AHM GE 35 Locomotive


Patrick

Alien Attitude.
As I said in the Nov. 22 Coffee Shop, I needed a project to do while the glue was drying on some ballasting I was doing. So I pulled this out of a drawer:

20221119_122716.jpg

It was in a box of stuff I got in an auction lot. While I have the plastic fill and an AHM box, it isn't the locos box.

Unit was non operational and had been in my drawer for a couple of years. First appearances show no couplers and no railings and an odd hole on top.

Once the shell was removed, I found part of it's issues. Can you see it?
20221119_122952.jpg


More visible once the scotch tape and foam are removed.
20221119_123305.jpg


The motor wasn't seized and the powered wheels turned as the motor turned. So I cleaned the motor contacts and applied a little light oil to its bearing surfaces. A 9 volt battery confirmed it was a runner.
I removed the wheels and cleaned and soldered new wires on the contacts. They were really corroded.

20221119_140959.jpg

It is alive!!!

20221119_140738.jpg

Note the glowing light. This was a moving shot on part of the yard track. It is a short run, so no full power.

Now one to couplers. I have a bunch of extra Kadee coupler boxes, so I cleaned the old coupler boxes and glued in some new ones.

20221119_144419.jpg


That's where I left off yesterday.

As a question, what do you use for grease in the drive gear? The original was hard, but cleaned out nicely.

Also the unit is rear heavy due to the big motor over the drive wheels. I need to get some weight in the front.
 
As I said in the Nov. 22 Coffee Shop, I needed a project to do while the glue was drying on some ballasting I was doing. So I pulled this out of a drawer:

View attachment 156255
It was in a box of stuff I got in an auction lot. While I have the plastic fill and an AHM box, it isn't the locos box.

Unit was non operational and had been in my drawer for a couple of years. First appearances show no couplers and no railings and an odd hole on top.

Once the shell was removed, I found part of it's issues. Can you see it?
View attachment 156256

More visible once the scotch tape and foam are removed.
View attachment 156257

The motor wasn't seized and the powered wheels turned as the motor turned. So I cleaned the motor contacts and applied a little light oil to its bearing surfaces. A 9 volt battery confirmed it was a runner.
I removed the wheels and cleaned and soldered new wires on the contacts. They were really corroded.

View attachment 156264
It is alive!!!

View attachment 156261
Note the glowing light. This was a moving shot on part of the yard track. It is a short run, so no full power.

Now one to couplers. I have a bunch of extra Kadee coupler boxes, so I cleaned the old coupler boxes and glued in some new ones.

View attachment 156263

That's where I left off yesterday.

As a question, what do you use for grease in the drive gear? The original was hard, but cleaned out nicely.

Also the unit is rear heavy due to the big motor over the drive wheels. I need to get some weight in the front.
I use a selection depending on the locomotive, Labelle 102,106, and 107 are in the main the most used, I also use Kadee's 231 Greas-em. they all work pretty well.
 
Nice work Patrick, I really like the 9V battery idea!

I use synthetic "Super Lube" It should not harden; time will tell.

I dont know why it only says Amazon.com the link will take you to Super Lube at Amazon.
 
Last edited:
Louis: Thanks for the super lube suggestion. It's in the wife's Amazon cart, to be filled soon. The 9 volt battery is the width of the wheels and can be handy on a DC engine.
 
I can see this little loco of yours really having some pull to it.
I have one and it doesn't pull more than 2-3 cars, but that is usually sufficient considering I use it to move 1-2 cars only in the staging yard. Mine originally had traction tires on one axle which I traded out for an axle/wheels that picked up power. That improved it's response through switches.
 
This little engine has contact through both wheelsets. Made it easy to test. I hope to get closer to finishing it over my 11-day vacation period.
I was just amazed the motor still turned. While it has rear and side glass, there's nothing on the front side. That is one change I'll be making before it gets finished, although I may repaint it first. I don't do the Santa Fe and not sure how it would fit in my post war changeover period. Although most of my engines are diesel.
 
Ok, over a month since I last posted that I worked on this mess...

As I posted in the Coffee Shop, here's the base set up with the couplers and otherwise fully operational:

20230102_142354.jpg


The couplers catch about 2/3 to 3/4 of the height gauge which is fine for my circumstances.

Then I decided to remove the flash that the shell still had from manufacturing:

20230102_142254.jpg


I also removed the windows and single horn that was left on it and decided that with the flashing gone, it needed to be repainted:

20230102_142458.jpg

Then it would need to be stripped if I were to save any detail on the unit:

20230102_173819.jpg

As you see, this is where I left off. Most of the blue is gone and could only be removed after a bath in mineral spirits. The only thing I had that would touch the yellow was denatured alcohol. The paint was mostly scrubbed with toothpicks. I know I'm spending a bunch of time on a model that isn't worth much, but I figure better to work out how to do this on a cheap model than wasting money on redoing and botching up a good model. Not quite sure how I want to paint the thing yet. I need to locate some pictures of working loco's.
 

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