A shot in the dark here, but has anyone substituted an old style hand reverse in place of the original pendulum reverse unit? Just a thought, as a lever in a steamer cab would be a throwback to the old hands-on clockwork-style operation.
On the project front, I've been digging into my 390E further, and even got a hint of armature rotation once I had the motor by itself with no gears or wheels to drive. I used an American Flyer transformer, but I figured 15 volts would be ok with no load on the motor. Methinks the armature has no life left in it, but plenty buzzing at least.
