This HO Amtrak E9 Won't Run - Spider Egg in Motor
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- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
- This Amtrak E9 was sent in as a gift months ago. I've wanted to get it running since then and today finally did so. I had no idea what was preventing this unit from starting and tests didn't reveal much so I had to really tear into it. This uncovered several really unusual issues including a spider egg in the motor... I'm overall really pleased with how this project turned out.
imagine just seeing a horde of baby spiders come out of a locomotive
That is is is is is oof
E
E
E
E
E
E
E
Arachnophobia 2: Spiders On A Train!
Been there...
OOO M G that engine is out the window
A hord!😂😂😂
I am terrified of spiders, so whenever I open a box, or open up a model, I always have a weapon ready. This video doesn't make me feel any better, lol. Great video
XD
Relatable.
yeah but dont hurt the spiders dont let your fear control you trap it in a cup and slide a paper on the bottom and release them into the wild.
@@stryker572 screw the bastards, to hell with them.
One time I was looking through a box of old trains and locomotive parts, only to see a big black widow spider crawl out of the box at me.
Coincidentally, I fixed a Mantua 0-4-0 switcher today, and luckily, I found no spider nests 😂
That's good news lol
😂😂😂
"Spider Egg in Motor"
I think it's time for me to find another hobby...
All I can think about is the horror stories about roaches in electronics
😬
No
I hope it never happens to me
@@Honeydwarf85 *n o*
You made my day when you finally pulled that foam cradle out.That engine looks great with a consist behind it. Nice restoration job.👍
They’re a lot easier to deal with if you remove the truck sideframes, first; they should just be a press-fit onto pegs molded as part of the gearbox sides. 🙂
I actually have this engine E 8 A powered &:E 8 B powered unit sets, I've had no maintenance issues at all. They're a very good set engine pairs!
“Will you ride inside my train?” said the Spider to the Fly,
“‘Tis the prettiest little train that ever you did spy;
Ride in my locomotive and be my engineer,
And I have many curious things to show when you are there.”
“Oh no, no,” said the little Fly, “to ask me is in vain,
For who goes into your locomotive can ne’er come out again.”
Awe that's cute. You should really do some children books!😊
The spider laying the egg: this is nice especially the air conditioning.
12:15 - SMT, you could paint the engineer & fireman figures that are present in the cab! That directional lighting circuit board is probably a universal board that the manufacturer installs in all of their locomotives. The person doing the soldering at the assembly plant may have touched their soldering iron on that circuit board eyelet by accident & left that little bit of solder on it.
If i ever saw a spider egg in any of my locomotives i would leave the locomotive alone. However awesome video!!
The good thing I founded in this quarantine, it´s that I met this really good guy, greetings from Mexico.
Great job! Considering this is a longer video than usual I can only imagine how long it really took to fix this one. Amazing.
Hi
Same thing happened with my athearn P42. Looked inside, the motor was tilted to the side. I pushed it back in to place, and it runs like a charm to this day!
that would be called a 'dropper'
Another page for the SMT manual.👍 Never had one of those apart. 🚂🚃🇨🇦
Really liked the video. Specially like to see how to repair those non working locomotives.. Inspires me to take care of my Hornby and Bachmann locomotives..Hats off to you.
60 years ago, my father taught me the love of HO scale trains when I was 5. It has been great seeing your diagnosing and restoring things and I greatly appreciate your videos showing the problems you have encountered. Besides
having Athearn and Proto and Atlas and Tyco Mantua, I have inherited some Tenshodo and Pacific Fast Mail brass with their Pittman motors. I am grateful to hear about your techniques and hope to get this collection running. Your videography is wonderful too. Please keep the videos coming!
Really exciting watching and learning. Our railroad is running like a streamlined butterfly.
We have a floor track so its like running a real railroad at times.
Thank you for your videos and channel.
Nice! I got a proto 1000, took a bit of effort to get running but its great now
10 Comments with no comments what? And 20 likes with 14 views? I’m so confused
Thats what happens when all those people come on to the vid at the same time you do, then that happens
UA-cam is an alcoholic lol
EMD E8/9 series were designed for passenger trains at high speeds. The counter part to them is the F series for freight locomotives. Now you have both cousins.
some railroads used the Fs for passenger service thru mountainous terrain due to their numerically high gear ratios
That's one type of passenger you don't need On your Amtrak , as always enjoyed the content Thank you !!
My P2K E8s and E6 are my most reliable locomotives. More so than my Athearn BBs in fact..... interesting that we've had such different experiences
A spider egg in the motor. That is too weird!
Spider: is this house for sale?
