Uncle Sam was a little "forgiving" this year so when April came around he let me keep a little more of my money than I anticipated. As as a result, I rewarded myself with a vintage Blue Comet set!
The good:
-All it needed was some motor brushes and a good cleaning / lube job to get running like a champ.
-Even the pendulum E unit cycles flawlessly.
-The wheels, while all original, are good except for one pilot truck wheel and one trailing truck wheel.
The bad:
-Those two pilot/trailing wheels are bad. One has lost chunks of flange and one is still complete but looks like it's maybe a bit swollen. At this point I really only NEED to replace one.
-The chugger switch (NOT the one in the cab but the cam-activated one on the axle) is bad, the lower copper contact is broken off and gone. Does anyone make these? Anyone repaired one with a strip of copper?
-The trailing truck is missing the two springs on the rear axle and has home-made springs that are way too strong on the front axle. This causes the loco to lose traction on the rear drivers.
-It's missing the front pilot truck bracket (the bar that holds the front of the pilot truck in position).
So that said, my 392E also has a modified pilot truck frame (missing the nub on the front) that I suspect is causing repeated derailments.
So I was thinking of trying to locate a complete pilot truck assembly, this would give the the frame I need to repair the 392E and the wheels and springs I need to repair the 400E. Anyone know of a vendor that might have something like that in stock?
Also, anyone repaired a broken chugger switch?
