The Joy of DC

For a long time, I never cared about mechanics or wiring. It was something I couldn’t be bothered with and I always subcontracted it to my brother when I was a kid and friends later on. When something didn’t work properly, I would sideline it on the shelves and not care anymore. That approach gave me the leisure to focus my efforts on model building, scenery and planning. Sure, an attractive proposition. However, comes a time when friends aren’t there, or you need things to work right now or worse, the said friends won’t have the dedication to work on some weird proposition.

Since I’ve been working on Monk yard and other modules, I’ve had to become better at soldering and wiring. I’m not very good, but at least, I’ve reached a decent level where my work is passable and reliable. And if I mess something up, I know why and how to fix it.

The same wasn’t always true with locomotives. I would bash them, mess the electrical stuff accidently and get a poor running engine out of what used to be a decent model. Not a promising proposition when you wish to have good-looking custom locomotives to play with. Over the last few years, I’ve been watching a lot of people online that thinker with very old models, clean them, lube them, tune them and make them run better. Most of these people, including Darth Santa Fe, generally prefer to work with DC models. I use to laugh a little bit at that, thinking they did so since they were more interested in mechanical stuff than operation. But the reality is that you need to know that mechanical stuff first before dabbling with DCC.

And there is another aspect to that: the sheer simplicity of just having to lube a model, run it and have fun. DCC has become a real pain in the rear. Dealing with dirty track, poor sound, cutoffs and programming is extremely frustrating. This is something for which I currently have no patience. Also, as I often mentioned, I have a lot of old models that are DC and since they are oddballs, it makes no sense dumping $200 dollars of electronics in them. For this reason, I have embarked in fine tuning my DC stuff and the 4’ x 8’ layout is perfect for that.

On Sunday, I decided to work on a very old project. My pair of custom detailed Athearn blue box SW1200. I purchased the models back in high school around 1999 to replicate Chemin de fer Charlevoix switchers. However, this project never went nowhere and soon, as a teenager, I custom painted them in CN colors. During the pandemic, I dug out these poorly painted models, stripped them to their bare plastic and completely rebuilt them. It was a highly satisfying project, but I knew the drive was good… or so I thought.

Rebuilding my Athearn SW1200 electric motor

Fast forward a few years ago when I purchased replacement motors from Ebay. These were nice can motors that ran very well and relatively silently. I tried to replace a motor in one of the SW1200, but the surgery didn’t turn great when I grafted the flywheels. They weren’t balanced at all and made the drive jerky.

Last Sunday, I decided to simply rebuild the original drives and improve them. The original Athearn motor was broken into parts. I couldn’t reassemble it because the magnets touched the rotor. After some verification, I found out two plastic tabs that kept the magnets at the right distance were broken. Some styrene replacement tabs were glued in place and the motor was reassembled. Testing proved it was running as good as the untouched motor of the second unit. I was extremely proud to have salved a motor. After cleaning the commutator, adjusting the brush and oiling the bearings, it was back in action.

Cleaned, lubed and tuned trucks ready for reassembly

I then turned my attention to the trucks. Many sideframes had broken pins. I glued them back, inserted a phosphore bronze pin in them and put a nice coat of flat black on them. When I opened the gear tower and truck assembly, I discovered these parts had never been lubed, except for oil in the wrong place. No wonder they sounded like a coffee grinder! So everything went to the ultrasonic bath for degreasing and cleaning. I had purchased new Athearn nickel plated wheels years ago, so I proceeded to replace the sintered wheel with these new set. The trucks were lubed and assembled, making them running much smoother than ever before.

A coat of satin black on the frame really makes a difference

The last step was too degrease and repaint the metal chassis with satin black paint. I used professional grade paint and let it cure for at least 24 hours. At this point, I have refurbished trucks, well-maintained motors and a nice chassis. Everything will need to be reassembled and new LED lighting installed. These locomotives will probably never get a DCC decoders, but at least now they will finally run on a layout after being shelf queens for over 27 years. They may no longer be state of the art models, but this is not the point.

I’m getting more confident in my work and this is what matters. Developing mechanical skills is as important as the rest. I too often neglected that side of the hobby and paid the price. There is a lot of satisfaction tinkering with an older model and bringing it to its best condition. I’m discovering a new facet to this hobby and it’s much more relaxing and enjoyable that I ever thought. Somewhat, DC is really relaxing in a world were electronics, sound and complicated stuff is no longer a novelty or making any sense.