Hiawatha Hudson (PS1) won't run

Steve, sadly, the Railking Hiawatha is known to suffer from a zinc rot on the wheels. Look closely and examine the wheels for signs of degradation. Cracks or chunks of missing wheel pieces should be fairly evident. However, fine cracks and swelling of the wheels may not be clearly obvious to the casual observer……all is not lost, although there is no direct Hiawatha chassis available for the Railking line, that locomotive shares a common chassis with several other Railking engines. So although a slight difference in appearance, there are alternatives to make a good repair. Unfortunately, you’ll have to do a complete chassis swap if your Hiawatha indeed has rotten wheels…….if unsure, post a picture ( close ups if possible ) of the drive wheels on your Hiawatha, and we’ll go from there….

Pat

Have you put a fresh battery in the unit?

Thank you both! Here are some photos. I really don;t think there's a case of zinc rot here, though I'm no expert. The thing looks like it was never run. I thought about the battery, but it goes into reset and allows me to cycle through features. It's possible I suppose, but everything works except when you cycle into forward/reverse, it lunges as if it wants to move and is 'locked'. I can hear the voltage in the motor as if it wants to spin. Worst case I can take it with me on Tuesday to  sahop that is an authorized MTH repair shop, just thought perhaps it was a "zap it with WD-40" and it would resolve the issue. :-)

https://www.mthpartsandsales.c...lists/175?type=lists

It's possible that one wheel is loose on the axle and had gone out of quarter. If you take the shell off, you can turn the motor flywheel by hand and see if it is jammed. Also, you can feel the play in the drive rods. If either is tight and there is no play whatsoever, that could indicate a problem with quartering.

It's also possible that there is some crud in the gear box.

If all this is beyond your comfort level, then an authorized repair shop is the place to go.

Ahh - very helpful Vernon. Thank you! I guess I could have looked for that. It would appear if I remove the side rods, the 1st and 2nd wheel in the "6" part of the 4-6-4 should be able to spin freely. If they don't that's my culprit. Perhaps I will try that this afternoon. Thanks again!

Yep - no play whatsoever. On the NYC Hudson (Essentially the same unit) the "non-powered" wheels will move a slight bit before resistance from the drive gear stops them. These wont move at all. I guess I'll open it up and hope I don't drop an "out of stock" teeny screw into the carpet! Thanks for the advice everyone.

Steve,

Just a reminder that from an electrical perspective PS-1's are usually very finicky when trying to get them out of 'Reset".

See this post for some suggestions, if you find that your issue is not mechanical, but perhaps electrical in nature:

     https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...0#170922644757311880

Mike

@harmonyards posted:

all is not lost, although there is no direct Hiawatha chassis available for the Railking line, that locomotive shares a common chassis with several other Railking engines. So although a slight difference in appearance, there are alternatives to make a good repair.

Pat

Hi Pat,

Is the chassis from a RailKing PRR torpedo a good fit? What modifications would be required?

Thanks

Roy

@RoyBoy posted:

Hi Pat,

Is the chassis from a RailKing PRR torpedo a good fit? What modifications would be required?

Thanks

Roy

I’d have to see what the torpedo’s chassis looks like, …..it will essentially bolt in, but there’s two distinctly different Railking chassis when discussing the 4-6-2, 4-6-4 platforms….obviously many different decorative wheels, but as far as bolt in swaps, there’s the early strap down motor, and the later cast motor mount that sits over the gear box,…..

Pat

Stepping up next level search.

You take the bare minimum part name from the item you need that is out of stock, and use that search criteria. Again, key here, you want a name that pulls a HUGE LIST from the database.

Example, say you need the drive block, but again specific to this model out of stock.

So you take keywords "DRIVE BLOCK / 3-AXLE" and search for that but refine (don't put in the first search window dialog- you instead filter the resulting list. Again, you want the search to pull a HUGE list of similar parts from the daabase, and THEN filter them down with refined searches.

You also have to view the picture links for items but as an example.

Or better yet painted silver drivers.

Another one

VS the out of stock one.

@harmonyards posted:

I’d have to see what the torpedo’s chassis looks like, …..it will essentially bolt in, but there’s two distinctly different Railking chassis when discussing the 4-6-2, 4-6-4 platforms….obviously many different decorative wheels, but as far as bolt in swaps, there’s the early strap down motor, and the later cast motor mount that sits over the gear box,…..

Pat

and, one of those examples I posted was the "strap" style motor mount.

@SteveL01 posted:

Yep - no play whatsoever. On the NYC Hudson (Essentially the same unit) the "non-powered" wheels will move a slight bit before resistance from the drive gear stops them. These wont move at all. I guess I'll open it up and hope I don't drop an "out of stock" teeny screw into the carpet! Thanks for the advice everyone.

If you simply disconnect the two rear connecting rod bolts ( 5mm ) the front and middle drivers should spin. They are still linked to the connecting rod. If they don’t, than the more than likely cause is swollen wheels due to zinc rot. When the chassis were available from MTH, I think changed a couple dozen easily,…every one had the same complaint as you. Some worse than others. I see the tell tale signs of swelling zinc in your pictures. Just because they haven’t crumbled to pieces yet, don’t mean they can’t swell up…..and when they swell up, they lock up,…

Pat

Those wheel flanges definitely exhibit zinc rot cracking, unfortunately.

Well, this was enlightening. Caveat Emptor indeed. Upon ruling out items, indeed it became clear the front wheels in the powered area were in fact 'frozen'. Upon freeing them it became clear that they were frozen due to zinc rot. It was not visible because the wheel was 'fused' at the flange behind the second set of wheels. It would appear some debris is lodged within the axle chamber as I cannot get a full revolution, the wheel binds at the same point each way. At this pont I may just use heavy force to see if I can get it to revolve as it would appear I must replace the chassis now - or put it on a shelf and call it art. Bummer, I sat through 4 hours of auction waiting for this particular piece. I suppose I could swap the NYC Hudson chassis. Thanks for all the advice everyone!

It's interesting that all of a sudden in the last month or so, these PS-1 RailKing Hiawatha Hudsons are all over eBay. They are priced really high, too. There are bunches of them right now, while there have been none or very few for the last few years. Somehow the word has gotten out among the sellers that the chassis suffers from zinc pest, but the sellers are not mentioning that to potential buyers.

Mine has been in a box, untouched for at least five years. Took it out and tested it yesterday. It ran for about an inch and then stopped. Turned the flywheel manually and there is a tight spot in the rotation.

I ordered a chassis from a RailKing Hudson (DF 1200001B). It was $85 with shipping and it has spoke wheels instead of Baldwin drivers, but at least my Hiawatha Hudson can run again.

Indeed Roy! I too notice they are prevalent at auctions and on ebay...and not cheap! I also got the DF1200001B and, though it had a bit of a mar on one wheel, I'm glad I did because when I asked if MTH could replace the unit with one without the mar he indicated "I checked the other TWO I have and they both have marks too". Since it was the only option as a direct fit, I suspect there will be some bummed out buyers of the Hiawatha which wont run and there is no replacement chassis without a motor and mount  exchange. I kinda like the spoke wheels!