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Model Railroading > I Had To Go To The LHS...Date: 08/25/26 07:28 I Had To Go To The LHS... Author: pennsy3750 ...that's Local Hardware Store.
This weekend was our annual meet at Waushakum Live Steamers here in suburban Boston. One of my 1.5" scale riding cars derailed several years ago, and the truck came apart. Its been in pieces in my garage ever since, so I finally decided it was high time to fix it and get it back to the track, so I ordered some new roller bearings a couple weeks ago. Our club president graciously pressed a wheel back onto the axle for me, and I stopped by the hardware store for a few nuts, bolts, and washers. 1 - The offending flatcar sits in our shop, still missing one truck. 2 - The truck parts, with an adult beverage can I found in the shop for scale. 3 - The bolster and one sideframe re-attached to the car, with the four new bearings in their packages.    Date: 08/25/26 07:35 Re: I Had To Go To The LHS... Author: pennsy3750 4 - The two wheelsets, with new roller bearings. Adult beverage can for scale.
I got the riding car back together, and got all the way around the track without derailing. I was feeling pretty proud of myself, until disaster struck. 5 - My diesel, laying on its side so I can identify what broke. See the roller chain at dead center, between the two blue-ish bearing blocks? The gear is completely stripped. Of course, I did not discover this until I was halfway around the track with my wife and daughter riding, and I had to do the Walk Of Shame whereby I pushed a disabled train back to the field for repairs. My working theory is that the chain got loose without me noticing, and slowly wore down the teeth until the chain could no longer spin the driveshafts. Fortunately, the offending gear had a part number stamped on it, which makes it a lot easier. A Google search reveals that replacement parts are readily available and not very expensive, and it should only take me an hour or so of wrenching to swap it out. Its also probably time for a thorough cleaning and lube job. Such is life in outdoor model railroading! Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/26 07:38 by pennsy3750.   Date: 08/29/26 13:59 Re: I Had To Go To The LHS... Author: Kimball Chain sprockets [these are not "gears"] are available in two conditions; annealed (soft) or hardened . Buy annealed only if you need to do some machining to it. Otherwise, best to buy the hardened version.
Date: 08/29/26 17:20 Re: I Had To Go To The LHS... Author: JUTower Neat stuff, I didn't know you were into larger scale. I assume that the fuel guage on your adult beverage was showing lowering levels as you progressed? LOL
Date: 08/30/26 09:11 Re: I Had To Go To The LHS... Author: pennsy3750 JUTower Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- > I assume that the fuel guage on your > adult beverage was showing lowering levels Haha, no. That can was just something I found on the workbench to use as a size reference, I drink Sam Adams. Date: 09/02/26 09:39 Re: I Had To Go To The LHS... Author: wabash2800 Reminds me of being a gofor when I was on the 765 team back in the late 1970s. A couple of times they had me run down to the local hardware store to get some hardware for the 765. I had to do that once when we were on location at Bellevue, Ohio. I went down to the local hardware store there and purchased some very large nuts and washers, IIRC. IIRC, we had an account with the store in New Haven. One of our guys owned a hardware chain, IIRC.
Victor Baird |