How to de-power

[LIRR Guy]

I know this might sound silly, but i would like to turn a couple of my old HO scale locomotives into dummys. Has anyone done this or have any tips on how to do it. I have some old proto FA2's, and a couple of old athearn GP38-2s that i might try it on.

 

[bnsf971]

Those are easy ones. Remove the motors, driveshafts, worm gears and truck gears. Remove any wires that are lying around, and put the shells back on. The trickiest part is to disassemble the trucks to get those gears out, but it isn't hard. Leave the geared wheelsets alone, simply put them back in the trucks.

 

[Dortoh1]

Sometimes they will get a little noisy so I put a peice of soft foam in the shell to kill the hollow box effect. Helps quite a bit.

 

[Enola Yard Tim]

Those are easy ones. Remove the motors, driveshafts, worm gears and truck gears. Remove any wires that are lying around, and put the shells back on. The trickiest part is to disassemble the trucks to get those gears out, but it isn't hard. Leave the geared wheelsets alone, simply put them back in the trucks.

I've done the same thing, EXCEPT, I left the gears in the trucks. Pulling out the Athearn motor and driveshafts took a minute or two and the engine was now relegated to "helper" status.

 

[Larry]

If you don't need the motors for something else, then just leave them in for weight. Just remove the shafts & all the gears in the trucks. If you leave the gears in the trucks it causes a lot of drag when pulling in a consist. It's like pulling a freight car w/a lead weight. Oh & if you leave the motor, also remove the wires.
If you have the older engines that has only one motor mounted on the trucks, then you have to disassemble the whole motor & remove all the gears & just leave the axle. Be sure to replace all the clips that holds everything together.

 

[LIRR Guy]

Thank you all for the replies, time to start disassembling!