Life-Like EMD Southern Railway E6A Resuscitation

I like Electro-Motive Corporation/Division E-series diesel locomotives. Built from the 1930s though the 1960s and designed for passenger service, twin dieseled with 2000-2400 hp available and a top speed of 100+ mph. The A and B units were equiped with steam heat boilers for passenger car heat. I'm into N-scale modeling these days, so, when a Southern Railway (USA) N-scale E6A (driving cab, E6Bs had no driving cab and were termed boosters) came up on eBay clearly in need of attention I thought “There’s a modeling project!”. Especially as the seller noted one truck fell off during testing, and that it ran erratically or not at all. Uh-oh. That didn't bode well. I needed a Southern E6A, the price was right for what was a non-runner, and the worst-case scenario was I’d have a body shell ready for a chassis transplant. So, job number 1 will be to see if the chassis turns out to be a basket or rescuscitation case. Fingers crossed.

It arrived today, and a cursory inspection shows the following:

It was a very early model – probably pre-1965, no white number/date on the underside of the fuel tank, early drive tube connections, no underside truck covers, and lead weights over the trucks (if they bend it’s lead – they bend). Electrical contact/pick-up was from the same side. In more recent models pick up is from the opposite side. Which can be confusing when rewiring them for DCC.
So, what were the issues? The shell off revealed the following:

It was excessively lubed with dripping oil on top of crusty, orange-brown grease. Presumably, the seller/previous owner had tried to get it moving with a good oiling.

The truck fell off because the retaining pin through the top gear that locates the truck to the chassis had come loose (all that oil). The locating pin was still there, thank goodness, because spares are in hen’s teeth territory.

The motor ran erratically or not at all. Just as the seller said. This was due to fine metal fibers between the armatures and magnets. The motor ran smoothly after I got them out and ran it for 15 minutes in either direction to burn any remaining fibers off.

My nose revealed the last problem – a very strong smell of cigarette smoke. That explained the orange-brown crud on the armatures and the crusty orange-brown grease on the worms.

So, with a bit of work, I will have a working mechanism. It will be a bit light as those lead weights are going to my local recycling center as hazardous material. If I can’t get rid of the cigarette smell the chassis will get trashed. Hopefully, a degrease will do that. If not, I have some spare E6A chassis that I can substitute.

It will be part of an E6A/E6B/E6A consist, with the leading E6A providing most of the traction. I’ll also convert it to DCC sound. The long-erm intention will be to do a transplant with a Broadway Limited Imports  E6 DCC sound chassis (when one comes up at a reasonable price). I’ve done 4 of those recently, it’s a quick and painless (but not cheap) conversion.

No pictures yet, I need to see whether procedures have changed. More in the next post.

Nigel
 

Looking forward to the pictures Nigel 



Ed

Ed said

Looking forward to the pictures Nigel 



Ed

From “Post #291,055”, 17th January 2025, 9:21 am

Yes, we need the pictures 📷

Cheers,
Claus

Hello Nigel and it's good to hear from you again.

You always liked a challenge and I see you've now decided to make it more so with N gauge and what an interesting story is unfolding.

Bon courage mon ami and I look forward to more.

Very best wishes,

Bill

Hi All,

Nice to be back. Pictures later today (for most of you tomorrow) and as usual some background This is going to be a howdididoit. I found a few more issues with the chassis this morning, not unexpected and they're going to get binned anyway. A "chassis up" resto. With of course a few "Well I never" and "Would you believe it!" moments to lighten the day. :'(

Cheers,

Nigel

 

Good luck with the N guage stuff. I can just about manage my 00 gauge stuff on a good day. Looking forward to those photo's.

Testing, testing

Nigel

Hi All

The previous post was a test for photos. Seems OK. The 3 diesels are part of my Southern Railway E fleet. The top is an E6A, the middle an E8A, and at the bottom is an E6B. The E6A and E8A are DCC sound-equipped (BLI chassis implants), the E6B is a dummy and not powered but I wired it ready for a sound-only decoder from Digitrax. At the top right are the steam generator air intakes and exhausts. They're good-looking for 30-year-old models. Perhaps I should rephrase that….

More on the E6a trash can project tomorrow.

