Allow me the indulgence, please, to share this newbie's satisfaction and pleasure over having taken apart a distressed whistle tender, repaired, cleaned, and lubricated it so that it is now a perfectly functioning beauty, all without knowing what the deuce I was doing!
The seller was selling this 2046W tender for parts, since there was a lot wrong with it. I bought it as a learning tool.I freely admit that I know nothing about electronics more than changing a light switch, and had no experience repairing trains. I also lack many tools which might make repairs easier. So I will describe briefly what I encountered and what I did. It would be a kindness if you experts offer constructive criticism, so that I may learn even more from the experience.
The first obvious problem was that the tender was profoundly filthy and obviously unused for decades. There were no wires connected to the contact rollers. When I took off the body, the remnants of both power wires were in bad shape, with insulation brittle and broken off in a dozen places or more. Inside the motor was grimed, as was the whistle and every surface. All bare metal was rusted with old rust. But there was no evidence of damage or scorching, so I was hopeful. I set about to do a full shave and a haircut cleaning job: warm suds for the body, compressed air for the interior of the whistle, soft non-metallic dremmel tool for the wheels and rollers, and CRC sprayed on Q-Tips for everything else. (Thank you, YouTube!) I tried to take off the horse shoe clips to remove the trucks but couldn't figure out how and was afraid to do more harm than good by forcing too hard. So this made rewiring the rollers awkward. How does one get those buggers off?
The 2 tiny hex nuts holding the whistle assembly to the carriage were stripped and rusted. Try as I might, even with WD-40, I could not find purchase to loosen them. Again I was afraid to use too much force. What should I have done? What tool should I have had?
I removed the whistle relay, and the 2 hex nuts securing the motor assembly and exposed the brushes and commutator, all filthy. After more than a dozen Q-tips sprayed with CRC and tooth pics clearing the gaps, the commutator was shinier than a gold tooth. Then I went to work on the brushes, a caked on mess. I tried to sand them and got nowhere, then used some CRC with limited success, except Q-Tips worked well to clean the brush housings.. Finally I used the soft non-metallic dremmel and brought a shine back to the brushes. One has to be careful or you can abraid the skin off your fingers with the dremmel going 5k rpm. Then I turned to the wiring.
The 2 power wires were shot. So I clipped them off, and measured 2 lengths of flexible 18 gauge wire, stripping off only about an eighth of an inch of insulation on both ends. It was easy to solder them on to the motor, but not so easy to solder them to the contact points beneath the trucks. I had to push down on the rollers to expose the contact points while holding the carriage and the soldering iron. Those darn horse shoe clips! Eventually it got done well. I checked out the other wires to and from the relay and it seemed best to leave well enough alone. The electricals attended to, I oiled the truck axles. I did not know where to lubricate the motor, so I did not try. Where should I have done that?
Then came the moment of truth. I hooked up the tender to a locomotive and the tender rolled easily like a champion. I let her run for a while, letting all those happy little electrons play in her circuitry. Then I pushed the transformer's whistle button and heard the most beautiful two note whistle, full throated, and no rattle.
So, friends, what did I do that I shouldn't have, and what didn't I do that I should have? What could I have done better or easier? Thanks in advance for your comments
Goodness, this is fun!
Pete
