The dangers of Preventive Maintenance.......

You are definitely not the first one that has had this happen. It's why I don't enjoy doing locomotive maintenance. Don't despair. Get back to it after you return. The worst that can happen is you will have to send it to an expert professional. Eventually, your locomotives will run again and your enthusiasm will return too.

MELGAR

Yes, but it really will be all that much sweeter when you have it up and running again knowing you fixed all up. 

I do tons of repair work and have the same issues with mine and customer. You can’t call it preventive maintenance then get upset that you have to do the maintenance part. It’s all part of the hobby. If you’re gonna run em, you gotta fix em. It’s not just oil and grease that’s preventive maintenance. Resoldering wires, replacing rollers and changing smoke wicks all fall into that plus stuff you haven’t though of. Took me 2 hours to change the headlight on an MTH Z6 Challenger the other day.  Ostly because it was such a PITA I decided to put an LED in instead of a bulb. Got it in and the wire broke off the plug. It was 12 screws to change the headlight and the steam chest had to come out and the pilot had to come apart. Nature of the game

I am an expert on this subject. I took one of my Legacy diesels apart to  check the smoke unit. I put the loco back together.When I went to run it -huge cloud of smoke came out of the front cab and it died. I had it fixed at LHS I blew the  main board up because I pinched a wire when I re assembled it. But PENNSY has a good point! Nick

Changing a traction tire on an LGB baby crocodile requires complete removal of the geared wheelset due to the motor truck side frames. The bottom gearbox cover must be removed, and there is a rather delicate reed switch assembly located above this wheelset which has to be carefully set aside as well. Once all that surgery is done, the traction tire can be easily changed. Reassembly requires attention to the contact brushes and their springs which must be reinserted into their channels so the brushes ride against the inside surface of the wheels. About an hour later, the job is done! WHEW!

I wrote maintenance procedures for the Navy for 14 years, we called it "Planned Maintenance".

I found that most things break...when you take them apart.  The Navy had a procedure to inspect ribbon cables on the inside of one of their computers.  To inspect the cables you had to open the computer and remove the card cage, more often than not damaging the cables.  I convinced the engineers to delete that procedure and guess what, numbers of damaged cables went down drastically!  They also had a procedure to spray oil on the air filters,  what were they thinking?!?!?!  The sailors were spraying so much oil on them they were clogging them up, causing the computer to overheat.  Got rid of that too.

If designed and assembled properly, no amount of maintenance will improve the operating characteristics, it can only "maintain" (return to spec) what the original design characteristics are suppose to be.

If you have to replace a traction tire, that's not planned maintenance, that's repair.

On the upside of maintaining it yourself, after much help from M. Reagan and the forum to solve jerky movement of my Big Boy at speed step 17 (this required installing a capacitor), I lifted the boiler off it and  discovered fried wires.

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Thanks all......

I wasn't complaining.......rather how fast I went from 'this will be easy' to the real wold!!  While I am down two locos right now......only leave about 100 others to  run. All part of the hobby. These two issues are easy......like said above I have a MTH Q2 that needs a lot of work and that one will be a BEAR!!! 

AMCDave posted:

Thanks all......

I wasn't complaining.......rather how fast I went from 'this will be easy' to the real wold!!  While I am down two locos right now......only leave about 100 others to  run. All part of the hobby. These two issues are easy......like said above I have a MTH Q2 that needs a lot of work and that one will be a BEAR!!! 

It’s never fun to do a lube service and find you need major mechanical work.   Or more often than not electrical work.   It frustrated me in the beginning.   But I don’t guess it’s any different than the real railroads.    I make my engines earn they’re keep.   We pull big trains and work them hard so I expect to see wear and tear.   I have found several scenarios where  you can improve on something the factory skimped on.  Like wire routing and so forth.   My engines run extremely well due to the effort I put into Maitence and that’s something I’m proud off.   I’m an absolute nut about clean wheels and track.  I’m currently building a section of tube track for wheel cleaning.   I was very pleased about two weeks ago as I finally got parts to put my last down engine together.    Fleet was 100%.  Very next day I had an older ps2 engines board expire.     That’s life I guess.

Amateur maintenance is what keeps us repair guys in business.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Amateur maintenance is what keeps us repair guys in business.

Yes GRJ, us amateurs are easily amused (really mystified) especially when what we do has a successful result; BUT we also know that the pros (you, MartyF, MartyE, AlexM, MR, and more) are ready to put out the fires.  Thrills and Chills.

