Can Cheap Ebay Motors Improve Vintage HO Locomotives? 

That F Unit probably flies faster now than that old motor. Great job! - Jason

FWIW, truck towers exist for these engines with an ear for a contact strip on each side. At some point in the 1980s they were added. There are variants of this drive in Model Power and Mantua engines which have them as well. I typically buy junkers with busted handrails or missing shells for a few bucks at shows (remember train shows?) and save them to combine the best parts when adding power to a dummy engine. The performance is limited most by the lack of pickup from all wheels.

Great mentoring. Teaching model railroading can be really fun, and still on a small budget. 👍😁

Those motors are also used on most Hornby OO scale steam locomotives that works well on a five-pole motor

Congrat's on the purchases and motor upgrades! You could replace the Athearn motors just as well. Go nuts! Sam would be proud of you!

I mean it doesn't cost a lot to build a motor, but these are still really cheap! I was pleasantly surprised and might have to pick up a couple too.

I love how you are willing to dive in and try things. I was such a chicken about that at first.

Do 5 pole motors give a steam engine a realistic speed

Walthers, Broadway, Intermountain, Atlas, Scaletrains and other companies use a version of this motor.

Now...put a DCC decoder in that puppy, and it'll be a gem!!!!

I've used those exact motors to replace the drivetrain in my first run Proto 2000 E8's. The old drivetrain was extremely noisy, but with these motors and Athearn 1 piece driveshafts they are near silent.

Well, the MoP originally preferred the Alcos, for their rapid acceleration, didn't know about their Prime mover failures yet, so if you wanna model the steam/diesel transition, Alco has a big place in it. Keep doin whatcha doin, n I'll keep watchin.

I was thinking of repowering a locomotive of mine, having watched this video, but I guess whoever was selling these isn't selling them anymore. There seem to be slim pickings for dual-shaft 5 pole motors. I was hoping for something like these with accessible brush holders so that I can service it easily in the future. I found some single-shaft motors that seem useful, but for now I haven't decided what dual-shaft motor to buy for the repower project.

It's now an F7R. I bought some China made motors with flywheels and installed one in my Athearn SD40-2. The improvement is very noticeable. I got 4 more to install once I figure out which of my old boys needs new motors.

Good job!

Great video! Those motors seem pretty good. Got a nice slow speed on that old AHM engine.

Awesome, Harrison. Thanks for inspiring a future project.

That’s dope, should making adding DCC much easier especially with a Loksound 5 decoder

I buy these cheap can motors all the time from eBay. Nice work!

Those are a Chinese knockoff of the Kato HM-5 motor, so I bought 7 of them to try a while back. They’re great. I now upgrade all of my Athearn Blue Box and RTR engines with them and order them 2 dozen at a time. Shop around and you can get them for as little as $2.42 each on eBay if buying in bulk. I’ve got about 75-85 engines to retrofit with these, but you can even cut one shaft off with a Dremel and put them in Rivarossi steamers and even old brass steam from PFM and United. They’re pretty versatile.

Needs a flywheel and a weight load to make it really go but those are nice motors, I bought five.

There was a Horizons Hobby shop that operated out of Hamilton ON 20 or more years ago. Used to see them at train shows in Golden Horeshoe area.

Great video topic, this is something that has crossed my mind. Great work!

This video is very helpful 👍 great job smt.

Great for old athearn diesels and some others using open frame motors. 2

Huh Ebay motors... I didnt know they sold motors there but I shouldn't be surprised anyway because its Ebay. Well hopefully they work...

I was hoping to see the pulling capacity of the new motor. 😊

Hey now this is good to know. Heck i was wondering if RC car dc motors would work difference is the locomotive would run way to fast or slow. Awesome tip and review! Also nice repair job you did a great job fixing it.

Five pole and skew wound? They outta be pretty good!!! And on the bulb in that old F unit...replace it with an LED and a resistor. The Ohms and wattage of the resistor would vary based on (1) input voltage, (2) LED voltage drop, and (3) LED current desired, in milliamps. You would probably select about a 15 volt inout voltage, the average of an LED voltage drop is about 1.4 volts, with about a 20-30 milliamp current draw. Based on those specs, a resistor would be about a 470 Ohm resistor, at least 1/2 watt rating. A good calculator can be found here: www.quickar.com/bestledcalc.php I replace lamps in locos with LED's and resistors as often as possible, given that bulbs eventually burn out, and will burn out faster when driven with voltage over their rating. An LED with a proper resistor installed won't have that problem. And...you can now get LED's so small that they can be used even as those small light at the rear of a loco, caboose lights, or as ditch lights. That said...great job with that motor replacement, Harrison!!!!

You could technically throw some flywheels onto it and it would basically be able to replace most athearn blue box and rtr locomotives

I have to replace the motor in my Golden Eagle with the motor from my Silver streak which has more life in it

Nice work. Doesn't have to look pretty on the inside as long as it runs.

I’m glad you got that old ahm to run 🙂🙂🙂

I wonder if the post office is subscribed to you. “This guy gets a lot of stuff. Big and small. I wonder what he gets..”

Nice upgrade!

