Ok, over 20 years ago I bought a Con Cor 2-8-8-2, took off the tender shell and installed a shortened Bachmann 4-8-4 ATSF tender shell to make it an oil burner…ran it a few times (not even an hour) and a power lead to the motor fell off….so I promptly put it back in the box and all but forgot about it until a month ago.
I decided to put a Bachmann 2-8-0 cab on it and make it look more west coast, repair the lead, repaint it and lube it up. Today, I dug it out, and noticed that the rear set of pistons were falling off, split in two…and the driver sets were not turning….being the tinkerer that I am, I quickly had it all apart and I realized that the factory lube was hard as a rock….no problem, just a clean-up job. When I reassembled the rear driver set, I noticed that the gears were not lining up without the grease….and there was an arch…placed it on the rails and only four wheels of each driver set was touching the rails….the frames for the drivers are now ruined….so, I either suck it up and find a decent used 2-8-8-2 or I convince the CFO that I really need a new AC12 with sound……anyone want this pile-o-parts for free?