Posted previously about a K-line Scale Bershire that I needed the reset code for.
Seems that new or used, everything needs a little tweaking so I usually gamble and take my chances.
I just bought a used K-line Scale Berkshire for $400.00 which is around the going rate. Only used around the Christmas tree for an hour and then stored in a glass display in a smoke free home. Funny how in the pictures it looks dusty but it has the Bay Guarantee. We shall see. Lol. But it is a B&A version and I wanted it.
By chance and with about ten minutes to go, I came across what looked like a new in the box B&M version listed as C-2 For restoration or parts. It looked like the cast standoff for the drawbar had broken and the front pilot was bent. But for $160.00, the parts were worth it to me. And only two bidders.
I did my usual tactic of bidding a little over the existing bid and then bid again at around twice what I would pay to avoid getting sniped. Got it for a little over $250.
Sure enough, looks like it had a mild drop, probably right out of the box and someone blamed it on shipping. Never lubed, shiny everything including pickup rollers. But there is always something.
To me a couple of tries to realize that the Railsounds switch was either factory wired backwards or just installed backwards. Did not open tender to find out. She smoked but not well and no chuff.
Quickly took it apart and richt away noticed one of the wires on the chuff switch was broken. Cold solder. Resolded in place. Noticed that it was awful close to the motor so I put a piece of tape over it.
Spun motor by hand and could not hear the switch click off and on. Took motor out again and noticed it was factory installed with the switch lever under the puffer piston lever instead of on top. Fixed that. Straightened out the pilot while I was at it. Then since I was inside, I carefully cut away the sleeve on the wire wound smoke resister. Added some real wicking instead of the thin sponge and put it back together.
I was really impressed with how much better it was smoking when the light bulb went off. Sure enough, I had just bought a handfull of triacs to fix the same issue in my other K-line A-5 puffer.
Shut it down and opened it up.
When I did this I made sure that the protective sleeve that goes through the hole in the smoke unit some was in place on the positive side so the resistor would not short.
Here is the issue. I have done this on several fan driven units with no problem. But the resister is usually soldered firmly to the PCB. I think that in the puffers, the intent of the sleeve is to act as an electrical insulator for the wire wound resistor itself. When I added a minimal amount of wicking because the bowl is so shallow, the floating resister gets pushed up so that the positive side of the resister body contacts the dome and toasts the smoke triac. Then it smokes great on full track voltage.
Ian confident, I can replace the triac on the reciever board.
But what I want is a temperature resistant method to prevent this from happening without resorting to putting OEM sleeves back on.
I am sure others have had this issue.
Other than that, I am pretty happy with my purchase.
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