I agree with you and like the way you think!!

I have one Revell F unit. either the motor needs re-wound or magnets need replaced. It has no torque. I have a Varney F unit powered A and powered B that's coming up. I believe these are the predecessors to the Revell's. I also did a Life like F unit, the successor of Revell, in my 4th of July specials. Thats what the life like engineers did to the the original Varney drive. Thank you for your kind words and supporting my channel :-)

Thanks for your kind words. Thats my goal is to bring back good memories

@@classicmodeltrains And you did🙂

Hey Dirty Dan! Thanks for the kind words. Ive been to your channel in the past, Thanks for dropping in on mine :-)

I appreciate the channel support. Thanks!

Thank you so much for your kind words about me and my channel!!!

Glad it helped!

Instead of soldering I would use superglue, the gel version takes awhile to dry but allows you to get the stantions vertical and when applied sparingly there should be nothing to remove and easy to do if you did get too much there.

Hello Phillip. Thanks for commenting. I figured If a guy is going to take the time to comment, I should also take some time and reply. Seems only right :-)

@@classicmodeltrains here here!that is the attitude to have!

J.R.R. Thank you for the nice comments! I'm glad you are enjoying my video's :-)

Ditto!

Yup, Lots of great ways to remove paint for sure!!

Thanks! Hello from up North of ya in Montana :-)

Thank you very much!

Thank you very much!

I agree!! Them boy's did a great job with this paint scheme

Thank you Tony!

Yup!! They were engineered properly :-)

Brad, Thank you very much!

Thank you

Thanks! I ended up using a dot of CA on the other railing I've made. Definitely a bit faster :-)

Thanks for watching and commenting. Dig your username!! (I'm 6'7")

V R & R, The SD-45 Demonstrators do have a very catching paint scheme. I wish they still made loco's as bulletproof as the old blue boxes :-) Thanks for the kind words

Indeed, those locos were and still are durable and reliable. Very much a favorite.

Thank you so much 🤗

Thank you very much!

Thank you!

Thanks for the info!

Thank you John!! :-)

Hello F.P. Thanks for commenting. I'm really surprised how well this -45 pulled. I'm glad it had good machining on it. I'm glad my vid brought back some good memories for you :-)

Hello Mark, Thanks for the kind words :-)

Awesome, thank you! Glad It helped ya out

Thanks

Thanks :-)

I watch video's and start my comments as the video plays out, then wait to the end to hit send. I've P.S. comments many times in the past. The SP with the bloody nose paint scheme is a good looking loco!

Thanks

Right on

Then it's been a good day it sounds like. New skill sets learned :-)

I like the way you think. Thanks for your comment on the rails :-)

Many thanks!

Thanks MoPac Jack!!

Yup I've heard about the un-scale width problem of older blue boxes. I would never notice but others can.

@@classicmodeltrains if you did a comparison with the real thing, you wouldn't be able to unsee it. I noticed it even at the age of 14.

Thank you for your kind words Sir :-)

Steve, Thank you very much! and Thanks for the Sub!! :-)

Yup! It is a bit of an old one.

Thanks!

Thank you! Cheers!

P.B. Thank you for the nice comment!! :-)

Thanks

my "Mountain Man" look did me no favors

EC, Thanks for the kind words :-)

Thanks for the info. I just call them what the manufacturer says they are. I know sometimes they blow it :-)

Ive heard about that practice. Told it works pretty good. Thanks for sharing !! :-)

Greetings Dave, Montana here on this end. Thanks for sharing your great story about your modeling journey. As a kid, we moved a lot so I was unable to still have my childhood models. I'm making up for it now :-) I hope life slows down for you a bit and you can get back to working on your trains. I'm not at the level to super detail anything right now, just trying to get the layout and buildings constructed. In the future I hope to spend a lot of time and really get into the details like what your doing. Thanks for the positive comments, I will have to look your channel up on the KZfaq. :-)

@@classicmodeltrains Thanks for the reply! Beautiful part of the country. I spent a few weeks in Wyoming when doing my archeology degree. Nice work on the SD-45. I'm not up to speed on decorating or applying decals properly. My chemical car decalling was a struggle. I'm terrified of decalling my kit blueprint series reefers. If you can find complete blueprint series kits snarf them up, they are really good. I got two reefer kits for peanuts. Too bad your trains got left behind. The first time I got one of my old locos running again was a real rush! Getting a strong urge to work on the trains again. I had a Lionel O gauge train set that was fully operational as well as an American Flyer set with a burned out loco motor. All were given away in the early sixties. I kept the burned out loco though and my HO stuff. After posting I decided to work a bit on "Mike". When I got distracted by R.L. the loco wasn't running well. Testing the loco it didn't run at all. It seems the ground wire was disconnected but after retrying the test it stalled and derailed over my ancient but restored Atlas snap switches. a lot. This was something new. Two things were wrong. The wire to the tender had come loose. (When I have a chance I intend to drill and tap a hole in the cast shell so that the wire is not attached to the drawbar pivot) The second problem was that the new fiber drawbar was sometimes picking up the front of the tender or pressing down on the back of the loco, lifting up the front pilot enough to cause it to derail. Bending the drawbar a bit cured it. At some point I'll fabricate a new one out of more flexible styrene. Tried the trick of oiling the tender journals to improve electrical connectivity. It helped a lot. Mike now pulls all sixteen of my cars smoothly, with ease and at a fair rate of knots. An old timer suggested very slightly oiling the brass track to prevent arcing. I've been doing this for a couple of years now and it works a treat. When it comes time to clean the track the dirt comes off with a mere swipe of a Scotch Brite pad. Also the track pickup wheels are no longer damaged by arcing. Happy modeling. -dave

