Pete in Kansas posted:A few weeks ago my son picked me up an old 38 Standard gauge set while in Whichita. It was pretty rough and it only got worse as I took the locomotive apart. Even though it is old and rough I had to do something with it so I repaired the motor as best as possible and resoldered and painted the shell. It looks good and runs OK but has no pulling power as it is only pulling with 2 wheels. The frame on the non geared axle is so worn that I couldn't reattached and use the drive rods or they would go out of quarter.So 2 wheel drive not much pulling power but it does look good.
Anyone have a 38 frame that doesn't have enlarged axle holes that they would like to sell?
Eventually I'll find a frame or maybe I'll put a super motor in it. I also finished repainting the semaphore in the pictures, that came out perfect.
As I previously posted this locomotive looks good but had no pulling power. The wheels would spin with one car and a caboose. Also since these are big gear motors the gear hit the switch guard rail every time it went over one. In desperation to deal with the pulling power issue I took out an MTH traction tire I had, a tube of DUCO cement and glued the tire to the geared wheel. Now it will pull a 5 car train and the tire keeps the gear from hitting on the switch. This little 38 is now one of my favorite engines to run.