Estate agent: yea yes, it’s up for *looks at paper* free
**nine years later**
Spider: WHY ARE WE FLYING IN A DARK BOX
I love all your train videos anytime
Wow. Some really good low speed on that too! Surprised
Really nice Amtrak and great repair. That axle you glued has a cracked gear. You need an Athern ATH 60024 gear. I would send you one but it would take month to get there. I fixed one with the same problem.
Yep! I did too works wonders!
wow you have great eyesight!!!!
I've seen that same thing a few times. You catch that kind of stuff after a while.
I replaced all my Proto 2000 wheelsets with Athearn type sets. Athearn and early Proto 2000 are compatible. I used left over wheel sets from Ernst Gear projects and the remainder were obtained from my local hobby dealer. The replacement project involved over 30 locomotives. I bought additional sets in this effort long ago before the price surges we are currently having. Fortunately I purchased enough sets to replace a further 20 locomotives should I live that long. Proto 2000 locomotives look nice and run nice out of the box. Unfortunately they have trouble staying in service for long periods after their gears fail. I really enjoyed your spider egg find. That is classic. Good work SMT on bringing the Amtrak E9 beast back to life.
that reminds me of guys who buy a boatload of MT couplers and gear to outfit their entire collection and never get around to actually doing it- what a waste of money. harrison fixed this unit and didn't have to buy anything.
Spider-Man strikes again! Your Proto 2000 is now a Spider 2021!
Amtrak definitely has the same color scheme as Spiderman, so it makes sense that a spider would want to set up shop in the belly of the beast. Spider silk is very durable, but non-conductive so the current was most likely blocked on the commutator. As for the wheel sets, you've had that issue before and successfully resolved it with super glue... KUDOS Harrison!
Thanks for sharing. 👍👍👍
a hair or any of a number of things could wrap around and do the same thing.
yea Proto had that problem with the gears, I think it was bad injection molding or something. This usually made them crack and the wheel become lose causing the issues your talking about as well as it could make a clicking noise when they run. You can just buy replacement gears from Athearn they are the same. I've done it on several Proto locomotives over the years.
It may be different depending on the year but I believe I tried that once and the gears were different sizes.
that wasn't the issue- i'm sure harrison would know a split gear when he sees one.
I've seen this once. It happened back in the 80's with one of my NScale locomotives. Took some cleaning but got it working, no issues.
Such an unusual problem.
@@SMTMainline
It sure is. If you think about it though, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. Spiders love small dark places to make nests in.
This is interesting
Good job, it sounds great and looks good on your layout. Keep up the awesome work
There are small roaming/hunting spiders that will find a nice safe hidden spot to make basicly a cocoon for themselves to wait out the winter. These winter homes are always made of very thin silk and woven as small and tight as possible. They are also waterproof. Most often you can find them in places like between seldom opened exterior doors and frames for example. And this looks like a perfect example of 1. And if you can find the gap the spider used to get in to the modle you deserve a prize. With the size of the web and tight fit confines of where it was. I would hazard a guess that the web belonged to a crab spider. These spiders are very small, and flat bodied and can fit in very narrow places. They get the name "crab spider" from how their first set of legs are much longer than the rest & get used as feelers for what lays infront of them, aswell as their wide but flat overall body shape. Which makes them resemble the basic body shape of crabs.
wow.
There is one screw you did not tighten. Love the videos learning a lot as just got back into this hobby.
You have a talent, young man! 👍
I have an old picture of Amtrak E units being repaired. The picture might be older than I am. I was born in February of 1974. Most people who love passenger trains must agree Amtrak had E units decades ago.
I have found that 95% of the time I am having problems with older engines, a good cleaning takes care of the problem. I usually find dirt, dust, hair, dried grease or other contaminants in the gears, which prevent the engine form running.
Commenting on an old video, but anyway: 5:03 it's perfectly normal to not populate all places on a board. That way the manufacturer can produce a single, universal board, and just populate the components they need for that particular model. It saves a lot of money when you don't have to make 17 slightly different variations of basically the same board.
That makes sense
Thanks for these videos, now I won't shelving locomotives when they quit
Dude, I really want to send you a decent soldering iron ever time I see you pull out that monster gun.
Out of all my locomotives which aren't many but ive never seen spider web in them . I watched this after got my wiring set up now to install the switch eventually . Good fix Harrison. I never had a proto brand but i know bachmann has similar issues with gears but the fixes are not as good as this. At thr end i say that did look fitting like its a railroad museum hauling Canadian Pacific cars with the older Amtrak. very good!
how do you know the problem is with the gear and not the length of the wheel stubs??
