Spares and repairs purchases

Just bought these as a little project to repair. Really hope I can get Rocky working!!!

[Super]

Its always nice to have a box full of spare parts and always fun to use them for repairs.

This is an interesting job lot. Is that just a standard Flip-Face James (from the Boulder Mountain set), or is it the Talking Hero of the Rails one? I wonder what (Devious) Diesel's chassis could be used for since it has no shell. I hope any of them are still in working order.

That's the flip face james that came with the boulder mountain set. The talking flip face james has the switch on the tender.

@jonesejm - there's a thread somewhere on here that discusses repairs to Rocky. It specifically mentions that there are some tricky hidden clips that can give you some trouble, if you can't figure out where they reside. Try searching for "rocky repair" or something similar.

I've often found when I buy a job lot of 'spares and repairs' about half generally work once you clean them up and tap the motor (they sometimes seem to 'seize up' and a knock can get them running again) then the rest may take a bit of work, but they can usually mostly be salvaged.

I remembered this last weekend Nigels. I bought a 681 Thunder Bird engine that was second hand but hardly used. It had sit in the box for many years. I was disappointed when I got home and it wouldn't run until I remembered your trick. A little encouragement and it started up and now runs fine.

That reminds me of how the motors used for the last TrackMaster engines from before the redesign would expire after years of not being used (as if it were a sinister marketing trick by Mattel), unlike TOMY motors. I know this because my 2012 Thomas (turned into Ivor the Engine) expired since it sat on display and only ran a few times. My 2012 Edward most likely suffered a similar fate.

On the reviving "dead" motors point, I just revived the motor of a Proteus I got in a job lot. I was actually in the process of swapping it out entirely. Prior to tossing it, I opened up the motor "frame" and gave the motor itself a couple of hard whacks with the end of the screwdriver (I had already whacked it when it was still installed in the undercarriage to no avail). The final whack got it up and running. And man, did it hum. The old HiT toy's motors in the Proteus/Bertram/Bill/Ben line of trains were really nice. Some of them are grindy, but I think even the grindy ones sound nice.

Actually I've found sometimes you don't even need to tap the motors to get them going again, sometimes if you just rotate the gears manully with the power applied all of a sudden they will burst into life, this even works sometimes when you the tapping trick doesn't work. I think some moisture gets in the motors sometimes and causes some corrosion between the brushes and the armature to build up. Turning the motor causes it to get scraped off and eventually it will be clean enough to start running. Once running it doesn't take long to get back to its prime running

I am not a technical person especially when it comes to disassembling and reassemble the motor. One time I just unscrew the engine from the chassis and reinstall it again. It works like a dream.