Williams SD45 WOW

You got a great deal. Also as I say, Williams is a great puller. The traction tires never come off. Here's an example. I have a Williams scale GG1, actually a few and 2 of them I bought for $100 when Train World had that blowout sale that time. Anyway, I could put a whole 45 car train and add weight and it still pulls it. Very nice that your wife bought it for you also. Also that color on that 5622 looks great to. I have a Williams Rio Grande SD45, but it doesn't look as impressive as your Santa Fe Blue Bonnet.

Thanks for the input WRA.  My wife knew I had a soft spot for SD45's (or the pug nose looking train as she calls it).  She asked me what brand to buy, and I said Williams as she already bought me a Lionel SD60e Legacy for Xmas so I would have felt a little guilty asking her to shell that kind of dough out again.  I asked her why she chose the Santa Fe, she said I don't know, what's a Santa Fe??? LOL.  She said, I picked the dark blue looking one because it looked pretty.  But I gotta say, man that thing does look sexy in that color scheme.

Ps.. Mine also came from Train World.

Williams is some of the best puller's there are straight out of the box. You say they're not as flashy but they can be some of the best looking engines out there if you take a little time and spruce them up with some details. Here's a GP38 I stripped and rebuilt as a clinchfield. I added step's,grabs, wiper's,lift rings and added polished cab glass to name a few.

Wow.  That looks amazing.  And thanks for sharing; now I have some ideas for upgrades.

Twenty cars is nothing for todays engines. Williams have always been great pullers. I wish they would gear them down. I never run trains so fast that they fly off the rails. Enjoy your engine.

Rod Miller

I have re-wired my K-Line locos as they are real speedsters. My Williams all seem to behave well.....but I run ONLY conventional and thus may have a different POV than someone running command and conv.  The K-Line locos that I rewired run well without any difference in pulling as far as I can see. Here is a WbB SD-45 I upgraded some. 

AMCDAVE, would you mind sharing with me how you re-wired your engines?  I may re-wire my Williams engine this weekend.  Everybody seems to think it helps slow it down a bit and improve the lower speed performance.

Ps.. Don't be shy with the details, I'm new at this. 

That sure doesn't look like an SD45 to me.

Nice engine! Have fun with her ...

Well, for $119, it can look like whatever it wants. 

Wire the engines in series, It will give you better control and should slow it down a little. Williams are know as jack-rabbit start engines.  

Here is a drawing for wiring the motors in series and parallel which the way them come from the factory. The green wire on the series one needs to be added.

I have several Williams engines and they are really great pullers and with a little detailing they look great IMO.

Cool engine! Great wife!

Thanks WMWALKER!

Trainguymcgee

You are welcome. There is great information about Williams equipment on the WBB forum website.

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/...ico02h5h56j4to7&

Congrats on you great birthday present.  Hope that you get many years of carefree service from this unit.  Re-wiring the motors to series will help a lot to control the jack rabbit speed.

Santa Fe was a good choice.  Welcome to the Santa Fe brotherhood.

An SF model not in Warbonnet!

I have one in SP speed lettering. It "pulls like a mule, run like a dear!".

rustyrail o scale posted:

Williams is some of the best puller's there are straight out of the box. You say they're not as flashy but they can be some of the best looking engines out there if you take a little time and spruce them up with some details. Here's a GP38 I stripped and rebuilt as a clinchfield. I added step's,grabs, wiper's,lift rings and added polished cab glass to name a few.

 

 

Great job! So how did you remove the paint from the shell so well? I've stripped plenty of metal items, but not plastic.  Also, where can I locate windshield wipers? Thank you !

Kittytrain1969 posted:

rustyrail o scale posted:

Williams is some of the best puller's there are straight out of the box. You say they're not as flashy but they can be some of the best looking engines out there if you take a little time and spruce them up with some details. Here's a GP38 I stripped and rebuilt as a clinchfield. I added step's,grabs, wiper's,lift rings and added polished cab glass to name a few.

 

 

Great job! So how did you remove the paint from the shell so well? I've stripped plenty of metal items, but not plastic.  Also, where can I locate windshield wipers? Thank you !

I use a blast cabinet method I developed over the years to strip the trains. The wiper came from Dean Brasseur but I don't have the item number. Here's a nice one I stripped.

