Weaver Milwaukee Road HIawathas need help!

What are the symptoms? Are they Command or conventional? I have done upgrades on mine. I don’t take in repairs but might be able to help.

Pete

I'm looking for one of you can't get them fixed.  There are several ways to upgrade them to more modern electronics.  I have a ps3 steam locomotive board set I plan to put in one when I can find one along with a better smoke unit.

I hate to break up the "tribe" and hope I'll hear from members who want to help find  a repair person. Your upgrades sound great, wish I could do that as well. If I change my mind I will let you know.

@Norton posted:

What are the symptoms? Are they Command or conventional? I have done upgrades on mine. I don’t take in repairs but might be able to help.

Pete

I have them set up for TMCC. One seems to be drawing a lot of amps and had a bounce to it. I will have to look them over again, but I keep seeing different plugs between engine and tender. One doesn't have a smoke switch which I care not to use anyway, as I would rather have a better smoke unit and quartered to exhaust like it should. I had a motor replaced a long time ago, and cannot recall that scenerio, hate getting old. It also looks like I just burned out the motor in the other engine. I have all the sound functions etc. in TMCC but the engine will not move. Apparently these Weaver motors etc. leave a little bit to be desired, but their paint jobs and over all looks are great! That's why I have three Weavers and one Lionel. One Weaver I have is going to be re-lettered for engine #4. These guys can be slippery which is why I need new traction tires, but that seems to be an issue as well.

I only have one of these. I replaced the Mabuchi (550, 555???) with a Pittman 9233. Also the TMCC DCDR non cruise motor driver with an ERR Cruise M. On this engine I used an optical detector on the a driver to get four chuffs. The video ahows it before that swap. I suspect your engines have different tether connectors is one or more may have started life as conventional. While the Mabuchis aren't the best motors, they don't burn up that often. If it won't move it may be locked up due to a mechanical problem and the motor driver may have failed??

Here is mine after the motor swap with a Cruise M.

Unfortunately I am in the middle of about 6 major projects so can’t take any more at this time. Hopefully someone will chime in who can help.

Pete

Should be pretty simple to test the motor directly with a dc source to verify if it's the culprit.

And the tribe looks great!  I have both an MTH and a Weaver MR 4-6-4.  The MTH smokes great and sounds great.  I think the Weaver colors and detail are a bit nicer and I like the mars light.  But the Weaver stopped responding to tmcc a while back and I haven't had time to troubleshoot it.

@Norton posted:

I only have one of these. I replaced the Mabuchi (550, 555???) with a Pittman 9233. Also the TMCC DCDR non cruise motor driver with an ERR Cruise M. On this engine I used an optical detector on the a driver to get four chuffs. The video ahows it before that swap. I suspect your engines have different tether connectors is one or more may have started life as conventional. While the Mabuchis aren't the best motors, they don't burn up that often. If it won't move it may be locked up due to a mechanical problem and the motor driver may have failed??

Here is mine after the motor swap with a Cruise M.

Thanks for the video make me happy to see. I'll await and hope I get some help. Thanks Pete!

Unfortunately I am in the middle of about 6 major projects so can’t take any more at this time. Hopefully someone will chime in who can help.

Pete

@Dougklink posted:

And the tribe looks great!  I have both an MTH and a Weaver MR 4-6-4.  The MTH smokes great and sounds great.  I think the Weaver colors and detail are a bit nicer and I like the mars light.  But the Weaver stopped responding to tmcc a while back and I haven't had time to troubleshoot it.

I have the Weaver Milw. Rd. F7 4-6-4 and it is OK, but I wish I had the MTH as I have heard good things about it. Cosmetically, Weaver wins as far as I am concerned.

The MTH has the correct chuff rate and great smoke  plus all the PS3 features.  The Weaver looks great, has the Mars light, but has half the chuff rate it should as already mentioned.  The clear mars light isn't actually correct but it looks cool.  The actual lights were red and only came on in emergency unless manually activated by the engineer.  If I had to choose I'd probably take the MTH but am happy to have them both.  They are even different numbers!

Jeff - I’ve had Royz Trains (located in Michigan) do repairs to one of my Weaver brass steam engines and was very pleased with the results.  Check out his comprehensive website because what initially caught my eye was that among other brands, he specializes in repairing Weaver products.  He also does many types of upgrades (some of which I had done) and IMO his communication skills are excellent.  Hope this info is helpful to you.

Good Luck!

Hello Jeff, I have some older Weaver diesel engines ( 2ea RS-3's and 3 ea FA's) and I always liked their slow operating speed. So recently I purchased three Weaver New Haven Hudson 4-6-4 model I-5's. One was advertised as not working. I also purchased a Weaver Nickel Plate Road Berkshire 2-8-4.  The berk ran a little before just coming to a halt. So I shipped both of them to Roy'z Trains, (an advertiser here) for evaluation, servicing and electronics upgrades. The engines came back running and new electronics and new blower on the smoke unit. It sounds like it could be electronics and Roy is equipped to fix that based on my experience. Over the  weekend I snapped a driving rod in a freak accident on one of my I-5's. Since its more a mechanical repair, I called P&D Hobby shop in Michigan and they asked me to send it out. I am just getting back one of my older Weaver engines from them. So there are two names you can call and speak to about your issues. I hope this helps.  Bill

I am in Racine, and can help.

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