PRRronbh posted:Thought this purchase would be the realization of a fascination from the late mid-50's. The fascination was in Lionel's catalog image of a New Haven EP-5.
Personally I find the K-Line scale version the nicest. Found on on eBay NIB with both pilots intact based on pictures.
But this is how it arrived August 2.
One of the "fra-gil-e" (Christmas Story) pilots was snapped off. And somehow one of the electro-coupler's wires ripped away.
As Ralphy says in the movie "in our height of revelry ... ." The wind was sucked out of my sails.
For a couple of weeks pondered the best way to try and fix this. Conjured up this fixture to work with the broke pilot on.
Decided best fix was to literally fix the pilot to the frame of the "front" forward end. With my almost thirty-years in Nuclear-QA had to have a checklist of actions.
After two-days of very careful delicate work the results.
Rear end with pilot mounted as built on truck. This allows free movement for coupling to consist.
Now I feel really good and very happy with the results. The fixed pilot on forward end looks great.
Congratulations on your repair. I've actually had two of these engines arrive with broken pilots. The one I currently have is all intact, but I'm probably going to try brushing a coat of JB Weld epoxy on the surfaces of the entire assembly to give it additional strength. The Chinese-made diecast on the pilots of these engines was defective and ended up being brittle, and in addition the design of the pilot with the two very narrow connections to the rectangular part (as shown in your picture) was a bad design - it was not big enough to have much strength, and would easily break. Mine were broken in the same place, and one of them broke further into small pieces.
You're right about the engine, though - it is the nicest NH EP-5 out there. I have it with the matching aluminum passenger cars and two express boxcars, and it's a great looking set.
