Timko Flywheel Upgrade Motors For Weaver E-8's "Do They Yield More Pulling Power?"

They are 100% reliable.  A few year ago I replaced 8 MTH can motors if four F3's A's and B's.  I can not say if they will provide more pulling power than the ones you are replacing because I never owned any Weaver engines.  But, if I recall correctly MTH and Weaver were made by the same manufacturer about 20 years go so I think they uses the SAME motors.

Worth both the price and the effort.

I have replaced 2 sets of Weaver E-8's with Timko motors. I too like long passenger trains, 8-10 twenty inch Weaver cars behind a pair of powered E-8s ABBA or a big steamer are my way to roll. With the original motors I would pop the breakers often pulling my longest trains, now with the Timko motors it is very seldom that I do other than the obvious derailment. I am experimenting with LED lighting to lessen the draw too.  I remember thinking they were lighter and smaller when I swapped them, was 8 months ago that I switched. I did not  add any weight because they have never had a problem pulling anything before or after new motors. I sure hope someone with volt and amp meters will tell us how much more efficient they are, but I'm guessing they are quite a bit. They drop right in, no mods needed.  I have ran mine for hours at the club and never had a problem. Before some switches were replaced one of the E-8 would ever so often jump into neutral at speed causing a massive derailment before the Timkos with the flywheels. They are quieter than stock too. Can't think of anything else positive to say about them. 

Now for the negative..  Got nothing yet.

I like them and just bought more engines that need them, so I will be buying more.

Mark

Oldcarsrule posted:

I have replaced 2 sets of Weaver E-8's with Timko motors. I too like long passenger trains, 8-10 twenty inch Weaver cars behind a pair of powered E-8s ABBA or a big steamer are my way to roll. With the original motors I would pop the breakers often pulling my longest trains, now with the Timko motors it is very seldom that I do other than the obvious derailment.

 

I plan on running 8(4 bulb) cars with the stock motors in the AA's on my clubs layout and I was wondering if that would trip the MTH Z-4000 breakers?

It might. I experimented with A AB ABA  AA and even AABBA (had to use Lionel bricks for power last one) to pull my Daylight cars. I would most often run a Weaver ABA and about 8 cars like yours and it would trip the breakers on occasion. Most often with the blind wheels from the B unit as it would pass threw a couple of the switches.  The blind wheels ( ones without inner flange) would swing out and touch the frog or something else on the switch causing a spark and stopping the train fast with the original non flywheel motors. This only happens on trucks where the blind wheels are on one end of the trucks. If the blind wheels are in the middle of the trucks I had few problems. Using just AA's for power it worked well most of the time. But would on occasion just stop in random spots.

A single E-8 should be able to pull the cars, and use less amps. I thought of making one of my A units a dummy before putting the Timko motors in. The club removed the troublesome switches and now I can run anything I own. It also has Lionel 180 bricks that don't trip as often as the Z4000.

I'm packing up for the club tonight to run tomorrow and am bringing my K-line E-8's Rock Island and 9 Golden State cars. Because of this post I'm throwing in my Weaver SP daylight E-8 ABA engines just for fun to pull it too. 

mark

I had done a Weaver E8 upgrade with Timko motors several years ago.  The flywheel cans do as well, if not better than, the larger motors, they replaced.

At the time the electronic upgrade was done with TAS (Train America Studios)  EOB (Engineer on Board, speed control)  electronics.  The Timko Flywheel motors were an important part of the project.

Enjoy your project,

Mike CT.

Thanks,

I'll see how they run at the next show at the end of this month(4/30) on my clubs layout(FCTT HiRailers) with the stock motors.  I will disable the reverse units and run at a minimum 50 scale MPH to avoid current interruptions with the stock non flywheel motors.

These are new/old stock Weaver Lackawanna E-8 AA's and I was wondering if I should take off the trucks and repack the grease to the gears and oil the axles before I run them?

I am leaning towards purchasing the the Timko motors in the future.  Is there any modifications as in drilling out the truck or anything I should know?

Chas 

No mods at all. just remove old, unsoder wires reattach wires to new and install. Check the grease I did replace grease  in mine.  I also replaced one of the single pickups on each A unit with a MTH double pickup (BD-0000097) which eliminated the chance of loosing power over switches.