OVERHAULS

Overhauls are the removal of poor quality and not correct for your prototype cast in place and add on details; followed by correctly detailing the model. The model is then redecorated to your specification.

Your model will be elevated to first rate quality, and quite often it will be more accurate and realistic than brass versions of the locomotive. Eddystone offers a growing list of Overhaul packages. You can also ask about overhauling some other model of your own.

1) Reading class I - 10 sa Consolidation. Bachmann offered this model as an economy job which was well detailed, but had a child's toy mechanism. You can still get them at train shows. Buy one with no broken parts-whether or not it runs doesn't matter. Out of the box, they look like this:

This overhaul uses the Bowser (EMRS) repower kit, but goes far beyond it to give you a first rate job.

The Eddystone overhaul uses the Helix Humper drive for ultra smooth, high output perfrormance. I also reuse the accurate Bachmann rearframe detail, valve gear, and cylinders. Loco weight goes from 8.5 oz to 15.1 oz so your model will handle 30 car, plus, freights.

Detail work is redone from pilot to rear cut lever, using many add on parts, cab interior, 3 man crew, and coal tools, etc. as always from Eddystone. You will be amazed at the differences.

Basic price $550.00

Options include:

1) Open ventilators $2.50 each
2) Operating front coupler KD # 5 or 58 (scale) $10.00
3) Tender patches $2.15 each
4) Light weathering: $20.00, heavy weathering $40.00
5) Digitrax decoder $40.00 (also runs on straight DC)
6) Soundtraxx run and sound decoder, 1" speaker $140.00 (Will not run on straight DC)

L & H R Mikado.

2) LEHIGH AND HUDSON RIVER USRA light Mikado. Athearn's Mikado is a generic, which can be properly overhauled to be an 80's class Mikado. These locomotives worked a short main line, but really mixed it up, traffic wise with CNJ, Lehigh New England, Lehigh Valley and PRR in the Allentown-Phillipsburg area, and the DL & W, Erie, and NYO & W further up the line So they are a welcome piece of variety on many an anthracite layout. Our overhaul features a dog house on the tender, pilot deck and smoke box mounted Worthington feed water heater, dual air pumps, etc. and repainting' decaling.

Base Price: $500.00

Options include:

1) Safety chains: $15.00
2) Open ventilators in roof l & r: $2.50 each.
3) Light weathering: $20.00, heavy weathering $40.00
4) Digitrax decoder, installed, set, tested: $40.00
5) Soundtraxx w/1" speaker, installed, set, tested: $140.00
6) Rods blackened $10.00

Baltimore & Ohio

3) BLI or ATHEARN MIKADOS. The Athearn Mikado can be upgraded to become a very accurate B&O class Q3. The 4500s were used system wide, generally in light and medium freight work; especially on lines which could not support heavier locomotives. Many areas of the locomotive are reworked such as pilot, smoke box, engine, firebox, boiler cab, and tender. Cost of repainting / decaling are included in the job.

Base Price: $500.00

Optional extra items for this package include:

1) Safety chains: $15.00
2) Overfire jets: $10.00
3) Raised coal boards: $10.50
4) Step up from smoke box running board to main running board: $4.50
5) Open roof ventilators (outer only): $2.50 each
6) Retain original stack (no charge)
7) B&O two piece or flared stack: $3.00
8) Tender patches: $2.15 each
9) Light weathering: $20.00, heavy weathering $40.00
10) Digitraxx decoded installed, set, tested: $40.00
11) Soundtraxx decoder, 1" speaker, installed, set, tested: $140.00

4) ATHEARN PACIFIC. The Athearn Pacific can be upgraded to become a very accurate B&O class P5. The 5200s were medium passenger power, used on many parts of the system.

The P5 As had Walschaert's valve gear which is not available from EDDYSTONE. The P5 road numbers offered are: 5200, 5205, 5209, 5212, 5217, 5219, 5222, 5225. Many areas of the locomotive are reworked such as pilot, smoke box, engine, firebox, boiler, cab and tender. Cost of repainting/decaling are included in the job.