Here is a link with pictures showing the wiring upgrade:

http://s574.photobucket.com/us...E7?sort=3&page=1

Marty

WOW Great wife, give her a hug for me!!!

Never felt like my Williams were even close to  jack-rabbits but they are the best pullers right out of the box of any of my engines. I just don't turn them up and run them off the rails.  Never felt they needed to be slowed down. I have some Lionel post war 200 series ALCO FAs that are faster.   I only run conventional so I may not know how to compare them to command control running engines but I can compare them to over 20 conventional sets.

I have the Santa Fe Black Midnight Super Chief 2333 F3  A-B-A set I got for $300.00 a Burlington Northern SD 90 Locomotive # 9587 for $100.00 and the Union Pacific NW-2 Switcher # DS1315 for $60. All super deals if you ask me.  I love them all and have not found anything I can say bad about them. I have had to re-wire my K-Line Southern / Crescent, and Great Northern ALCO S-2 Switchers motors in series because they really did fly!!!!

I would like to know what you think of yours once it is re-wired.

So does anybody know what gauge wire I should use to rewire these?

Without knowing what is in it already I would bet you would be safe with #22 super flex wire. It is what I use on all of the post war Lionel Pulmore motors and I am sure they pull more power than any of the can motors do.

TrainGuyMcGee posted:

So, I haven't had the chance to dissect my Williams SD45 yet (but will this weekend ) and have some questions for the experts here on the forum:

1)    Are these Williams motors larger/more powerful than what the Lionel's are using in their diesels - why is thing so dam fast?

When you get to this project this weekend, you will answer your motor question when you complete what is arguably the most important post-delivery service - greasing the motor worms & axle worm wheels. These are notoriously shipped with just a little dab, or a little dab off to the side missing these gears entirely, or with w/o any lube. This is a perfect application for the Lucas Red 'N' Tacky #2, and I use it liberally here as it's trapped in the motor block anyway.

Martin thanks for the link and the photos.  This should be a very easy upgrade to perform.  I like the fact that I don't even need to buy any additional wires.  I'll post some pics/video shortly of how my engine performs in Parallel (original wiring) and then with the series wiring upgrade.

TrainGuyMcGee posted:

So does anybody know what gauge wire I should use to rewire these?

I would use an 18 AWG wire to re-wire those Williams motors in that engine into series if that is you feel you need to do. I have not re-wired a Williams engine into series because I need the power they have as wired from the factory. I run 2 powered GP-7's in tandem for my El Capitan passenger train with 7 Santa Fe passenger cars. I could re-wire any engine with dual motors into series but why? They barely make it around the layout wired in parallel.

Lee Fritz

ADCX Rob posted:

TrainGuyMcGee posted:

So, I haven't had the chance to dissect my Williams SD45 yet (but will this weekend ) and have some questions for the experts here on the forum:

1)    Are these Williams motors larger/more powerful than what the Lionel's are using in their diesels - why is thing so dam fast?

When you get to this project this weekend, you will answer your motor question when you complete what is arguably the most important post-delivery service - greasing the motor worms & axle worm wheels. These are notoriously shipped with just a little dab, or a little dab off to the side missing these gears entirely, or with w/o any lube. This is a perfect application for the Lucas Red 'N' Tacky #2, and I use it liberally here as it's trapped in the motor block anyway.

Good idea Rob, I have never looked into mine so now I will, Thanks!!

I know that some Williams engines are just faster then most other brands at times, not sure why. Another option that might be easier to do is to get a transformer with lower voltage outputs on it like a "Troller Brand" model 2001 with 2 voltage settings on it from the factory, also has accessory outputs on the transformer. The 2 voltage settings are 0 to 18 volts, and 0 to 9 volts; both settings are AC power. The Troller 2001 has 2 train outputs(both outputs have the voltage adjustment) and can run 2 trains idependantly of each other at the same time.

Lee Fritz

phillyreading posted:

 I would use an 18 AWG wire to re-wire those Williams motors in that engine into series...

 Lionel only uses 22 AWG for those huge twin/dual open frame universal motors! 24 is fine.

phillyreading posted:

I could re-wire any engine with dual motors into series but why? They barely make it around the layout wired in parallel.

