Weaver 2-8-0

I use MTH tether components for my upgrades, they would be a good fit for this engine, and I believe no hacking at the metal would be needed.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

I use MTH tether components for my upgrades, they would be a good fit for this engine, and I believe no hacking at the metal would be needed.

Cool! Can I still use a straight tether like this model has on it now or do I need to use a curly tether? 

JohnActon posted:

Matt if it is EOB Cruise it will have a switch on the bottom of the tender which says cruise on / off.  Another trick, I use  long skinny needle nose pliers to hold the wires of the tether against the plug in order to insert the plug. Us as little pressure on the pliers as possible. Don't crush the bundle of wires, light pressure with pliers resting against the plug.  That tether is stiff and just long enough with no slack and the needle nose pliers really help get the plug fully seated into the female plug.          j

I didn't see a cruise on/off switch on the tender. I'll try the needle nose pliers and plug it in but I'm not sure if that'll make a difference.

You could try the straight tether, I've used both.  They're more prone to unplug than the curly cord for obvious reasons, more side-to-side strain on the connector.

Trainlover9943 posted:

JohnActon posted:

Matt if it is EOB Cruise it will have a switch on the bottom of the tender which says cruise on / off.  Another trick, I use  long skinny needle nose pliers to hold the wires of the tether against the plug in order to insert the plug. Us as little pressure on the pliers as possible. Don't crush the bundle of wires, light pressure with pliers resting against the plug.  That tether is stiff and just long enough with no slack and the needle nose pliers really help get the plug fully seated into the female plug.          j

I didn't see a cruise on/off switch on the tender. I'll try the needle nose pliers and plug it in but I'm not sure if that'll make a difference.

It won't keep it in just makes it easier to get in.         j

C&O Allie posted:

If it TMCC, they all came with Train America Studios (TAS) Engineer on Board (EOB) which is TMCC with a reader that counts black striped tape (like John's chuff generator) so it does have cruise control.  The EOB also has an acceleration curve which is annoying (which is what John and I were talking about).  The curve means that when you turn the remote speed to 30, the engine will slowly go up to that speed, speeding up the acceleration as it goes. That means you can't MU it to another engine unless you turn off the cruise control. It also has TAS Smoke Machine in it. I've opened mine and I know this to be true. If your engine has a 10 pin tether, it is the same. 

As far as I know, Weaver only made one batch of this engine, all with the EOB board.

With it being a TAS EOB engine, I have a Atlas 0-6-0 switcher with EOB in it. Would it be possible to take the board from the 0-6-0 and put it in the 2-8-0? I'll take pictures of the electronics in the tender this weekend. 

I have they N&W 2-8-0 die cast. I think I had DCS put in it. It was geared high so I never was that thrilled with the slow speed.

Scott Smith

Trainlover9943 posted:

C&O Allie posted:

If it TMCC, they all came with Train America Studios (TAS) Engineer on Board (EOB) which is TMCC with a reader that counts black striped tape (like John's chuff generator) so it does have cruise control.  The EOB also has an acceleration curve which is annoying (which is what John and I were talking about).  The curve means that when you turn the remote speed to 30, the engine will slowly go up to that speed, speeding up the acceleration as it goes. That means you can't MU it to another engine unless you turn off the cruise control. It also has TAS Smoke Machine in it. I've opened mine and I know this to be true. If your engine has a 10 pin tether, it is the same. 

As far as I know, Weaver only made one batch of this engine, all with the EOB board.

With it being a TAS EOB engine, I have a Atlas 0-6-0 switcher with EOB in it. Would it be possible to take the board from the 0-6-0 and put it in the 2-8-0? I'll take pictures of the electronics in the tender this weekend. 

You should be able to as the 2-8-0 is bigger, but a better option would be to get an ERR Cruise Commander and install that if that is in the cards for you. I really don't like the EOB acceleration characteristics. Instead of speeding up as you turn the dial linearly (constant even acceleration with every click of the Cab 1/2), it is a non linear speed acceleration going slow at first and then faster on its own until it gets up to speed. Think of being at the top of a roller coaster. You start going down slowly and then speed up faster as the track angles down. The Cruise Commander is like an A-frame roof. Once you start going down it, you have constant acceleration (until you hit the ground   ).

Regardless, post the pictures of what you have and we can let you know if you can put it in the Weaver engine. 