@@dgwachtel 16 cars for a Tyco Mikado is a very nice load. Great job on mechanicing in the Ol’ girl!!

@@classicmodeltrains Thanks Ron. I cleaned, adjusted and lubricated the motor first time around. The drive shaft bearings still need some love though. I had to purchase replacements for the plot, valve gear and a front truck just for the spring. Purchased a replacement for the rear truck (IIRC) but it had zink pest. At least I got a spare spring out of it. The shell was corroded due to mouse urine and had some minor pits that will be filled with Bondo before Mike finally goes to the paint shop. I'm confident that Mike could pull at least 32 regular freight cars on the level. At some point I'll replace the magnet to hopefully get even more power. I just added four heavy Amtrack era passenger cars to the back of my train. Mike just replied: "Hold my beer". The back to back Athearn F7 lashups wouldn't even move the load. So that's 20 cars. The test oval is getting crowded. The tiny engineers are staring at the very last car about 100 feet in front of them. As for the detailing, the loco is not prototypical, having incorrect valve gear and boiler profile as the main flaws. At least I can make it pretty :) Don't forget to use Locktite Blue on the screws holding the trucks to the tender on you Matua Steamers. If there are more turns to the left they have a tendency to unscrew themselves and fall out, particularly if you had to shim them for coupler height. I didn't Locktite them doing testing and one fell out just now. Got it all on video! Progress so far is documented on my site. Do you think that these old locos could be converted to DCC? Some say yes and others no due to excessive current draw. What's your opinion? -dave

@@dgwachtel the original motor has to be upgraded to a can motor. I did a video about converting a Tyco Pacific to DCC. It might help you out with some questions.

Thanks, will do!

Thank you :-)

Hello GD99. The stanchions were loose on the rail. if I removed the railing for paint, the stanchions would have move all over and not lined up for re-assembly

Greetings Dash-8. I was thinking this is an 80's style of motor, because of the flywheels. I have some older B.B.'s and there is no flywheels at all. I was thinking these were 70's. Just an semi-educated guess. Thanks for commenting :-)

@@classicmodeltrains I realized too that this is Athearn's wide body shell design that they been using from1970's through the end of the Blue Box era (2000's). It's called the wide body shell because of that motor being so big with-wise. The redesigned Blue Box versions have the narrow motor (brass motor casing), square bronze bearings between the wheel sets, and smoother drive. Hope this helps!

Hello Frank. Thanks for commenting. I used to read MR back in the old days also. This ultrasonic cleaner was under $150 if I'm remembering right. :-)

Zebrails, Thanks for the good information. A few people have pointed out the "L" window S.P used. From my research I found they only painted up 4 SD-45's into the demonstrator paint scheme. I always wondered where they went. Thanks for Subscribing :-)

Thank you! Pretty cool to still have your trains from the old days. Sounds like you have them all tuned up performing well. $22.50? I miss the "good 'Ol days" :-)

You referring to the wider than prototype body?

Yup A few Fellers have mentioned the SP's way of doing things. I didnt know back then what I know now :-)

Thank you! Cheers!

Thanks! I thought so also. Prototype has the same blue as the body.

Hello Bryan, Thanks for subbing! Make that one day soon....get the ol' girl running better ;-)

Thank you

Arrow 1. I will have to look into finding some of that stuff. Thanks for commenting :-)

Thank you very much!

@@classicmodeltrains you are so very welcome sir

Thank you Paul! I have not heard that song. Will try and look it up.