Cheers,

Nigel

Hi All,

No Premiere League on the TV tonight, so let's press on. A few words about the Southern's E6s. The design dates back to the mid-1930s, with the E5 really being being the start of the series. The early models were built as one-offs for various railroads. The series stopped with the E9. E6s were originally equipped with 2 x 1000 hp V12 diesel engines (the 567), all except 1 E6A were later upgraded to 1,125 hp. All were supplied with steam generators for passenger car heat or air-conditioning.* They also ordered 4 E6B units, supplied in 1941 and all with steam generators. Dynamic brakes were installed in the E6Bs by the Southern shops. The Southern shops upgraded all their E6s to the later E8 specifications. The locomotives had multiple unit controls installed. The Southern operated as far north as Washington, DC (with through passenger cars from New York), and many of its passenger routes went over the Appalachian Mountains, which often had snow and sub-freezing temperatures in the winter. Steam heat was never a problem with steam engines, the solution with diesel locomotives was to install a steam generator in the body. The steam generators were usually only good for 5-6 passenger cars. More than that required 2 steam generator locomotives or a dedicated steam generator car. The Southern converted old diesel locomotives, Pullman passenger cars, baggage cars, and freight cars into steam generator cars for passenger service rather than ordering more units from EMD. The E6s were all traded back to EMD in 1967 for new models. Ostensibly a C-C design, in reality, it was an A-1-A design. This significantly affected traction, limiting all E series to relatively flat terrain. Railroads used them on “water level routes”, which suited the Southern. The top running speed could be 100+ mph depending on the traction motor gearing. As passenger traffic declined many E series were used with a lower gearing for freight traffic.

So, onto the trash can N-scale Life-Like E6A in Southern Green, White, and Sunshine Yellow stripe. The photo below shows it straight out of the mailing box. A very sorry state, and just as described by the eBay seller. He missed the missing step. I have some brass ones in the spares box. The front dummy coupler is seized, and the rear one is an old Rapido-type coupler that needs replacing with a Micro-Trains magnetic knuckle coupler. Is there life in there? Halloo…anybody home?



The wayward truck was an easy fix, a loose locating pin was the issue. Testing the motor and gear train after removing the shell was interesting. Sometimes it ran. Erratically. A look at 10 x magnification showed what looked like steel fibers between the motor armatures and the magnet shell. I removed them using some very fine tweezers, and the motor now runs smoothly. Hopefully the commutator is fine. I gave the armatures a good clean with some cotton buds and 99% IPA. I cleaned the crusty grease off the trucks using a tooth brush and washing-up liquid, followed by several rinses with hot water then with 99% IPA. I'll do the same with the worms and bearings.

The next photo shows the stripped-down chassis. I removed the bronze contact strips as I will be rewiring the trucks to an 8-pin socket for DCC. One advantage of these old Life-Like models is that they used a plastic chassis. No issues about electrically isolating the motor. Those 2 dark-looking lumpy objects that look they belong in the cat's litter box are the lead weights that go over the trucks. They're off to the recycling center hazardous materials section next week. If I need some weight I'll use small titanium weights, which mass more than lead. For the relatively short trains and light-weight passenger cars I am running those weights are not really necessary. I spent a good 15 minutes inspecting the gear train. Nothing broken or missing. The poly tubes connecting the brass flywheels and the worms were tight and flexible, I would imagine they were replaced quite recently. If they ever do need replacing then model airplane fuel tubing work fine.



It's not a trash candidate! Southern E6As had dual headlights, so that will need addressing if I wire it for a headlight and a red Mars light or flashing Gyrolite. Next post I'll deal with rewiring the chassis for DCC sound.  I really do fancy the idea of having an E6A/E6B/E6A consist with a speaker in each one. "What? Can't hear you. What's that? What did you just say?"

Cheers,

Nigel

PS: trucks = bogies.
*Pressurized steam was used not only for heating, but also for generating hot water for washrooms, dining car kitchens, or in the summer for air conditioning.

Arrgh, no pictures. Try again.

Strange, worked this time.

BCDR said

Strange, worked this time.

From “Post #291,067”, 18th January 2025, 2:40 am

Gemlins  

Thanks, Ed. More likely an operator error. Hang on, that's me!

I use spookshow.net to check out any North American N-scale locomotives, freight cars, or passenger cars before handing over my hard-earned mullah. Mea culpa: The trash can E6A dates back to 2000, so it's a good-looking 25-year-old model. Needs another headlight, but i'll live without one for the moment.

I did not disassemble the worms/spacers/bearings - too many small pieces to go flying. I gave them a scrub with the toothbrush and dishwasher soap, rinsed well with hot water, then several times with 99% IPA. As the IPA evaporates it takes any residual water with it. So I now have a clean chassis, clean worms and clean geared trucks.

The next photo shows the location of the truck's electrical contact. This originally contacted the brass strip on the plastic chassis. It is much better to avoid this entirely, and solder wires directly to the wiper contact.  Electrical pickup is from all wheels on both sides so with correctly designed points there is no need to mess around wiring the frogs. I gave up doing that quite a while back.


