Proto 2000 E-7's with cracked gears?

[frog]

I have 2 I bought about 15 years ago, are the drive gears in this bad as in the GP-18's?

I read somewhere that the E-8's were involved but I could find no issues with the E-7's.

I don't run mine much really as I have some 18 inch curves which make it look very unrealistic.

I had entered this on the older post but it had become quite stale.

 

[Motley]

Geeezus 15 years ago? Seriously just go buy new ones.

I have purchased new E7s recently and they seem to work well. No problems here.

 

[Espeefan]

I'm not aware of any problems with the first release E-7's. The problem is also not universal among all E-8's. I have three or four of the original E-8's that run fine with the original gears in them. If it ain't broke don't fix it!

This whole cracked axle thing is very old news. The original problem was corrected many years ago. If you are experiencing it now, you are buying "new" old stock from swap meets, e-bay or wherever, or you have just started runnning stuff you've pulled out of the closet that you bought years ago! The current P2K line owned by Walthers uses the new 14:1 helical gearing and has no problems at all.

 

[frog]

That's good news, thanks.

Running locos I bought new years ago is what I am doing for the most part.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The only E unit I ever had a gear problem with was an old Proto 2000 E6-A. It had a couple of teeth snapped off of one of the gears in the rear truck and the axle gears were not being turned. I rearranged the gears so that the first and second axle would be driven and the third axle was just along for the ride.

 

[frog]

The E-7's are beautiful engines. They don't look good going around the 18 inch curves I have in some places, though.

BTW, I at last figured out how to upload some pics of my layout in the Showing Off section.

 

[TMLW]

I replaced all the gears in my UP E-9's that I am building. Any P2K unit I buy i have put new gears in from Athearn just to be safe.