Brass steam loco motor replacement.

[bnrails]

Hello,

how hard is it to remotor a brass steam engine?
NWSL Milwaukee Road S2 4-8-4
The old one is a Pittman DC-70 open frame motor.

Kon

 

[green_elite_cab]

I think the hardes part is just attaching the motor shaft to the drive train. there are plenty of good modern motors that can work for you application. You just need to find a way to hook the motor up.

I don't know how you'd dissassemble that locomotive to get to the motor. If you can reach it though, it shouldn't be to difficult.

 

[pgandw]

Is there a reason to remotor? What problem are you trying to solve with a remotor? Is the problem caused by the motor, the gearbox, or the mechanism (or some combination)? Replacing the motor where the gearbox has a lot of friction and/or the mechanism has binds doesn't improve performance.

Assuming the gearbox and mechanism are not issues, an old motor's performance (noise, heat) can often be significantly improved by cleaning the commutator, making sure the brushes make good contact, a small drop of oil on the bearings, and/or replacing the magnets with a rare earth magnet stack.

The closest replacement to what you have would be a modified Pittman motor design from Bowser. Shaft sizes would probably match up well.

Newer motors generally have smaller shafts. And their bearings are not as strong, so direct connection to the worm is rarely the best installation for a new can or coreless motor. A universal between the 2 is generally recommended.

The gear ratio may have to be altered to get desired speeds with the new motor.

Almost always, a new motor mount will have to be devised. Isolating the motor electrically from the frame will allow a future DCC install. BTW, brass locomotives generally benefit significantly from installing additional electrical pickups.

On the plus side, the relatively large size of the locomotive and the brass construction mean that it can be a real puller as well as a beauty with the right motor, weighting, and gearing. It should also accommodate a decent sized flywheel and DCC sound, should you so choose.

my thoughts, your choices

 

[GN.2-6-8-0]

While it was a PFM GN. articulated i converted most brass remotoring job are similar and pretty straight forward.
On almost all non-articulates there are 3 screws that hold the superstructure to the frame, On looking carefully there will 2 small screws under the back of the cab, there will be one long screw on the underside running up thru the cylinders.
After removing these 3 screws carefully lift the back of the locomotive and watch out for any handrails ,stanchions etc. that might be connected up front.
Most guys doing remotoring simply use a good brand of clear silicone for mounting the new motor.as you can see I even had space to mount a DCC decoder on top of the new NWSL motor.
The motor i chose while giving me slightly less speed non the less give's me higher torque. Of course with a 4-8-4 you may well wish for high speed passenger service check NWSLs website there is a wealth of information available there.