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Hello, fellow train folk! At our train club, my son uncovered an early Rivarossi Cab Foward engine that is currently not running. I brought it home and confirmed that both motor and drivetrain are functional. What is missing is whatever parts connect the drivetrain to the motor. I attach a picture showing what we have—can someone tell me what’s missing? I’m guessing one piece is the hard black plastic tube that is used to join turning parts together. But what meshes with the gear that comes right off the motor?
I don't think that motor belongs on that engine None of them used a open face gear like that The motor should have a half flat to work with a coupling part 67 in that diagram If you can't find one you could use a can motor
A old friend of mine Mel Perry rebuilt a few cab forwards He passed away in June of 22
He and I redid several athearn bb engines ran better then ever
here's a link to his blog about those cab forwards
That’s a standard Rivarossi 3 pole motor.
What’s not standard is that brass gear on it.
It looks like somebody was trying to put in some kind of reduction gear to get better low speed performance.
What should be there is a plastic shaft similar to the one between drive towers.
I attach a picture showing what we have—can someone tell me what’s missing? I’m guessing one piece is the hard black plastic tube that is used to join turning parts together. But what meshes with the gear that comes right off the motor?
Totally agree with the others. That is not a stock arrangement for any of the years that locomotive was produced by either AHM or Rivarossi.
If there is enough shaft once the gear is removed normally I would say that a short piece of fuel line would work. But I also have to say some things from the the photo. One, it looks like they have modified the shaft out of the gearbox with a notch for some specific connector. Don't know if a fuel line can bite it tightly enough. Then, It looks like the angle from motor shaft to the gear box is, umm, awkward. Motor mount is not stock, so looks like it needs to be shifted to align better with gear box shaft.
That shaft fom the gearbox does have that notch in it to connect to the plastic shaft piece #67 The motor shaft should have the same notch
He may never find the right motor and even so those 3 pole motors wern't the best
Sorry for joining so late, but that is actually a stock setup. I bought one in 1979 and it was setup the same way. Later on the did away with the gear box.
MikeGTW; I would like to connect when you have time to talk about how you modified the zinc weight to repower. I have a couple Cab forwards that have a solid zinc mounting for the motor. I would assume that it would need to be cutoff to place a new motor. I wondered if you had any of Mels old pictures.
Interesting. That configuration is not in any of the "blueprints" on HO SEEKERS. You wouldn't happen to have the doc that could be uploaded to them do you?
Unfortunately I don't. I have been looking but the only one I have found is the one above by HO Seekers. There also seems to be another configuration with a solid mount where the tender is not required. The one in the pictures above that I posted came in a plastic case bought in 1978 or 1979 just after I graduated from University.
I have attached two pictures of different Rivarossi Cab Forwards that have the solid mount, which do not require the tender to run. There is no wire on the connector where the tender attaches to the engine. Incidentally if anyone has a source for the zinc weight that is pictured, please let me know. The one in the picture appears to have been affected by "zinc mite" from what I have been able to google. It is deformed and the front mount for the drivers is broken. It would be equivalent to number 58 in HO seekers diagram above.
Unfortunately I don't. I have been looking but the only one I have found is the one above by HO Seekers. There also seems to be another configuration with a solid mount where the tender is not required. The one in the pictures above that I posted came in a plastic case bought in 1978 or 1979 just after I graduated from University.
I have attached two pictures of different Rivarossi Cab Forwards that have the solid mount, which do not require the tender to run. There is no wire on the connector where the tender attaches to the engine. Incidentally if anyone has a source for the zinc weight that is pictured, please let me know. The one in the picture appears to have been affected by "zinc mite" from what I have been able to google. It is deformed and the front mount for the drivers is broken. It would be equivalent to number 58 in HO seekers diagram above.
That first one looks to be in bad shape no saving it And that set up on your first one I've never seen before with the gears like that
That last one in the first picture from Mel sure looks like it could have been the same set up He just wanted a can motor
Also I never had a cab forward just a big boy and some others 4-6-4 and a 2-10-2 that i put a Kato can motor in ( 31-500 or HM-5 )
A few others smaller ones It was Mel that did all the cab forwards He made a couple brass frames when one of his went bad
Could someone please tell me the name of the part (11) on the diagram above posted by Dave LASM. Could you also please explain where it fits as it was wedged on top of the rear 8 wheel truck.
Could someone please tell me the name of the part (11) on the diagram above posted by Dave LASM. Could you also please explain where it fits as it was wedged on top of the rear 8 wheel truck.
That's the exhaust pipe for the rear engine. Where you found it is roughly where it goes. It should pivot top and bottom, since the rear engine swivels.
Hello, fellow train folk! At our train club, my son uncovered an early Rivarossi Cab Foward engine that is currently not running. I brought it home and confirmed that both motor and drivetrain are functional. What is missing is whatever parts connect the drivetrain to the motor. I attach a picture showing what we have—can someone tell me what’s missing? I’m guessing one piece is the hard black plastic tube that is used to join turning parts together. But what meshes with the gear that comes right off the motor?
We all know we can double or even triple up our diesels to get the pulling power we want. Its the steam engines we need to help, so we are forced to dbl-head them. So lets concentrate on them.
I really think the pusher engine is the best solution. This pusher engine could be of several different forms:
1) Disguised Fast Freight Car...almost universally usable (edit...EXPRESS REEFER)
2) Disguised aux water tender ...very usable
3) Disguised baggage car....not usable on a lot of our freight trains
The least expensive of these would to be able to make use of a an existing powered chassis...
After running those very successful pushing test with the PRR C-liner and the C&O Stewards, I decided to go back and look thru my big box of items I had set aside to possibly use in this search for a helper/pusher,....both shells and power chassis.
While I work on the driveline fix(s), i decided to go forward with a preliminary test of the concept.
HALLELUJAH !!
While I have yet to get those new drive shafts made up in order to run a pulling test on my new pusher/helper, I was able to make a substitution to verify I'm on the right track.
I found another of those short NW2 Kato chassis in my inventory that was equipped good traction tires. It was hiding under a fully equipped switcher shell with couplers and all . Why not add some weight to it, and put that behind a couple of my streamers pulling that same consist of 24 cars I...
