HOLY CRAP: SUCCESS

OK, TO RECAP: this is an IHC MEHANO 2-8-2 mikado steam loco from a presidents choice train set from the 1990’s.  The set came to me with a fudged motor, burned out and brush’s really worn.

This is my first hardwire conversion to dcc with railpro, or any conversion for that matter.  I figured this would be a good loco to try.

I ordered a new five pole motor from china for a couple bucks, did some filing to the plastic housing of the motor and fit it to the loco.  Perfect fit.

Wired up using an lm2s I am wiring the loco so the chip is in the tender with a rear light and the loco with front light.  I phone 4 speaker in the tender.

Wired just the loco to make sure everything works.  AND THAT is where everything came grinding to a halt.  I couldn’t get the motor to turn, even just for the motor full load current test.

The new motor ran ok on dc but, it wouldn’t start turning until I hit 45 percent.

Stripped all the old lube and oil and re greased with fresh stuff. Then, using the dc power pack, I broke in the motor; half hour forward, half hour reverse on fifty percent throttle.

After the break in on dc, I get movement at twenty percent throttle.

Today, I tried again and wired the loco for dcc.  I put it on my rolling railroad and with a whole bunch of fiddle fxxking, I managed to get the full load current test done.

This time I put oil on the tower worm gear and got a little better movement but, I kept getting a low voltage error.  I took the positive and negative power leads off the rolling road and connected them directly to the locomotive.  Holy crap, full movement with no stalling.

This little project has been on my dining room table since 2022, (yes, I’m divorced), and so has the rolling road.  I took a couple minutes to clean the wheels and laid down a fresh, clean piece of track and connected the leads.

Well, what in the blue falcon?  In the name of all that is holy, I got the loco to crawl, I got the loco to fire up to all speeds, forward and reverse. 

I think breaking in the new motor, clean track and oiling and re-greasing the tower worm gear made all the difference.  Now I can finish the lighting, speaker and re- assembly.

It’s been a long journey but, it has also been fun, and exasperating.

Thank you to everyone for your advice.  It helped and was very encouraging.  Kept me from giving up.

Now, 15 more locos to go…BAHAHAHAH!!!

I’d love to show you pics but I can’t seem to attach the pics.

Kind regards,
Max [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Hi Max,

It sounds like your motor is pulling to much current and the safety feature of the module has kicked in to prevent damage. If you remove power, the module will reset...A common mistake in converting to dcc or similar function is that people believe the conversion will help the loco run better (which it will if the loco runs good as a DC unit) What you are describing is a case of having something in the drive system bound-up.You should tear the loco apart and check that your gears mesh well, the motor spins freely and all the drive mechanisms run smoothly. ENSURE the loco runs smoothly on DC before converting to RailPro. Once that is done, you should have no troubles with the RailPro system. (we are here to help if you do).

When you're done getting the drive system working, oil the bearings, grease the gears.  ONLY USE A LUBRICANT INTENDED FOR MODELS!!!

Make sure it's synthetic or your loco could be ruined (ask me how I know).

Good luck

I do Z scale and G scale... not an expert on HO mechanicals... sorry..

will tell you that you do need lubrication... I use oil on bearings, and jel grease on gears...

Well, this certainly has been an adventure.

I’m hard wiring a ihc mehano 2-8-2 mikado steam loco in ho.  This is my first attempt at doing so.

I’ve had a few issues along the way.  When I tested the motor, the wheels would not turn. 

I pulled the cover off the worm gear and cleaned out all the old grease and it is moving much better.

The worm gear and the two wheel gears are plastic.  Do I need to regrease them, oil them or leave them dry?

The wheel axle have no bearings and ride in a plastic slot.  The axles are brass.  Do these Ned to be greased, oiled or left dry.

Thank you in advance for the help.

I have a second 2-8-2 that is new in the box.

I want to pull it apart and check the worm gear that turns the cog on the drive axle to move the wheels.  It appears this is quite stiff to turn and that might be why the motor can’t turn the worm gear.

Kind regards,
Max