The mission today is to solder the wires, and test for continuity. After of course a cup of tea and a digestive biscuit.

Cheers,

Nigel

A cup of tea and a digestive biscuit - oh how I wish !!!  Not only are digestive biscuits (McVitie's) about €10 each here in France but apparently barrow loads of sugar have arrived in my blood stream so all "decent, tasty" food is banned in favour of poached lettuce !!

In a moment of madness, I have just acquired a couple of sections of an "N" Gauge layout (bought mainly because I thought I could sell on the controllers) - time will tell.

I have absolutely NO "N Gauge" stock but I'm amazed at how much one can get in the space without it looking crowded.  I may have to look further into the scale and will probably buy a "pre-owned" loco or two so your "exploded view" and reapir tutorial will be very useful Nigel.

 

Hi All,

Locomotive DCC wiring prep done. Red to the RHS truck contacts, black to the LHS truck contacts, orange and grey to the motor terminals.

Technical stuff: I'm using DCC Concepts wire, which I think is 30 gauge, the soldering iron is a 60W pen type with a ceramic core, and set at 350°with a fine pointy bit, solder is Sn60/Pb40, 6mm diameter, W416 core fluxed. I do my soldering in a room with 25 air changes/hour and wear gloves. I've given up on lead-free solder, the substituted metals are just as bad as lead, and the remelt temperatures are high enough that a second iron is needed. I'll switch to 63/37 solder shortly, it's a bit harder with the increased tinV4 content. I tested the controverted chassis after a very light lube using DC power. After an hour it was running perfectly.

There's a BLI N scale E7A with DCC sound on eBay at a good price (the decoder is an ESU Loksound, probably V4). I am tempted. The transplant works both ways, a Life-Like chassis fits a BLI/Kato E6A/B-E8A/B body shell with just a bit of fettling. I've already got 4 body shells, might as well put these Life-Like chassis to work.

Pictures 1-3 are the wiring. LHS, motor/RHS.

Looks neat Nigel - does it work ? 

More importantly, how are your eyes or was it all done through a microscope ?

Hah. That's a good point. I use a 4"/10mm diameter articulated magnifier with a 10x lens and LED lighting. It has a lid, so I also use it for photography. It has a small inset 20x, which is a waste of time as the focal length is about a cm. I used to have a binocular headset with 5x lenses, which was uncomfortable to wear. I have a portable one I take to shows (5x). Then I can inspect models and start haggling if necessary. Which is always.

Going down to this scale also means using fine-scale tools. Most of the tools I use for HO/OO are too big for N-scale.

Hope that helps.

Interesting your HO tools are too big …………………… I think I'm probably too far into 4mm scale and too old now to mess with "N" Gauge (2mm scale).  I already regret my recent acquisition in that scale - although it didn't break the bank I think it was probably money down the drain ………but I've always found it hard to walk away from a  perceived "bargain" ………….

Ah, buyer's remorse. I still mess around with HO, but I gave up on OO (a narrow gauge) and EM gauge (which is better but not perfect, as it's still a narrow gauge). One reason to go into N-scale for me was a large N-scale modular group in my area. This means I can play trains on a large layout at least once a month. My home layout is 10 x 1 foot, which is 2 modules that I store in a closet. A DCC test track where I can explore scenic aspects. That 10 x 1 iequals  20 x 2-foot layout in HO/OO. I'm looking at a 2 x 2 at either end. that would give me a dog-bone tail chaser. There is also an Ho modular group which I am considering rejoining. Give my Ho fleet something to do.

What I have found is that switching scales is quite a (welcome) challenge. With N it's a waste of time rivet counting, or bemoaning the presence of molded hand rails rather than real ones (my spell checker doesn't like "moulded"). Just buy and run. And operations or consisting (shunting) is often problematic. Although the magnetic couplers I use do work. I limit myself to passenger trains, for the most part.

That said, you've got a layout ready to go.

The ability to put 100% more into the same space as "OO" is a very real bonus Nigel but I'm pretty sure I'd struggle to do anything other than run RTR models - eyes and hands not being what they were !!

As kids, my brother and I had a fairly extensive "TT" layout and that was a brilliant scale - small enough to have some decent length trains but not too small to need micro-surgery to do anything.  That scale failed I suppose, for the same reason I'm unlikely to switch to "N" - I have way too much invested in "OO".  It will be interesting to see the future of Hornby's TT120 - are they also too late in the field or will it grab those just entering the model railway scene………………………………….?