Base Price: $500.00

Optional extra items for this package include:

1) Safety chains: $15.00
2) Overfire jets: $10.00
3) Open roof ventilators (outer only): $2.50
4) Retain original stack (no charge)
5) Step up from front to main running board: $4.50
6) Raised coal board: $10.50
7) Tender patches: $2.15 each
8) Light weathering: $20.00, heavy weathering $40.00
9) Automatic Train Control: (Stops train if engineer runs signal): $10.00
10) Flared or B&O 2 piece stack: $3.00
11) Digitrax decoder installed, set, tested: $40.00
12) Soundtraxx, w/1" speaker, installed, set, tested: $140.00

5) B & O S-1. S-1 A " BIG SIX' 2-10-2

I have offered cosmetic overhauls of the Rivarossi Big Six for quite a while. They transform the model from a good 1960's " Italian brass" loco to it's full potential, as a top quality model detail, and appearance wise. This work continues to be available.

Last November, IHC introduced a generic ATSF-like 2-10-2 with a mechanism which was a great step forward for IHC. It sold out in a couple of months, proving to be a very hot item. Why? Its mechanism features a metal frame, sprung drivers, can motor, flywheel, idler transmission drive, which is smooth, low current draw, and high output. The wheels are rp 25 contour. The blackened side rods are fully articulated, and the engine has very good lateral motion. It tracks well, and it pulls very well. Not only is it a winner, but I quickly found that it's Big Six dimensioned engine can be effectivily merged with the Rivarossi Big Six. This is the long awaited " Silver Bullet" for upgrading the Rivarossi locomotive into a top performer.
This is not a job for average modelers to undertake however.

In the past half year, two very long threds have run in the B&ORRHS chat room about what to do to fix the Big Six. There are a lot of them out there, and they are frequently sold second hand as owners age out of the hobby. The tooling failed, so the locomotive will not be released again. The Bowser 10 coupled engines will not work under the Rivarossi boiler.

Bruce Elliott, B&ORRHS member, and expert comissioned me to perform the first IHC/Big Six fix. The locomotive is shown here ( with my tender). Sharp eyes will note that Bruce has it numbered for an S class, in the 6000 series. He had wanted to put 57s under it, and convert it to an S class. With my performing the fix for him, he'll now revert to a 6200 S-1 class!

Bruce's opinion of the photos is that it " ain't true that a picture is worth 1,000 words-it's ( the locomotive) better than that !" This shop job combines the needed IHC mechanism parts with Rivarossi pilot, cylinders, valve gear hanger, trailer truck, and superstructure. Also involves some raw materials, and valve gear parts from a third manufacturer. The locomotive goes from 10.9 oz to 21 oz, it gets quiet, draws less, but still doubles, or more the train length, at slow, through medium to a realistic top speed. At near full capacity, fighting 3 curves with a long train with mediocre trucks, I've seen this locomotive just break traction, then dig right in and recover, and continue stomping, sure footed, down the line. It's as though the engineer applied sand !

Set forth below are the work items you can have done to upgrade your Big Six, to a brass quality looker, a top performer, or both. Note that the whole shooting match comes in around the cost of many used brass engines… of lesser appearance, and generally, lesser operating characteristics. Many brass jobs will also stick you with hidden higher costs for DCC installation, custom painting, or I hate to say it, but repairs too !
Just because a seller says " it runs" doesn't mean that it runs well enough to be in service. When I build for you, I break the locomotive in, and road test it to assure it runs as intended. No other manufacturer does all
that.

BIG SIX OVERHAULING, RETAINS RIVAROSSI ENGINE

If you want to retain the Rivarossi wheels, rods, and the design of the drive, and get a cosmetic upgrade, and perhaps a drive upgrade, the following is available:

1) Remove and replace inferior quality cast in place detailing such as the " as delivered" jacketed firebox side sheets, and hand operated reverse gear, the water delivery pipes, and air pump feed line, the turbo, the head lamp, the bell, whistle, number board, and class lamps. Model gets a crew, repainted, decaled at a minimum to give you a first rate looking, 1943 to the end appearance. Base price $ 250.00
Optional Extras:

1) New cab with Brakeman's extension $ 30.00
2) New cab with brakeman's extension, and full interior ( only if you have a can motor installed, see below) $ 60.00
2) Pilot truck, and four tender truck safety chains $ 20.00
3) Over fire jets $ 25.00
4) Open roof ventilators 1 or 2 outer only, $ 2.50 each.
5) B&O flared stack $ 6.00
6) Footboard pilot and tender rear beam footboards, all for $ 30.00
7) Automatic train control-induction shoe, box and conduit $ 20.00
8) Light weathering $ 20.00
9) Heavy weathering $ 40.00
10) DCC is not recommended for use w/ Rivarossi motor, they are old, and can spike current demand, cooking decoder.