Thanks for subbing, Glad I gave you a fresh idea :-)

@@classicmodeltrains No problem! Most of my loco's are 30+ years old

Gracias

Great suggestion Steve! I happen to have a Proto 2000 E-6 A & dummy B. Would make a GREAT Vid. :-)

Brake fluid is a hazardous waste. The water/simple green is not as toxic and a lot cheaper. I had the Ultrasonic already, use it to clean carburetors. But I have heard a lot of Fellers use the brake fluid trick and swear by it :-)

Hola Ruben, He leído todas tus publicaciones. No leo ni hablo español. Estoy usando el traductor de Google. Es un muy buen momento que con la tecnología, personas con intereses similares, que viven en diferentes partes del mundo y hablan diferentes idiomas, todos podemos comunicarnos. Gracias por todos sus amables comentarios sobre mis videos. Me alegro de que los disfrutes. Continuaré investigando cómo puedo obtener subtítulos en español en mis videos. Mucha gente en América del Sur parece disfrutar de las maquetas de trenes y los trenes Tyco. Cuida de mi amigo.

The auction went better that expected Rick. Can now get more broken stuff to whoop into shape :-)

I will have to go check Wally World out for some paint. Thanks

Yup. Lots of fellers have points that out to me in the comments about the windshield post. That dang google machine... I type in SD-45 picture, that one pops up and looks good to me so I used it. You have a good eye there picking that out. Thanks for keeping me "on my toes" and watching my Vid's :-)

@@classicmodeltrains Sorry. I scrolled down a couple of pages to make sure I wasn't repeating something others had said but I didn't see any window references. I should scroll down further next time. Nice work on the re-condition though.

@@whiteknightcat no worries. I also get an opportunity to learn stuff off these videos I put up. People just sharing information is how I see it :-)

Holy Moly!! KZfaq algorithm must be liking me :-)

Hello Regis. Greetings from up North in Montana, USA. The motor just runs that good. It did get oiled up, and the electrical pickups on the frame and motor were cleaned when it was all disassembled for ultrasonic cleaning. I was really amazed at how well it pulled at such low speeds! It has now become one of the prides of my fleet. I see you have been following and commenting on many of my video's. You were the first to ask me for something specific. I was working on what to film next, and then your comment came along. Solved my problem. It's great to see my vid's are traveling down to South America, and to be sharing interests with others so far away!! Your the second person to bring up the "L" shaped window that S.P. had. I learn new stuff every day. Once again thanks for commenting :-)

Dear Ron, it’s been a pleasure to follow our amazing work. Your vídeo production is very, very good. Your patience to explain things is remarkable. You’re always sharing your knowledge about the real world (as, for example, the Sd45 time of production - Jan/66 to Dec./71), showing us that you’re a real railroader! Here you have a fan! Said that, regarding to the 45s, look for on KZfaq or Google For DDM45: it’s a 45 on DD trucks (yes, 8 axles). They were produced (83 units) byEMD for an ore hauler here in Brazil, the “Companhia Vale do Rio Doce”, or simply “Vale”. It’s an SD45 on steroids, or a mini DD35A. I have the feeling that you’re gonna like it. New greetings from Brazil! Take care!

Thanks for the tip :-)

I ended up glueing them with CA after this video.

I use the #242 universals on almost everything. Hate having 50 different options hogging up toolbox space :-)

Mine ran great through my 22" radius and #6 Atlas switches. Sorry to hear you had one that gave you troubles.

Hello Ihunter325, I have been informed about the S.P. windshield from several others. Thanks for pointing it out. Everyday I learn something new. Thanks for commenting :-)

Thanks. The stanchions were a bit tight, but worked out good.

By the way, your episode inspired me to dig out an Athearn SW7 I had sitting in the box for years. My hangup had been the handrails - I've never liked the way the handrails and stanchions look on Athearn, but your idea of soldering them in place was just the impetus I needed. My SW7 is now trundling through the yard at 0.5 scale mph. Thanks!

I get the info about the history and specific locomotive information from searching the internet. I have the skill set from being a mechanic all my adult life. Thanks for watching and supporting my channel :-)

Hello Graywolf, another comment mentioned the "L" windows S.P. had. I will have to keep my eye out and se if they're all like that. Thanks for commenting :-)

I do not think so. you can check out there website Kadee.com and search it up. I always found the Marx couplers to do a good job, just don't look the prettiest.

He he he!! :-)

The only really goos site I know of is hoseeker.net. Lots of info that has been sent in from all over the world.

Hello Raoul, I have not run into a Earnst regear set yet. Ive seen pictures on eBay. Been thinking about doing a video on them if/ when I get ahold of a set.

I will re-check them. Thanks for the input!

Its a Rovsun 613HT from amazon. Its about the biggest they offered and yes it would work well for HO and N. I just used it on some 0-27 stuff. Its a Big-un! :-)

@@classicmodeltrains Very Nice, I think 15L is a bit too Big-un! for me. LOL Thanks again

Amazon has a ton of options available

Me again. Just curious, do you have the GI Joe or the Bubble Yum train from the 80s, both by Tyco. My youngest brother had the Joe train back then. I wanted the bubble yum train bad but, I was never able to make myself save the needed money to order it out of the Sunday comics

I have bothe those sets today

Good evening. I've never had a Bachmann DD40. Sounds like you were into trains quite a bit as a youngster. Thanks for supporting my channel and watching my video's. Sorry to hear about your health issues. Were the same age ( I think ) I just happen to own a Chevy at this time. I'm not devoted to any brand of vehicle but Ive driven Fords for the last 30 years. I would love to own a 68-69 bronco. Ive been thinking about doing a live show on KZfaq. have to sit down and do it soon. No slot cars in my future. Glad I help re-ignite your Model Railroad fire!!

