Photos inside and out

One thing that does bother me is in the picture below.If you look to the right side of the motor at the two contacts on the shaft, the one lower in the picture is not 100% straight.  I don't know if that would be a potential problem.

Sorry a few of these are a little blurry.   My camera doesn;t do close ups too well.

Thanks,

_Ed

Tuning Trix locos

can be tricky.  I'd start by degreasing the whole thing - which means taking it competely apart.  Most of those era locos came way overgreased from the factory and the grease will harden over time, especially if it has sat around a bit.  Then you need to check the fit of the gears and axle bearing blocks as you reassemble them.  Tolerances back then were loser then now, and if theres slop in the gears or the bearing blocks that will translate into poor running.  Slop can often be taken up using styrene shims that are superglued in and hand carved.

You can get some history of these here.

Trix N-Scale Diesel Loco

Unless you have a real love affair with this particular loco, my advice is to not spend time and money on trying to rehab it.  I had a number of Minitirix locos from the 1970's when I first got into N-scale.  They were the best N-scale had to offer at the time.  I recently sold them all off on Ebay.  Apparently there are people out there who still want them for something.

I can tell you from personal experience that no matter what you do to them they are still going to sound like a noisy meat grinder going down the track.  This is largely due to the metal gears in the drive train.  You could use it as a display loco in a local park on your layout or better yet sell it on Ebay and put the cash towards a modern N-scale loco made by Kato or Atlas which are excellent performers and are extremely quiet.  For sure don't put any money into this Trix loco.

Bob

Bought for resale anyway

This was part of a large lot that I bought to rehab and resell.  It doesn't make very much, but I find (so far) the buying/selling thing interesting in itself and it gets me enough to then get something I really want for the layout now and then, and I've found it to be an interesting way to learn more about what is out there.   Anyway, I'm guessing the degreasing is on the right track, but around the commutator and brushes very likely as the commutator is pretty blackened..  There is enough slop in the gears that I would see the motor start to turn if it wanted to turn at all - as I did a few times but now don't.  The one thing I didn't try that is next to verify that it is the motor itself is to take out the motor, put it up on blocks, and touch the wire to the contacts under it.  If the motor turns freely, then it isn't the motor.  But I suspect I'll find it still either won't turn or will turn sluggishly. I'll report back whatever new I learn.

Thanks for the input,

-Ed

Good news ... the motor turns... trains still doesn't move

Good news is that my test of removing the motor and providing power to it alone causes it to turn plenty in both forward in reverse.  So the motor itself apparently is ok.  I'm thinking two problems:

1) I can see that the metal strips from the trucks to the metal plate under the loco to deliver power doesn't maintain very good contact.  While it seems to be in contact and I get continuity, there is definitely extremely little pressure in the contact.  

2) I can't seem to get the trucks to come off to disassemble them and see what's going on there.  Each truck has a single screw in the bottom, but removing the screw still does not allow the truck to budge at all.  I think they are being held in place because each one when it swivels has a metal projection in a slot on each side in the metal frame of the loco. You can see it in the last two pictures just above the center of the truck.  

Any suggestions on how to get these trucks off without adding damage appreciated.

Thanks,

-Ed

Removing the trucks

It's been nearly 40 years since I disassembled a Minitrix N-scale diesel, but my memory is that there was a pin that went horizontally through the top of the truck and locked it into the frame.  In your photos, it looks like there is a slot in the frame with a pin in it above each truck.  I would try pulling those pins out with tweezers or needle-nose pliers.  Once the pin is out, the truck should drop clear of the frame.

It also seems to me that my Minitrix engine was the best runner in my small fleet, so cleaning yours up and getting it running again should be satisfying.

-- Steve

Success.. enough

I figured out how to get the trucks off, cleaned everything though not as well as it needs, because there are still some areas that I see some black gunk on that I didn't notice.  But after reassembling, getting it wrong and figuring out what was wrong (which way each wheelset goes in mattered because the axle is isolated from the wheels on one side), and then testing after everything was together again.  The engine runs.  It doesn't run great, but I think that is a matter of more cleaning and then just a slight lubrication needed.  But it will run on its own so I call it a success.  I always advise anyone buying a used loco to plan to clean it anyway, so the fact it could use a bit more cleaning should be expected (and I do represent appropriately when selling.)

-Ed