2) Upgrade the drive: This involves replacing the Rivarossi motor with a can motor, and replacing the noisy Rivarossi " ballast scorcher" gears with NWSL gears for superior performance, espicially to reduce top speed to realistic levels. This job can be done in conjunction with the cosmetic work above, or as a separate job. Weight is also added to substantially increase locomotive output. Locomotive to have 16 oz on drivers, which is well tuned for the motor and gears. Rivarossi wheels are retained. You can order DCC with this job Base cost $ 65.00

3) The Big Six Fix This job combines the IHC engine parts with the Rivarossi locomotive parts to give you the finest possible running Big Six. You also get a Precision Scale Company rp 25 flange spoked trailer wheelset and an rp 25 flanged pilot truck. Tender trucks are replaced with metal Commonwealth trucks with correct journal boxes, and rp 25 metal wheelsets for superior tracking and continuity. This complete conversion to rp 25 wheels allows you to run your model on codes 85 and 70 track, which a Rivarossi clearly will not do ! You also get a Kadee coupler, frame mounted at rear beam. You can also order cosmetic work as outlined above, at extra cost.
Base cost for the engine work only ( does not include cosmetic work) This job allows you to get a full cab interior as drive is only in the firebox. Cost also includes cost of buying the IHC loco. I can get it for less than you can, and I pass the saving along to you. You can order DCC with this job Base cost $325.00

DCC Options for All Repower Jobs:

1) Digitraxx decoder, addressed $ 40.00
2) Soundtraxx T'sunami w/ 1" speaker loco can run on DC or DCC $ 140.00
3) Increase tender weight for best continuity, advisable when running DCC $ 12.00

This is a lot of choices, you can get what ever you want, you can get a great deal no matter what you order.
Get a top quality locomotive at, and below used brass prices, and don't buy the brass headaches ! At these prices, many of you will want two or three locomotives done.

6) BACHMANN 2-8-0 ca. 1942 E 62 Consolidation. The Bachmann Consolidation is actually an Illinois Central design with the wrong tender. However they are extremely popular with model railroaders because of their remarkable, quiet performance at a low price. This classic started the mass marketed plastic steam revolution of the 1990's. Bachmann sells a "B&O" lettered item, with E 27 classification and road number. However, it looks about as B&O as well, an Illinois Central loco for some reason! We can fix that for you. Our's looks so authentically B&O you'd think Col. Emerson did it.

The EDDYSTONE model is a typification, that is it is representative of what happened to power acquired from lines taken over by the B&O. Gradually, with rebuilding, such locomotives acquired the family appearance that B&O power is so rightly famous for. These models are great for smaller layouts, especially, and you can assign them to any task-just like a GP 7. If you wanted an Athearn Mikado, but can't get one anymore, get one ot these instead. United built many brass E 27s, but they're getting old, they're hard to maintain, and the cab isn't done right, and it isn't a B&O tender. They're best left to the speculators who keep selling them to each other.

Base Price: $400.00

Options include:

1) Safety chains: $15.00
2) Open ventilators on roof, 1-3: $2.50 each.
3) Tender patches: $2.15 each
4) Light weathering: $20.00, heavy weathering $40.00
5) Automatic Train Control (stops train when engineer runs signal): $10.00
6) Footboards, front and rear: $15.25
7) Digitrax decoder, installed, set, tested: $40.00
8) Soundtraxx, installed, set, tested: $140.00

7) BLI or Athearn USRA Cole Trailer Conversion: Replace the wide open spaces under your Athearn Pacific with a great Cole trailer (or a Hodges or one of several Delta trailers) and a locomotive cradle (the rear section of frame) and more ash pan. We can make the con-version for you, along with any other super detailing you want to make an accurate USRA Pacific for the line of your choice. You may also buy the Cole trailer conversion kit and make your own installation.

Kit $20.00 plus $2.50 S&H in USA. We can install it for you. For kit, send funds and indicated Cole Kit. For installation, see Contact Us. Here are a couple photos of an installed Cole trailer.