@@tommurphy4307 because let's see Vicky has amounted to metal axles and because they used a certain type of plastic that didn't cure properly they split Bachmann had an issue with it that's why there are piles of garbage especially with the crappy split chassis design and they still have issues because I have locomotives that are for about 2007 and 2008 and the drive shaft Universal is starting to crack because of how poor quality they are Proto 2000 and 1000 series were known for having gear issues henceforth why Athearn are far Superior. It's funny how somebody comments on stuff that happened a year ago almost like they want to start an argument wrong person to start an argument with just saying
The last E9 was delivered in 1963, but don't know which railroad(s) took the last delivery. Union Pacific, Burlington Route (later, Burlington Northern, 1970), and Milwaukee Road had a lot of E9s, which at 2400 horsepower, were the most powerful of GM/EMD's diesel-electric locomotives. The E8 made 2, 250 hp. These units were hand-me-downs from the private railroads to Amtrak and, to me, nothing Amtrak ever bought since then has looked as good as those old E units.
I believe PRR had some too. I heard that one thing the railroads liked about them is that if one of the engines broke down they still had enough power to limp the train home.
the EMD 710 20-cylinder engine made 5,000 bhp
I haven't watched SMT since he had 9k subscribers and he has ads now? UA-cam is becoming a career for Harrison!
Nice job fixing it mate ive never seen a spider egg in a model train motor before i recon get some Amtrak passenger cars and it will look fantastic.
Your soldering iron is like trying to thread a needle with a jack hammer! 🤣🤣🤣
If the wheels spin independent of each other on the same axle, the gears are split and superglue is not the fix. Trying this may result in a cogging of the gears since the split creates an elongation preventing proper gear mesh. Replace the gears. - Charlie
if you would listen to what was said- the issue was the wheel stubs were touching and creating a short circuit. i think harrison probably checked the wheelsets for shorting and cut that from the vid. I agree with you on the use of CA glue- i would have used a bit of cotton in there. that way, i couldn't possibly glue my fingers together.....and it makes getting back in there easier should it be necessary. that looks like a good quality motor.....for a proto.
I have that same train too nice for the collection
Those locomotives did pull the "rainbow" trains. Cars that were still in their original railroad liveries and mismatched and not yet painted to Amtrak yet so your little consist would be period acceptable per say. Only it's Canadian lol
The way that the front truck was coming off of the rails there, I was expecting the problem to be a wonky truck connection, a problem that has plagued at least one of my non-Proto Life-Like diesels. I'm glad that that that wasn't it!
Those spiders are relentless when it comes to finding cramped spaces to lay eggs in. I've found tiny little spider eggs, about the size of a grain of table salt (if that), suspended in nests of amazingly thin spider silk inside of the cabins of my Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars and even inside of one-stud-wide LEGO bricks!
enough spider jokes already- we don't even know what kind of bug it was.
I've got an IHC E9 but cannot get it unclipped from the chassis as you did. The sctew is very well hidden and I don't want to crack the body.. I really enjoy your programs.
A spider egg, you say? Spiders have resorted to building nests in model trains? Talk about horrifying!
i'm sorry no one taught you about spiders when you were little....that's why so many people are freaked out about them. please don't spread the horror by showcasing your fears.
electrified spiders.... now THAT is something to be afraid of
Hi I love Amtrak
Old proto is notorious for cracked gears. They are easy to fix since they use basic Athearn drive mechanism.
Six diodes are used for directional constant lighting. E units and F units have a light on only one end hence four diodes.
so your implying that the board in that thing has space for additional diodes- for double lighted units....i'll buy that.
Thank you. Great video. If you ever get the chance to do a video in a fairly dark room with a loco with really good lights, that would be awesome. I see the LEDs usually but it doesn't come through all that much. But I'm not complaining! Just a thought. All the best.
you can get real bright pre-focused LED's from richmond controls and they're not cheap which is why nobody used them in their locos.
No equipment should go on the layout without checking the wheel gauge with an NMRA gauge 1st.!! (other rules are replace all couplers with Kadees and all cars must be up to NMRA standards weight. That is 1oz plus 1/2 oz per inch so for example a
6 inch long car weights 4 oz. I just added that detail for your subs/followers. It doesn't need be exact, but a good starting point.)
I just wanted to make that point; because likely you could have fixed the E-unit just by gauging the wheels correctly; and you wouldn't have need to disassemble the trucks, and do your glue fix-it. Eyeballing the wheel gauge is really not good enough on 6 axle locos. Having them right helps the engine negotiate turnouts and other complex trackwork. Eyeballing may be good enough for your loop of track but when you want to up your quality further; doing the gauging and other cleanup will help get flawless operation. Hope you will get and use a gauge.!! Cheers. oh PS I hate removing those gear covers too. uber tedious!
he could do that with a plastic vernier caliper from harbor freight at a fraction of the the price of the model railroad gauge thingy. what is the proper gauge for HO?? the track has a tolerance of error- do you know what that tolerance is?? all that matters if you have to get it perfect...
