spirit of 76' repair help

[Glopy19]

hello all, last year i received my first model train. immediately afterwards i learned that my mom had also operated rail services in her youth. The remanning bits of kit however hadn't aged well and were missing wheel sets and had fickle couplings. However, the actual locomotive, a F series painted in a fictional spirit of 76' livery, was still operable but the couplings were not compatible with my rolling stock so i removed the couplings in hope i could use it to push my rolling stock. The other problem that arose was that it ran very slowly, didn't have much tractive effort, and emitted a fierce metallic burning smell.

I am now asking about how i could going about restoring this locomotive to add to my motive power fleet. There are pictures of it in my gallery.

 

[Glopy19]

Loco type

Hello again, i have identified the locomotive it is an AHM FM C-Liner
Spirit of '76 No.5024-25

Thanks!

 

[jayl1]

You have a real oldie. AHM (then IHC) is out of business. If you really want the shell, I would look for another drive unit at a swap meet. They weren't really good runners when new. As for couplers - since you removed the coupler & small spring, add a Kadee coupler box in its place & use a coupler compatable to the one you have.

 

[Glopy19]

I figured out the problem, the connections to the motors were frayed and soldering them made the loco much faster. I also (last night) invented a ghetto solution to the coupling problem. The seat for the ahc coupling is almost identical to the one i need (athearn) so i put one in, melted it and raised it up.
It's not very pretty but survivable. Thanks for the help.