!$%#&! Chinese gears!


T

trailrider

Well-Known Member
Several years ago I bought a pair of GP30's (HO). Although a few years late for my era (1940's - 1960 the -30's came out in 1962), but they are painted in C.B.& Q. Chinese Red, so I bought them. They have been sitting in the Galesburg yard since then, as I have been busy. I just undertook ballasting my two mainline stretches and wanted to check that I had cleaned the rails completely. What better way than to run these two -30's back-to-back. Worked fine...for an hour or so, and then...bang, bang, bang, and one unit was stalling the other. WTH? I separated them and discovered one was the culprit.

First thing to do is check the gage of the wheels. Oops, one truck is not working right (wiggle the wheels on each truck. Uh oh, one axle isn't turning! Closer look shows the wheels are cocked! To the work bench. Disassemble that truck and remove the wheel/axle assembly. Sure enough, I can turn one half-axle while holding the other. No question, it's the plastic gear. I turn the engine over, and sure enough, it says Life Like! Okay, go to the pegboard and pick off the package of Athearn gears. Real close examination by eyeball, and, yep, there's the crack in the old gear. Takes a while to get the thing disassembled, and the gear replaced. (Probably should have done all four while I was at it, but I'll wait until the others break.

Oh, and aside from vacuuming up the loose ballast, things looking good!
 
It's the same story for almost all of us. You're in good company. Have you burned yourself with your soldering iron yet? Dropped a locomotive? Had to fumigate to rid the train room of critters? Found cobwebs inside a tunnel. The reveal is a hairy locomotive front end.
 
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