Old Athearn Baldwin S12 - Unwell!

[jmupton2000]

Hello

As part of my ongoing addiction to buying up cheap old spares or repair locos, my second Athearn Blue Box Baldwin S12 has arrived.

On test, dead as a doornail. Thirty odd years of dust brushed off and the body off and it seems it is one of the really old motors that has a habit of overloading controllers over here in the UK.

What are my options here please? I do have a motor from a more modern Blue Box GP38 that I could try but would that work with the earlier chassis design before I start pulling things apart?

Worst comes to worst, a conversion to an unmotored dummy is always a suitable option.

 

[Smudge617]

Hello

As part of my ongoing addiction to buying up cheap old spares or repair locos, my second Athearn Blue Box Baldwin S12 has arrived.

On test, dead as a doornail. Thirty odd years of dust brushed off and the body off and it seems it is one of the really old motors that has a habit of overloading controllers over here in the UK.

View attachment 175687
View attachment 175688

What are my options here please? I do have a motor from a more modern Blue Box GP38 that I could try but would that work with the earlier chassis design before I start pulling things apart?

Worst comes to worst, a conversion to an unmotored dummy is always a suitable option.

You can still get those motors of eBay, but always iffy getting 2nd hand electrical. I had a Athearn SW9 and 7 which I remotored with the new Athearn motors, if you want to go that route make sure you get the right sized motor, I didn't

 

[bnsf971]

The GP38-2 motor is too large to fit. If you want a genuine Athearn motor and flywheels, look for a motor for a newer model S12 or SW7 with the gold motor and brass flywheels.

 

[zzr1200guy]

The GP38-2 motor is too large to fit. If you want a genuine Athearn motor and flywheels, look for a motor for a newer model S12 or SW7 with the gold motor and brass flywheels.

YEP what he said!
You can get the newer gold or silver motor on Ebay cheap.

 

[gjslsffan]

Don't forget to get some switcher motor mounts. As the ones you may be hard and brittle.

 

[jmupton2000]

Hello all

Many thanks for the advice. I am going to trawl my large pile of spare parts and see if I have a suitable motor, otherwise it will be search eBay time as supply of parts over here in the UK is somewhat patchy...

Good advice about the rubber motor mounts, I had a SD40-2 arrive the other day that had been obviously sitting in a damp basement or garage for thirty years, maybe more (okay, it was cheap!) and in it's journey through the post, the mounts which were best described as crispy, disintegrated and the motor and drive shafts along with lumps of old mount were merrily bouncing around inside the body!

 

[gjslsffan]

Could you upload a image taken from the underside of this locomotive chassis plz, it may help too.

 

[Smudge617]

Hello all

Many thanks for the advice. I am going to trawl my large pile of spare parts and see if I have a suitable motor, otherwise it will be search eBay time as supply of parts over here in the UK is somewhat patchy...

Good advice about the rubber motor mounts, I had a SD40-2 arrive the other day that had been obviously sitting in a damp basement or garage for thirty years, maybe more (okay, it was cheap!) and in it's journey through the post, the mounts which were best described as crispy, disintegrated and the motor and drive shafts along with lumps of old mount were merrily bouncing around inside the body!

Been there done that, couple of non-runners I bought had the same problem, new motor mounts and they ran like a dream.

 

[zzr1200guy]

I would also take the trucks completely apart and clean that nasty old grease out.and while its apart give the fram a nice fresh coat of engine black.

 

[logandsawman]

Hello all

Many thanks for the advice. I am going to trawl my large pile of spare parts and see if I have a suitable motor, otherwise it will be search eBay time as supply of parts over here in the UK is somewhat patchy...

Good advice about the rubber motor mounts, I had a SD40-2 arrive the other day that had been obviously sitting in a damp basement or garage for thirty years, maybe more (okay, it was cheap!) and in it's journey through the post, the mounts which were best described as crispy, disintegrated and the motor and drive shafts along with lumps of old mount were merrily bouncing around inside the body!

Good morning - I had one of these old S-12 which I got running just fine. Did not need to buy any parts either.

I made this video several years ago taking one apart and lubricating it:

I hope this helps a little!

Thanks, Dave

 

[DanRaitz]

One more thing to check, make sure that the tabs on the bottom of the motor are making contact with the frame.

Dan