 medium-heavy scale size cars W/loads, with 2 bobber cabins, or 5 freights twin bobber crummies....fraternal  

 Basically, it pulls pretty good now. Lack of traction is still holding it back more than anything I think. (Im having trouble deciding, but I think Id like three more volts to try so the kW or 18b might get moved to the layout again, lol. I used 1033s and their lesser watt. relatives, selectively, matching strongest transformers to weakest tracks and most accessory draw. The result is as I run things , I can jam the throttles to full and relax with few exceptions. An "upgrade"  to higher volts will bypass that custom child safety option.) Is +2-4v going to help or just increase the occasional wheel slip? Will fixing of rod side loads when those are completed help? Maybe. I could fill the shell closer to solid with splitshot too.  If I try light weight 0-27 fast angle boxcars and gondolas I bet I'd get ten on, so it out performs a few starter locos of the era. It pulls my intended minimum load plus the optional car: A  boxcar with no needle point axles, or lionel short mpc flat & good load.

  A wood reefer on pw needle points, a loaded bobber gon, a weighted bobber tanker, and a single bobber caboose were what I wanted for know.

  I'm thinking about bashing on some short On30 coaches. I need a short ultralight coach car on good trucks...six of um

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

nice story so far. I have a Casey Jones kit and I am watching you and your build. Funny how pics in your last post didn't show up.

Thanks, I think the pics are ok now. You might have caught the post early too. I've seen posts where the photos didn't show for me for hours, though I knew that others could see them right away I figure it was dependant on OS (this was pre-android too) The latest updates today seem to have eased some droid issues, but if anything is blank or black for more than overnight let me know as my view just might differ.

And fyi I will still be checking into getting this to fit 0-31 curves, but I think the cylinders would need to be raised, moved outward from the frame, or shortened to clear the pilot wheels. Any of which would need rod and valve work too. The other option is a custom pilot truck or 1/8" -ish extending of the present one to clear the cylinders at their front and rear.

Hopefully this short plays ok. If so, a short from another angle will be posted in "What did you do on your layout today", today, in just a bit. I'd link but I would loose this post if I change pages to copy the address.

I found it does well at slower speeds than this too. The motor is decent on torque really, just a bit slower than I'm used to seeing with my "toys"

(But the voltage higher than 14v (estimate for now) wakes up more torque and the speed both. A longer train can be had, I'm very sure. This was my minimum requirement, easily pulled)

Hey there, its looking great from what I could see at the speed it went by! The video played just fine for me.. I am glad you got it going, but can you slow it down so we can enjoy it more? Sure didn't take you long to go from a box of parts to a finished product!

   Once the tender, cab and boiler were put together, overall, the remaining kit doesn't seem much more complicated than a plane or automobile from a department store. It's a rather deceiving bulk presence. I've had way more issues with battery operated automobile models of the era too. I give it a B+ to A- on a strict grading curve where plastic peaks at A vs A+. I will surely build another AHM/Rivarossi given the chance. (Not giving this a Prussian blue boiler is killing me already, lol.)

FYI , there is also a Riverossi IC bobber caboose out there.

It looks about the same as the illustrations shown here.

Someone put a whole case of unopened ones on ebay for single sale.... but at $15 each, the whole case vanished in one or two sales.

I thought I had loaded a slower moving video. Lots of problems with my device then..actually,the new one is having issues right,now too.. But the point is it didn't take to posting then.

I found one copy, though silly and not the best cut I made, it shows this thing can creep,for an old convential steamer, and with a decent load behind it too. It had me giggling how slow and smooth it is. I just plain wasn't expecting it to run so well.

When I finally break down for another computer, I will edit out all the bad predictive text mistakes, and unneeded info to make it an easier read. Writing isn't my strong suit. With all the android bugginess it's pretty bad.

It out pulls one of the two mpc RIP chrome Generals I own by 1 car and is an equal to the other today.

Two years later, it has a lot of scale miles on it too. The valve gear was never added as I broke a metal post/rivet and just haven't gone out for #2 screws yet. It may need smaller than#2 also. Not sure what my small tap supply looks like after opening my tool box for what turned out to be an irresponsible tenant.   It needs it's worm grease checked again by now, wheels & rods squeak if the bushing go dry, but no black oil, or any indication of excessive wear anyplace.

While loading the video, I recalled I did post about the decal set failing; falling apart on the wet paper. I scanned for it real,fast, but didn't notice it.   

  I added some red fancy scroll work decals from a 70s style custom paint job on car model, but I'm not really content with the look. I want an ICRR & 382 in a similar or exact font style as came with it.

But anyhow, I love this loco and wouldn't think twice about another. (Hi Mike)

Shot about two years ago....

Bringing this thread up to date, do any OGR members have info on the Rivarossi product line of O scale 2 rail track?

Was it manufactured with Code 100 nickel silver rail or larger?  Were any turnouts produced?  A Google search failed to bring up what I'm looking for.  Any information will be helpful and appreciated.

Item: The late Bob Hegge's fantastic 2 rail O scale Crooked Mountain Lines interurban railway he constructed was built to fine scale standards and used Code 100 rail!

Thanks

Joe

Not sure, but I think the track was at least code 125.  Turnouts were made to the 24" radius.  A page from the 1973 catalog is HERE from the HO Seeker website.  The track is at the bottom of the page.  The track line was never expanded on.

Rusty

Thanks Rusty.  This helps shed some light on the subject.

Happy Rails

Joe