The Atlas 0-6-0 is basically a parts engine for me which is why I'm asking. I'd rather use the stuff I can (easily) use then buy new if its possible. I'll throw some pics up this weekend. I'm running it right now in conventional (just for fun as I do have legacy). Its running great, even better than command imo. 

I have this engine except in Milwaukee Road. I love the detail and size. The electronics and plug drove me nuts. All the problems people have described.

Every year or so I messed with it but it was never right  

I finally gutted the electronics and put in all ERR components with cruise. It runs smooth all day long and without hiccups. I’m a fan of this little guy.

Learn from my experience and put in all new electronics. I did leave the original smoke unit as it was good enough for me. 

You should be able to transplant the electronics.  Note that there were several versions of the EOB board, so you may have to adjust a connector or two.

I had one of these engines with EOB. I believe the earlier runs of this engine came with TAS SAW boards (no cruise) and were poor runners. The later run EOB equipped engines ran decently but of course had the usual EOB characteristics of non-linear throttle and low speed motor growl. If you buy one of these I think the only way to externally tell if you have a SAW or EOB board is to turn the tender over and see if it has a cruise on/off switch. If it does then it has an EOB board.

Also I felt this was one of the worse sounding engines I ever had. It had a tiny speaker with almost no low frequency capability. The EOB board took up so much room in the tender that there was no way to put a bigger speaker in it. An ERR Cruise Commander and sound board should free up some space in the tender for a better, small speaker.

Ken

From our (this forum's) technical section  EOB installation instruction, which includes some interesting adjustment/turn off/on features.   Click on the underlined phrase to link manual.  39 Page, detailed instructions, that was included with EOB install kits.  Section #5, page 32,  Adjustments.  

Note:  EOB had a couple of different upgrades/changes during it's life.  Tech Section has different EOB installation instructions, You may have to search a little deeper than the above link, each model that had this drive system, also had detailed "how to operate" instruction.   IMO, Mike CT.  

I have the B&M version of Weaver's 2-8-0 and I only ran it conventually. My only problem was the pilot would occasionally derail coming off a curve. The Weaver repair man suggested that I adjust the tension of the spring. The spring was changed during the production schedule and I never got around to ordering one before Weaver called it quits.

Is it known if Lionel or Atlas ended up with the ability to make the the Weaver diecast 2-8-0? If its true was actually a K-Line model it could have ended up with Bachman since Bachmann have released a number of former K-Line items.

As promised, heres some pics of the electronics. For comparison, the third and fourth photos are the board from the Atlas steamer. 

I never saw that second board, that looks like a special that was developed for Atlas at some point.  The first pictures appear to be of the TAS SAW board.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

I never saw that second board, that looks like a special that was developed for Atlas at some point.  The first pictures appear to be of the TAS SAW board.

It could be a special board. It was their only command equipped steamer. 

It's sure one I never saw before.  It could have been a special order from somewhere like TAS, but it's not like any of the TAS stuff I've seen before.  I suspect there aren't many of those running around.  Note that it uses all standard Lionel TMCC and audio boards, the only thing the motherboard does is tie them all together and provide the motor driver.  I suspect if you look closely, somewhere on that board is a manufacturer name that would give a clue.

It says Bob Krivocic on the bottom. I seem to remember that name from somewhere. 

The Atlas 0-6-0 board was definitely from TrainAmerica.  It was unique in that it didn't have the big aluminum heat sink (no room for it in the low USRA tender).  I had Mike Reagan adjust the programming on mine to make it run better for switching.  It still had too much momentum for me, so I removed that board set and replaced it with a Cruise Commander Lite/Railsounds combo from ERR.   This also left just enough room for a better speaker.

Yep, Bob Krivocic did a lot of TAS work.  I never knew if he actually worked for them or just did work for them.  I know he's an expert on the in's and out's of the TAS stuff.

Bob posted:

I removed that board set and replaced it with a Cruise Commander Lite/Railsounds combo from ERR.   This also left just enough room for a better speaker.

 I'd suggest an in-line PTC to the motor drive for the CC-Lite, it is a bit sensitive to motor stalls and will quickly toast it's drivers.  I cooked one when doing an early beta test, and I've gotten a couple for repair with the drivers smoked as well.

So what should I do with the model, is my only choice to convert everything to ERR?