New delivery.
Virginian EL-2A 3 unit electric set.
Imported by Alco in 1978. All 3 units powered.
Surprised I 'won them' on Ebay as I got them for about 1/2 the going 'rate'.
It did say 'not operating' so that may have 'scared' bidders 'off'!
Video:
DC yard test and one of the engines has been made operational:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn6cXXAP5Jc
A nice blue box...
with blue foam.
I put all 3 on the 'track' and none moved.
Disassembly to diagnose the problem.
Nice that they have can motors.
Touched 2 wires to the motor and NADA.
Removed the gear covers.
The drivers and side rods all moved freely so that was not the problem.
Again, touched two wires to the motor and no movement so the gear boxes were the 'culprit'.
Easy fix: The two support bearings had old grease and were stuck to the shaft.
Some oil fixed that problem.
Initially, I thought the nicely detailed 'sanders' may be causing a short by contacting the drivers.
Doesn't look like they have been run much especially since they didn't move plus no couplers on the end units.
Unusual end drivers. They have a much smaller diameter than the 'flanged' drivers to they don't even contact the rail.
Will have to research them as maybe they were made that way to negotiate tight radii but Alco decided to make them really small to insure they don't 'fall' between the rails!
I purchased them because they are 'different'.
One end unit.
Center unit.
Other end unit.
Each unit has a pantograph.
They will be easy to paint: all black.
I lucked out as a seller had 10 of the decals that I needed so I purchased 3 sets.
I only have 2 other Virginians:
EL-2B. I had to fix broken gears in these and then paint them and install LED's and a decoder in each unit.
Triplex 2-8-8-8-4: drivers under the tender.
This baby has 3 motors.
Engine.
Tender.