I don't own those two sets......YET!! :-)

I did not do any pulling tests with it. I did have it crawling along real slow and it pulled that train up my 2.1% grade with no struggles at all.

? 9k rpm vs 14k rpm dc motors, which provides best torque for retrofit projects? 40 yo pemco 3 pole ftwhl drive sd -35 out pulls everything on the layout, wth?

Greeting Dan, Thanks for watching & commenting. That story makes me sad. Young you, getting such a nice loco, and accident happens and you've never seen or been able to run it. Are you a model railroader currently? Perhaps this video can help you get the old gal running? Your story and this loco would make a great video :-)

Yea, it was upsetting but I have to admit I was spoiled when it came to my trains because I was methodical with them so my parents didn’t seem to mind. I must of had ten other blue box locos at the time so being 5 I quickly got over it. I do have a 4x6 layout now and about 500.00 dollars of woodland scenic supplies but I just had another baby and the time just is not there for a project. I don’t half ass things so when I tackle a job I tend to get hyper focused on details and spend to much time on it. Right now modeling would be a bad idea. I am not attached to the sp at all so I wouldn’t mind sending it to you and you could do what you wanted with it. At least you would have the shell of the shell you couldn’t redo and restore your bloody nose sp to its original glory being that they are the identical blue box. If you have just too much stuff from viewers I guess I could eventually figure it out after watching your videos. I’m sure Just a power wire came loose or something. Love your videos and your old Chevy. I just sold my GTO myself.

@@danhoyland142 Congratulations on your new arrival! I am not overloaded with "stuff" I'm good at organizing and building shelves. My address is in the video description of all my Vid's. Thanks for your kind words once again. Did you have to sell the Goat for a minivan? Hoping you found a owner who will love the GTO as much as you did :-)

Haha nah, already had a minivan. I just sold it bc of the crazy car market I’d be actually able to make a profit on a muscle car for the first time. It was a real GTO optioned 72 Lemans with a 400 4 speed. I flipped a 80 bandit trans am before that to move into that one. It’s all a methodically plan of mine to move up the muscle car food chain without losing my shirt anymore. Next will be a 70 442 or Mach 1. Hoping my kid loves train as much as I do and at least I know doing donuts will make him love cars. Expect to see it in the mail after the holidays. Thanks and merry xmas!

@@danhoyland142 I wished I could make $$ on selling hotrods. I always loose my ass. Glad you figured out the combination ;-)

Great story (s) there Frank, Thanks for sharing some of your knowledge with me. :-)

@@classicmodeltrains thanks for listening I have loved model railroading since I was a small child. I loved taking the elevated train to get to the Hobby Shop. It was so nice to have hobby shops in those days. Most everything you could buy in Ho was of good quality some of the lower-priced engines might have plastic rails or cast into the boiler but these weren't Museum pieces they were meant to be used. I have an old scrapbook where I put and ads for train sets that they used to put out in the newspaper's Before Christmas time. And when you look in the ads in Model Railroader trains were a very inexpensive hobby for a kid to get into. Bachmann trains used to be warrantied for life but that changed with the new owner. Williams O gauge trains used to be guaranteed for life until they got bought by Bachmann. Model railroading is an artform despite what people say. You can have 10 Model Railroad use the same plan from one of the atlas track planning book and every one of them will be different except for the track layout. I hate it on TV where they portray Model Railroader as people who never move out of their mom's house. Or they make you look like a psychotic train nut. We are crazy about trains but we are not psychotic. It is a shame that new toy trains are so expensive that it is virtually on affordable for a kid to get anyting on what they could afford from what they make on a kid's salary. Thank God used stuff is available at train shows. This is such an enjoyable hobby it's a shame for kids to miss out because they get overpriced out of it.

@@frankmarkovcijr5459 Yup. Back in the day my paper route supplied me $$ for my train layout. Kids these days are more into video gaming on the internet. Model railroading isn't as big of a thing anymore for the youth. Although there are some of them out there, caring on the tradition. Kids nowadays have more money that we did 40 years ago.

It was spray painted silver. The whole thing, truck covers, windshields, hand railings. A young modeler wanted a silver loco I guess.

I found that out awhile after this video was made. I agree with you for sure!!

@@classicmodeltrains Your videos are great !

@@classicmodeltrains Really like your stuff.....

Thanks Jeb. Just finishing up another video about hand rails