@@tommurphy4307 if you haven't used the NMRA gauge you should get one and use it. It uses a go-nogo format
that makes it simple and fast. Every railcar need to be checked and it keeps it simple. It also has gauging for turnout parts, track, wheel treads and the X2f couplers. It's the best 12 bucks a modeler can spend. I also KNOW someone sent SMT one of the gauges so he has no excuse. I wish he would use it and set a good example for his followers. Thanks for your message, have a great one.
No deal with Athearn that I have ever been aware of. Life-Like just had their people in China clone the Athearn parts which at that time were made in the US (1990-ish). They made a few mistakes, the four axle trucks with the metal tab have the tab on the opposite side as an Athearn truck, and either due to a minute size difference or the type of plastic used the axle gears will split. Engines that use this gear include RS2, RS11, F3, FA1, FA2, GP7-9-18-20-30 and the E6, E7, E8 and E9 although later issues of these from Walthers are redesigned to eliminate the problem.
Hold it upside down in your hand and use your thumb to rotate the wheel on one side. If you can easily spin the wheel, the gear is broken. You should not be able to easily spin the wheel on the gear.
The split can range from just causing an annoying clunk clunk clunk, to spreading apart so far it binds up and the engine won't run.
Now you don't have to change the whole axle, it's just the gear that has failed. Athearn 60024 gears will directly replace them. They can be rough to push in, it helps to open the end hole just a bit with a knife. They're cheap, a bag of six with shipping costs maybe $2 a gear. I usually buy several packages at once.
As it's a design flaw, with time all original Proto gears will split, although I think engines exposed to more hot/cold temperature cycles will split faster than engines always kept at a relatively constant temperature. I have opened up brand new in the box engines to find split gears. I had some old stock GP18s that sat here in the basement for years and opened them up and .. yup split gears.
They over-produced these engines to get them on the market when they first made them, I can recall a show about 1994 where a guy had piles of them and you could buy GP18s and BL2s for $20 and E8s for $25. I still have an Illinois Central E8 and even a set of Rivarossi cars to run with it.
Now for the great irony. Model Die Casting made an RS3 and the last few runs they had them made with the Life-Like drive in them. Horizon Hobby purchased both Athearn and Model Die Casting. They moved the RS3 to be an Athearn product in the Ready to Run line - but had it made in the same factory as MDC had. So the clone of the Athearn parts ended up being sold as an actual Athearn item. And of course with the same gear problem.
I'm surprised they didn't get into any trouble with Athearn in that case, the drives look so similar it isn't even funny.
@@SMTMainline I'm not sure why there was no copyright infringement suit either. But it's certainly not the first example of someone copying another manufacturer's product, you can find near direct clones of Athearn items going back to the early 1960s. And that doesn't include when manufacturers used an HO product as the basis for the design of their item in another scale.
@@CR7659 theyre made to industry standards and use sized shafts and standard gear tooth pitches- that kind of thing cannot be patented and using a knife rather than a proper-size drill to rework a hole in a new gear is an easy way to waste money- our hobby is pricey enough as it is....
@@tommurphy4307 Odd, I've never had an issue with it to open the ends a bit so you can get the thing started.
Maybe they'll break eventually too, who knows, but the gears cost about a dollar each so I'm not too worried about it. By the time they break again we'll all probably be able to 3D print our own.
Hi smt Mainline how are you doing I like that E9 locomotive it looks very nice
I noticed a journal box cover missing off your truck sideframe. Those actually "float" on their journals like the prototype.
So... you fixed the bug in the machine. lol
check wheel gauge and for cracks in plastic gear axles which earlier proto engines are notorious for - Charlie (P.S. Athearn, NWSL, and A-Line all make replacement axle gears so you do not have to replace the wheels.)
split axles happen on lots of different brands model train locos- bachmann seems to be 'the king'. i think with as many locomotives as he has fixed- he may know a thing or two about checking for split gears.
Zero Dislikes I Mean I Liked This Video Duh Why Wouldn’t I.
I love the Amtrak trains
my layout is in phase I right now (1972)
Brother vids are great! I've learned a lot
Damn a spider egg in a motor
I have an old Tyco-Mantua 2-6-2 that I got as-is from a local model railway club's "bargain bin" for $2 and it had a vacated spider nest in the tender. Nasty stuff.
why is that 'nasty'?? i have spiders all over my property and even in my house and i LOVE them. they have a place in this world just as you and I do.