 I'm not sure if you are talking of your experience with Williams or K-Line here, but these diesels jump off the line careening down the pike at 5-6 volts on the first notch of a ZW and have a top speed way too high to be useful, all the while with very dimly lit headlamps & rolling stock illumination(with any transformer) at reasonable speeds. The series wiring brings things under control quickly & easily.

For one more easy step, the inclusion of a hidden DPDT slide(or any, really) switch will give anybody doing the conversion an easy way to go back & forth between parallel & series to suit the immediate need.

If you have Williams diesels that "barely make it around the layout wired in parallel", then that would point to a power issue or layout issue.

phillyreading posted:

Another option that might be easier to do is to get a transformer with lower voltage outputs on it like a "Troller Brand" model 2001 with 2 voltage settings on it from the factory, also has accessory outputs on the transformer. The 2 voltage settings are 0 to 18 volts, and 0 to 9 volts...

 Any modern zero-start transformer works fine - CW-80 for example - for that problem, but does not solve the lighting issue.

If your Williams engines run too fast for you, you can add a resistor or two in series and try to drop the voltage slightly rather then wiring them in series. I re-wired one of my Williams GP-7 engines into series wiring of the motors and it barely took off even at 16 to 18 volts with my Lionel post war ZW. So my cure was to add a resistor to the track power hook-up and it slowed things down a bit for me.

However I use a transformer I bought at a flee market one time for my Williams engines now, it is a Troller brand transformer. I jumped on a box of 027 track, 027 switches and a few cars with a transformer thrown in for $25.00, this was about 6 years ago.

Lee Fritz

Just had my Santa Fe Black Midnight Super Chief 2333 F3 open thanks to Rob's post on them and did not see anything close to 18 gauge wire in there.

 Rob, Glad I read your post on greasing them. Front motor was good back motor was lacking grease for sure. I use Mobil 1 synthetic grease and have had great results with it and one tube (about $8.50) is a lifetime of train lube. . Never seen Red 'N' Tacky but will look into it.

For your information the new Williams by Bachmann come with very little lube on the gear area. So as soon as you get your new WBB engine open it and lube the gears!!!

Lee Fritz

KRM posted:

Front motor was good back motor was lacking grease for sure.

It really is hit-and-miss, literally sometimes.

phillyreading posted:

For your information the new Williams by Bachmann come with very little lube on the gear area. So as soon as you get your new WBB engine open it and lube the gears!!!

Lee Fritz

I agree, Rob already made that point Lee.

Finished my other two engines and the Burlington Northern SD 90 Locomotive # 9587 was fine and must of been serviced by the train shop in Green Bay where we picked it up when on vacation a few years ago. The Pacific NW-2 Switcher # DS1315 was in need so TRAINGUYMCGEE when you have the shell off I think it would be a good thing to check like Rob and Lee have said.

Off my list for now.

AMCDave posted:

I have re-wired my K-Line locos as they are real speedsters. My Williams all seem to behave well.....but I run ONLY conventional and thus may have a different POV than someone running command and conv.  The K-Line locos that I rewired run well without any difference in pulling as far as I can see. Here is a WbB SD-45 I upgraded some. 

 

 

AMCDave- did you wire the motors in series or add diodes? I have a couple of K Lines that should have flames painted on the sides. I'm debating which way to go with them. 

Bob

Allright!  Upgrade complete and man, I gotta say, what a difference.  I decided to make a video of the locomotive as is with factory installed parallel wiring.  I then made a video showing the locomotive running with it's upgraded series wiring.  Man, it's night and day.

Video 1: Original factory settings):   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdJVmEbI82A

Video 2:  How I did this (with help from here of course):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbFyAkB3gRQ

Video 3:  Running the locomotive with series wiring:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiBJNu7TuNw&t=15s

Hopefully these vids will help anybody with questions they may have regarding the subject matter.

Ps.. Rob, I'm glad you mentioned above to check the internal gears out.  They were a little dry.

Sorry, but... wow...  Vertical Video Syndrome - A PSA 

LOL, thanks for the PSA Rob.  I'm an amateur with my camera.  Maybe the next vid will be horizontal. 

Looks good and like it was a fun project. Like the idea of being able to put it back to stock.

Our grandson would hate what you did, for him fast = good.

From looking at your consist I think you need to talk wifey into one on the Burlington Northern SD 90 Locomotive # 9587 like ours.

 I may try it on one of mine.