AMCDave posted:

I was all jazz up....went out and on the advice of this forum bought some Red N Tacky grease. Found it local which does not ever happen where I live.  Had finished my foam lined engine cradle, had all my tools and light weight oils. I pulled two WbB diesel locos for a complete clean and lube. Both had been run on the layout recently so I thought I'd start here and see if I could see a difference. 

First up was a WbB UP Dash loco. Got the body off OK. Removed the truck screw and slowly lifted....I didn't get it a 1/4 inch and I see the center roller hook up wire fall. Oh well......remove the other truck......this center roller hook up wire looks like it's been broken for a while!! I clean things up, lube things but set it aside until I get back from some traveling I am set to do this weekend. 

On to a older  WbB ATSF SD-45. Same procedure.....this time I get a broken wire on a motor!!! Am I that rusty at repair maintenance??  Or just unlucky tonight?  Same deal....I gotta set it aside until I return and get the solder gun and stuff out. 

I thought I might start on the Williams Mikado.......but closed shop and went upstairs. Enthusiasm crushed by real world issues!!! thx 

Model railroading is not exempt from Murphy's Laws.  ;-)

All too true... 

Back when I was doing N scale, I was going through my fleet of diesels, tearing them down and re-gauging to operate properly on Atlas code 55 track. Everything was going well; was about 3/4 of the way through the project, and was finishing up a Micro Trains FT A unit.  I picked it up to take it over to the track...and DROPPED IT!  I never did find all the pieces.

Needless to say, THAT engine never did get to run on "Atlas code 55 track"... 

Good thing this is just a hobby, no? 

Mark in Oregon

I just started a regular maintenance program on my fleet. It was long over due. I have a file with a log devoted to keeping track of the maintenance issues of each loco. (I also have other files, for example, for switches).  I do not intend now to do a full blown look, including lifting the hood (so to speak), because I can get bogged down. Rather, in this phase, I am merely greasing and oiling the gears and wheels using XL lubricants as appropriate. What's important is a regular program that is simple. If it gets too complicated, that defeats the fun of our hobby. The next phase will be to lift the hood as I run the trains. I will do so, one loco-at-a-time. I organized my trains into "sets" which are numbered with a file for each set. Everything is organized.  If I run into a major issue, I have a good repair man and keep him happy by taking the item to his house and picking it up at his house. I am finding our O gauge trains are built very well, are durable, and, if they get regular attention, will repay that with much happiness.

Mark

Trussman posted:

Model railroading is not exempt from Murphy's Laws.  ;-)

Personally, I think Murphy was an optimist...

From AMCDAVE:

"While I am down two locos right now......only leave about 100 others to  run. "

I have "too many" locos also. Yet, when one of them goes into the ditch, it annoys me more like I only have a couple. Realistically, I should just put those broken ones on the shelf and forget about them.

Problem is, though some would disagree (those who seem to buy locos and RS as if they were anonymous commodities), these things are not interchangeable. A well-running NYC Hudson does not make a broken ATSF 4-6-4 not matter.

We're doomed.

Consider it being ahead of impending malfunctions.  Unless these failed due to clumsy moves, you simply discovered potential future troubles, and didn't have to trace the cause prior to repair.  Win win !

Stepping away from repairs and taking a breather if things seem like drudgery can do wonders once you return to the project....a luxury the paid professionals can't afford.

Bruce

I started going through all of my locomotives last year (when I got the train layout working again). 

I have been keeping a spreadsheet so that I can look and see how recently a locomotive was serviced, its condition, etc.  In some cases, a locomotive which I had thought would require a quick and simple clean and lube, has needed much more.  In other cases, the opposite has been true.  Some of these had been on the shelf for decades.

Either way, it is a part of the hobby and, for the most part, I have been enjoying it.

Well the 'amateur tech' finally got time to get back to the work bench. My WbB Dash with the broken wires got new pig tails soldered to the trucks, then reconnected to the DCRU board and lights. I re-assembled her, placed her on the layout and she ran FANTASTIC.  Cleaning the truck and motor gears and adding Red and Tacky  to gears and oil to motor shafts made slow speed MUCH better than most of my WbB locos. The Dash UP loco is not series wired but I don't feel the need right now running this slow.  

Thanks for all the input folks!!! This place is great.