Hi there, I hope I have posted this in the correct forum. I have recently purchased the TMT flatbed truck with the Lionel Lines unpowered beep. Has anyone on this forum converted one of these to an operational locomotive? If yes, could you please advise me how you did it. I would love to see the little fella running around the track under its own power
cheers
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Well you would have to aquire the beep chassis. unfortunately, they are not offerred by RMT. your next best thing would be to buy anoterh beep on sale and swap out the shells.
The best way to power a unpowered beep
is
to buy a powered beep
I powered my Lionel Lines Beep--purchased many years ago, of course--by simply swapping the shells with a less-favored Beep that had a powered chassis (I have a number of Beeps around). There is no easier swap to make in all of the O gauge hobby since the shells are easily removed by just releasing the shell from the protruding tabs located on the frame on both sides. No tools required.
The Lionel Lines version was never offered as a powered unit, so you'll end up with a fairly distinctive Beep.
I re-powered an older Williams cheap Beep that originally had a simple single-axle drive, using two matched DC motors vertically mounted. I scrounged second-hand parts from my stash, the hardest part being to find suitable gears to put on the motor shafts and axles.
an older Williams cheap Beep
There was a time when Williams produced Beeps ?
Send an email off to Walter at RMT...if anyone could find a chassis it would be him..it is shown on the parts section, but that leaves "availabilty" up for grabs.
BTW- saw a chessie beep shell on ebay the other day...$20+s/h...too bright for me though, I'll just repaint mine in CB&Q instead of the rudolph scheme!
If memeory serves me, I got my christmas beep on sale for $35...wait for another sale!
I'm with Allan here, just pick up a powered one and swap shells. I've seen them for $20-25 regularly. It's not worth the effort to try to find all the parts to power the frame you have.
I'm with Allan here, just pick up a powered one and swap shells. I've seen them for $20-25 regularly. It's not worth the effort to try to find all the parts to power the frame you have.
$25 for a powered? Yell when you see one again!
Anyway, here's the "shell" in case anyone watching here wants a chessie shell for their powered chassis- BIN $18 w/free s/h...{no, not my auction...so far I only buy things!}
http://www.ebay.com/itm/121069221572?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
an older Williams cheap Beep
There was a time when Williams produced Beeps ?
Yes, and before that it was Kusan.
Allan, could you please tell me what make of powered chassis you used? Your reply was pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I am down in Australia, have very little access to O gauge models down here, so anything I purchase will be coming from the USA with associated postage costs and not much point of a return if I get the wrong thing. If a particular manufacturer offers the best fit I can hunt around for something online, a simple swapover was what I was hoping.
cheers
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