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| Trains |
Early Days
As I mentioned elsewhere on this site, I have a passion for anything mechanical. As far back as I can remember I’ve always enjoyed trains. When I was very young I had a clockworks steam engine. Then in 1970 I was given a REMCO SpeedRail MonoRail. It was a simple figure eight monorail but I enjoyed it.
In 1978 I received my first HO scale train set. I was hooked for life. This set was a TYCO Silver Streak set with Night Glo. I didn’t know it at the time, but apparently most collectors look down upon TYCO trains. The Silver Streak would become the basis for a semi-permanent layout that would be housed in three different locations over the course of nearly 30 years.
I eventually added many different HO train sets, locomotives, rolling stock, scenery and accessories to this basic layout during that time. Most of my collection was given to me as gifts for birthdays and Christmas by my parents, grandparents and a special uncle & aunt.
After receiving my second diesel, a Bachmann Santa Fe, I noticed that the Silver Streak didn’t seem to operate as well. At the time my dad and I thought the Silver Streak needed cleaning but I’ve come to realize the trouble was with the quality of the engine and not the maintenance.
Somehow I seem to have acquired more diesels than steamers even though I prefer the steamers. I don’t know if it was because the diesels were more popular, my relatives preferred the diesels, or they were cheaper, but that’s how it worked out.
Monorails
In 2000 I was on a quest to find another monorail since I had such great memories of my old Remco Speedrail. At the time I located an E-R Models Von Roll Mark II HO Scale Monorail model 4901, so I bought it. I set the E-R up in my living room but wasn't too impressed at the time. Fast forward 13 years and my nephew, brother-in-law and my oldest son reignited my spark for trains/monorails. My nephew had received a Disney Monorail from Santa and my brother-in-law took us to visit a Morgantown Lionel layout January 19, 2013. The next weekend I set up the E-R Monorail at my parents house. My oldest son had a blast running it. Setting up the track was the most difficult part but once it was up and all of the conductors were seated correctly it ran great. Then I told my son about the old Remco. I knew the Remco had issues because back in 2000 I did run it around the old figure 8 a few times. Unfortunately the rubber tire on the drive wheel had long since dry rotted thus causing the engine to slip so much that it could not traverse the incline. I tried several times to find information on replacement parts and how-to manuals for the Remco but none seem to exist. My next step is to try replacing the rubber with some other material.
The evening of February 1, 2013, I cleaned the Remco Monorail engine using some Tuner Cleaner and q-tips. I then put a small amount of oil on each of the shafts (motor, gear shafts, drive wheel shafts and so on). Finally, I connected the pickups directly to the transformer for a bench test. It seemed to run really well. I'm exited to repair the drive wheel and get it back on the track. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time that evening. Hopefully the kids will give me some time over the weekend to spend on it.
I finally had a chance to get back to working on the old Remco Speedrail Monorail on February 16th. Using a suggestion from a collector I found on YouTube, I replaced the dry rotted rubber drive wheel with O-rings. After reassembly, I cleaned the track with tuner cleaner and a Scotch-Brite pad then connected it to the transformer. The newly refurbished Monorail engine sprang to life. It was FAST but unfortunately the track still had problems. I disassembled the track and discovered that one of the supports was cracked where two adjoining pieces of track connect to the support. As the engine would approach this section the track would dip enough to break the electrical connection. My next step is to find a means of repairing the support.
Created on 01/21/2009 01:56 PM by admin
Updated on 02/19/2013 02:00 PM by admin
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