Hi Gang
Others have posted their projects from time to time, so I thought I would share this with you. I dont know how well this is going to work because I have not posted too many pictures to this forum, but here goes..........
I happen to like big steam. A while back I acquired a Max Grey NYC Niagara at what I thought was a very reasonable price in a private sale. When you are talking about a 60 year old locomotive you have to assume that there will be problems, and this was the case for sure. But this is how I participate in the hobby, namely by resurrecting old or damaged equipment and trying to make something nice out of it. I prefer the KTM products, imported by Max Grey or US Hobby's etc. They are good quality units that last forever. In terms of all the fancy detailing, perhaps they may be dated but they are affordable (mid 3 figures, not much higher) and with time and effort you most likely will get something worthwhile.
The Niagara (4-8-4) in question resembled the UP FEF series with elephant ears and a centipede tender. It had many broken solder joints which I repaired. The elephant ears had come off and the front of the engine (pilot) looked as though it had taken a shot somewhere along the way, and I managed to fix this. There was a open frame motor in the firebox which was as large as your fist which I replaced with a Pittman can motor. I had a cast backhead from Precision Scale in stock so this was installed. A prior owner had replaced the infamous MG foam rubber suspension with coil springs, so I did not have to deal with this at all, and the motion was as smooth as glass, so I managed to avoid all the really nasty problems with the engine.
The tender is another story. When I wire up an engine/tender, I like to arrange things so that the unit goes forward if the rail on the engineers side is +, and the firemans side is -. Not all layouts follow this convention, so a reversing toggle switch is required if the engine is going to travel. Also I wanted to put a DCC decoder in the tender, but have the flexibility to go back to DC at will, so I added another DPDT toggle. Both of these toggle switches are accessable from beneath the tender. I used a D808 decoder from MRC, not from any notion of brand loyalty, but because there was a D808 which had died already installed in the engine. MRC has a policy of refurbishing any of their decoders for a modest sum no questions asked if the units are not mechanically destroyed.
The real problem with the tender was that there was no way to open it up. The centipede structure used up most of the space on the bottom, and there was no clear way to unscrew the bottom and lift off the superstructure. I found a parting line around the 4 sides and was able to slip the blade of an exacto-knife into this crack and jimmy the thing open. (horrible). It turns out that a previous owner had tack soldered the 4 corners of the superstructure to the frame. In reassembly I used ACC in the same way. Perhaps some day I might revisit this if I have time. This experience has lead me to believe that the tender was kit-bashed years ago.
The engine runs as smooth as silk on a test track. Since I dont have a layout, I will have to go to a friends house for a trial run.
John