@@tommurphy4307 Spiders aren't nasty, the sticky residue their nests sometimes leave most certainly is nasty to deal with though
Another fantastic video.
Love your lay out. Very nice! :)
This is first for me to, normally hobo spiders ride in a baggage, coach or sleeper car not a locomotive.
I'm scared to buy used loco's now.
Don't be scared homie, I buy new and used HO trains and have a gang of trains because I'ma G. I love it and wouldn't sell any of it. You might come across a loco you like that is rare used and is in good operable condition. Remember don't be discouraged from buying good used locos, You a G fam
I have the RF&P version of this. Dropped it down a set of stairs. ..still worked but dented up a bit. I call it weathered now. ..😐
I have one like that except it's an Illinois central e9 but it's still almost the same
Now, that was different. Every Proto locomotive I’ve ever bought required a repair. If it acts up again, I believe you can replace the wheel sets with Athearns.
Have you ever compared the Athearn wheel to the Proto? I don't think that is a very wise decision.
@@xxxx-hw5we I agree, but most everyone I know uses Athearn axles, as they’re easier to get right now. There are better full wheel sets, but Athearns are a suitable economy replacement until you can find something better. And I use Athearn worm gears and bearings, as they’re better than Proto.
all new n scale protos get automatic motor tune-ups at my club. not an easy fix if you've ever tried to get those damn brush caps off.
You wont risk damage if you actually USE an NMRA gauge instead of guestimating as the 2 axles should never touch when they are properly gauged. Crazy glue is NOT needed or desired in this instance. If these axles are sliding too much they are due for replacement which Athearn sells as SD-45 gears though proto may use the other set by Athearn as well the site sells 2 kinds, very common part to fail is those axle gears and they are cheap to replace.
they don't fail if you rework the hole for proper interference/fit. its a no-brainer you just need the right drill size and you don't need a $20 model railroad gauge thingy.... the main idea is to get the unit running (especially if you are doing it for a friend or client) and that takes care of operations until new parts can be installed. good job, harrison!
That's got to be the first. Spiderwebs
How about springing for a little piece of really thin carpet to put on your workspace there. It will probably keep from scratching up some of the nicer things
That is a pretty interesting problem
Drive shaft is the power take off
I have never heard of a spider trying to build a home in a model train
A dab of silicone caulk works very well for this fix.
Proto 2000 and cracked axle gears are synonomous. Even if not "broken" always check the axle gears for being cracked (it is bc of the cheesey plastic the Chinese used). Easy to find replacements and just replace. Also, advise against using any kind of CA glue like you did; if you are going to use any kind of glue on axles and gears, better to use a "white" glue like Elmers or Tacky. It will hold AND allow for easy disasembly if need be.
all racism aside- its easier to unstick your fingers that way...
Nice locomotive you got there
My brain is screaming “use some compressed air to blow that web outta there!!!”
I don't have any.
@@SMTMainline ☺️
You need a pair of modelers tweezers to make it easier to clean up tight places.
harrison- you DO need a good pair of tweezers- the blue-coated SS pakistan-made ones are awesome. i bet you lose them before you wear them out. about $5 at rite-aid.
I like he say well folks!
If it weren't for the coaches to be of canadian descent, it kinda represents the earliest phase of amtrak with inherited coaches and locomotives from many different railroads ;) 27:15
Spider man, spider man does whatever a spider can
Disgusting. But Kudos to you for repairing it.
Should oil it while down !
The
“OH NO”
😂😂
Proto 2000's never had Athearn Motors, the Motor is actually a 5 pole skew wound can Motors, while the athearn motor was a 5 pole armature motor (big difference) and the only difference with the proto motors is bigger flywheels, larger than normal armature for increased efficiency, and the story goes that they almost copied athearn but made the motor higher performance, all of which was done in 1993 when Proto 2000 was introduced, in 2001 P2K models becane DCC ready, and in 2007 just before the merger with walthers, the last ones produced either had DCC or DCC sound on select models which was offered as an optional unpgrade package during the early NCE and MRC Dark Ages era of the early 2000's by 2016 the Walthers Mainline replaced the original proto 2000 units, and now feature lok sound.
Very smooth great job smt
I would think a pair of tweezer4ss would come in handy for this problem.
Some time ago I received a rather large box from Australia containing a couple of locomotives. Before opening it I donned a face-shield, and grabbed a hammer and a knife. Just in case...
10 spiders disliked this video.
Awesome vid
Better off to replace the axel gears with Athearn ones