They were good motors good luck finding them now they have been discontinued

Have you heard the ballad of the southern pacific. I believe it's called southern pacific roll on

Of coursecthey can. The body shells AHM, produced in the 70's can't be reproduced now, but with some improvements, they could be turned into world class models. I dunno bout modern controls, and sound systems, but what the hell, nobody's perfect.

since you showed off your broken CN locomotive. it reminded me that I saw a GP-40-2L(w) the other day in my little town of Kenova, West Virginia. one in the coal factory company colors and one still wearing it CN colors. their web site even says there from Canada. which was cool for me as I never saw that design in person for GP-40's but because of the CN look and design I knew just where they came from lol and if it wasn't for your channel I probably wouldn't have know what the CN railroad logo would look like

5 pole skew wound on eBay are up to $12.00 US NOW ....

I just bought a Walthers UPS engine 1907 which I can't any info on. It was five dollars and very clean but missing the motor and front trucks.

Nice video, maybe you could put one in the Blue Goose.

I have an vintage Air Force locomotive from Bachman and runs well!

I really can't see how much more you'd improve the conversion. Maybe less hot glue? Small pieces of wood might even work to get it in there, but I'm not really sure. It runs great, though. Very neat and most likely worth while experiment. The one thing that worries me is the quality. As you said, you don't know what kind of brushes and whatnot they have.

Might you remember where you got the motors on eBay? If so, just wondering if you might add the link to your description?

The amount of times this man says uh when he's speaking is insane. 😂

Micro Mark also sells cheap motors too..

Buying motors off eBay and putting them in your locomotives? You are one brave soul.

SMT is like the model train NRE

If you wanted to mount Athearn flywheels is shaft diameter compatible? I believe original Blue box shaft diameter is 3mm.

Hey SMT! I recently saw a bc heritage unit for the CN. I think the number was 4622 but I’m not sure. Just wanted to share that!

Nice!

Be careful with these cheap motors on Locomotives. If the motor doesn't have a stall ability in the case of derailment or wheel jam the motor will continue to spin and shred the gears and motor couplers right off lol. Learned this through experience, when you test the motor before installing get a good hold of the shaft and see if you can stop it from spinning, if you can't stop the shaft then just be careful with it while running.

can you send a link to the listing? I may pick a few up as well

It’s big brain time

You're up late! Great project, it looks like it worked out good.

Cool

does that small pensylvania loco run? I Have the exact same train with its box and rolling stock still, but mines i had to do a complete rebuild on, it had a broken tender connector at the metal side, so i was wonder

Do you have a link for these?

I have an old Mantua Tyco 4-6-2 steam engine that I really like. The electric motor runs considerably slower going forward than in reverse. Where can I get a new motor for it? Who sells one that would work?

I did this with my RSO locomotives, because their factory motors are wicked bad

Wow amazing

Good job smt I like it 😊

No joke There is this train shop and all there trains are cheap. I got 3 trains for a total of 35.69 dollars

Smt thumbnail: motors Me: rivarossi blue goose + new motor x Smt says on discord he bought new motor for the blue goose = the blue goose restoration

Great video thank you. What temperature do you set your soldering iron for when soldering DCC boards, small wires and decoders etc?

Are these motors still out there; looking for them but not finding them.

Señores: habría que ver en una exhibición, con horas de marcha, en otro modelo más pesado, arrastrando un buen convoy, a ver cómo se comporta. Estos los venden como Kato, y un motor Kato original costaba como $ 40 en el sitio de ellos. Pero estos...¿serán originales? lo dudo. Made in China de seguro. En fin, uno obtiene resultados por el precio que paga.

Yaaaaaay your the best

If only you could find old tyco pole motors you know so I can replace the one in my silver streak if I need to At least these will be good if I ever get a compatible engine that can take them

Hello can you tell me where on EBay you found the motors please ? Dave in the UK

Very cool only if o scale could be that simple lol.

How well do you think these motors would work with DCC?

Is the any links or specific keywords to get these?

Hi smt mainline you are amazing man that I care about

How long they will last is the real question but as long as they work that’s all that matters I might have to get some for my shit

Add some fly wheels.

Sams trains used the same motors

Where did you find the motors

They look just like Kato motors

Great video as usual. What is the name etc to look for on ebay?

Hi SMT mainline i just want to ask where do you get you music from that is in your videos is it a website and if so what website is it.

You will enjoy a cheap 3D printer,I bet in less than a week you can design custom pieces in tinkercad.

hi smt would you be interested in fixing one of my old steam engines

Of course by the time I went to buy these seller refunded and said not available. Anyone have a lead on these?

Could this work for 0 gauge

I got a loco that needs a moter

Lol a lot of people in the discord guessed you would buy cheap stuff off of eBay

No Longer available on eBay.

Well folks in today's video we are...

Ya know you really wouldn’t expect a small cheap motor to do that well it really is a shocker

Only 20 minutes to open the package!

Do you have a link, or a specific search term to find these on eBay?

can you put a link to this motor

SMT do you know if you can put them in dummy trains?

Wait what would happen if you put 2 motors init

Do you know what the name of the motor are

What’s the eBay item number?

Why put something cheap in something you love put a cabolt in it

Lol hi love you vids