by Jim Kelly
Wonderful prewar trains are still appearing fresh from years of storage in attics, closets, and basements. Unfortunately, in some cases the years have taken a toll on the trains, especially when they have been exposed to moisture, temperature extremes, and dust and dirt.
"President Washington" 1134R IVES locomotive disassembled for cleaning and repairs
Recently I acquired an IVES Capitol Limited set that apparently just came out of storage. The set was extremely dirty. The 1134R locomotive was inoperable due to problems with the wheels. It was missing most of its valve gear.
The original e-unit was present, but it was disconnected and caked with grime.
Note the hard wiring - the brush tube is wired to the frame
The motor was hard-wired to run in one direction. All of the passenger cars were very, very dirty. The chassis of one passenger car had many broken solder joints and the car was basically in pieces, and steps needed to be re-soldered on another car. The observation car platform was poorly repaired years ago, and held in place with a huge ugly bead of solder.
My work bringing this set back to a presentable, operational condition consisted mainly of cleaning everything, careful re-soldering of the cars where needed, and a complete overhaul of the locomotive, including re-wheeling, re-wiring, and replacing the missing valve gear.
I ordered the necessary parts and proceeded to start work on the set.
The Red and Green Holiday Set From 1927
After a few weeks everything was cleaned up, repaired and ready to once again hit the tracks. Here's a short video of the set running once again:
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