My Proto 2K 0-8-0 has a short internal to the loco that is smoking my decoders. I can't figure how to open up/remove the boiler so I can fix it. I've unscrewed every screw I could find but didn't seem to free up the boiler. I'm uneasy about prying/bending stuff to see if it frees up in fear of breaking something. Has anybody got the secret to getting the boiler off this loco? Very frustrating since this is the best-running engine I've ever seen, running a Zimo silent back-EMF decoder (before it shorted out). Thanks,

Carl

-- Carl Brainerd (brainech@concentric.net), February 05, 2004

Answers

I had this problem, too. Problem was a short between the lower motor brush and the frame.

I don't recall all the details of removing the shell, but the trick is to start by removing the cab and then removing some, but not all of the screws on the underbelly of the loco. The shell then lifts up and forward. It is necessary to remove some of the pipe castings to avoid breaking them.

You want to be careful about which ones you remove because if you remove them all and open it up, you end up with a handful of parts. (Don't ask.)

To fix the short, removed the screws that hold the two halves of the frame together and spread the frame enough to make some working space under the motor. I decided not to remove the motor because it looked like getting humpty dumpty back together again would be a problem.

Once I had some working space under the motor, I took a small strip of plastic, about 1/4 inch wide, and slid it in between the frame and the brushes. Then I reassembled.

I found it difficult to track down because the short was intermittent. At first it appeared to be in the tender board, but once I started unsoldering wires from the connector, I found it was in the locomotive.

JMO

-- Joseph Onorato (onorato@lucent.com), February 26, 2004.