Help - train fell apart (Tomix) trying to repair

[Nornicle]

Hi all I own a JR EF66 unfortunately I was too enthusiastic and on an r280 curve it flew off and landed 4 foot onto the floor and exploded. I was able to get the front and rear wheels back on - the middle one however is very loose and can’t seem to stay on the track.

 

please help google didn’t bring up any obvious manuals solutions or parts. I love the EF66 it’s my first train!

 

pictures shows the loose movement on the bottom.

 

cheers

 

 

Edited January 13, 2018 by Nornicle

[Nornicle]

Not sure if relevant but the only other part I could find easily was this one

[Gryphr]

Will the middle bogie stay on the loco or really jump off the loco track?

As far as I know it needs to be able to move sideway as it's the center bogie of the three, though I don't have one myself so I can't really say anything specific :(

 

[railsquid]

FWIW this is the central bogie on mine:

 

Tomix EF66 (underside) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

It is somewhat "floppy", but the spring should gently press down on it so it's held vertically in place on the track.

I don't recognize the other part; if you search around Japanese websites with the keyword "分解" (bunkai), e.g. "tomix ef66 分解", you have a good chance of finding pictures of dismantled models, e.g. here: http://ichirotrain.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2017/06/tomix-ef66m9typ.html

[HantuBlauLOL]

11 hours ago, Nornicle said:

Not sure if relevant but the only other part I could find easily was this one

 

it's a coupler spring. located on the upper side of loco cowhangers.

 

btw, didn't the central bogie actually meant to be loose?

[Socimi]

12 hours ago, Nornicle said:

I was able to get the front and rear wheels back on - the middle one however is very loose and can’t seem to stay on the track.

 

 

 

 

The middle bogey (unlike the front and rear ones) is supposed to swing sideways, like this:

 

 

The thing you need to check is if the central bogey pin is bent or not, and if all the 12 wheels correctly touch the rail.

 

 

More photos might be useful, especially side-wievs with the locomotive placed on tracks.

[cteno4]

Socimi is spot on. Years ago I got a used ef66 on ebay and it arrived with a misbehaving center truck. As railsquid noted the spring has to be situated such that it pushes straight down on the truck. I remeber dissasembling the center truck several times until it went back together with it doing thus. Been too long to remeber exactly what I did or it may have been one of those fiddle things where it just finally works. But as socimi diagramed it would end up with the truck wanting to lift on one end or the other or  pivot quickly popping the truck off the rail. Maybe set up a little test loop where you can look it on the track carefully and watch it run.

 

good luck! I know the feeling of that beloved old first engine! 

 

jeff

[Nornicle]

Hi all thanks for the advice.

 

I have taken a video of offending central bogey to show you the looseness - basically it doesnt put any pressure onto the track and ends up loose and off the train.

 

 

 

[Socimi]

7 hours ago, Nornicle said:

Hi all thanks for the advice.

 

I have taken a video of offending central bogey to show you the looseness - basically it doesnt put any pressure onto the track and ends up loose and off the train.

 

 

Try to put it on a perfectly straight and uniform track and check if the central bogey moves (laterally) or not.

 If it doesn't, check that all the 4 wheels on the bogey correctly touch the rails, then try running it manually on various curved segment of tracks (especially swithces, short-radius and "S"-shaped curves). If you run it manyally you'll be able to feel the exact point or situation in wich it derails.

A video of these test would be much appreciated and helpful.

 

Instead, if the bogey does move laterally, it means that the spring isn't long or strong enough to hold the bogey down.

This means you'll have to either replace the spring or stretch a bit the existing one.

 

To stretch the spring youll' have to be a bit cautious. Too much will permanently damage the spring, too less wont' be useful.

Try to stretching it to 1 + 1/2 of it's lenght (example: if you've a 4mm spring try to stretch it to atleast 6mm ).

 

Instead if you want a replacement, these don't cost too much.

 

Kato model. the spring appears to be the same.

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10443494

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2018 by Socimi

[Nornicle]

Thanks all - it now runs, not very well but it doesn't derail as long as I don't go too fast, I don't think it will ever be the same though!