My children and grandkids visited on Memorial Day weekend.
One of my grandsons asks to run the trains whenever he’s here. So, downstairs we went. He’s hands-on when it comes to operating the switches, buttons and transformer. He also asks a lot of questions.
New Haven Railroad DL109 #0719 was ready on the O-72 outer loop with three passenger cars. After some instructions about the transformer, track power blocks and track switches, voltages were set, the startup sounds of an ALCO diesel were heard and #0719 was on-the-move. But after a short time, there was a loud thumping and a traction tire had come loose. So, the session turned from running trains to traction tire repair.
At first, it was just the two of us.
We found the new traction tires, correct screwdrivers, and began the job by loosening the rear truck and removing the truck-sides. There still was plenty of grease on the worm gear.
A few minutes later, my granddaughter and older grandson joined us and began to look in on the proceedings. They are model train fans too but didn’t hang around for long.
Just when we had finished installing the tires on the rear truck we were notified to report for dinner. So, the rear truck was reinstalled but we still had work to do on the front truck.
As the schedule turned out, we didn’t have time to do the front truck before the kids left for home. No problem… Grandpa usually works without assistance on this stuff, but it’s not as much fun as having such good helpers. These two views show both trucks with new tires installed the next day.
Then, New Haven #0719 was returned to the rails and given a test run.
The new tires really made a difference. The DL109 ran as smoothly as it did when it first ran on my layout twenty years ago. The grandsons are planning to be back next weekend (after sports) to see if Grandpa finished the job correctly.
MELGAR
