REVIEW: 7760 Shunter Engine

[Brickaroo]

Good review !

Picked one up last week, but the 2 weight bricks are missing, but the price was very good (50€, instr., no box). But it took me some time to find one in this price range.

Cheers

Hi Thomas, worth having a look here if you're after those rather rare weighted bricks: http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?colorI...amp;itemID=1602

They'll certainly add much more value to the set, even if they cost a pretty penny each!

[*thomas*]

Hi Thomas, worth having a look here if you're after those rather rare weighted bricks: http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?colorI...amp;itemID=1602

They'll certainly add much more value to the set, even if they cost a pretty penny each!

Thanks for the link ! Price is not to high (compared to the blue windows fi.).

[Brickaroo]

OK, so since I made the above post when I bought my shunter something has been bugging me.

The thing just seemed slow, I couldn't understand why. I thought perhaps the motor was a bit old and dodgey. Then it clicked when I put the thing into reverse.

The instructions ask you to place the motor backwards on this model, so simply turning it 180 and putting it with the upward-facing holes at the front will make it run a hell of a lot quicker.

I haven't seen any comment about this before so perhaps it's only my motor. If anyone else tries it, let me know if there's any difference.

[hoeij]

OK, so since I made the above post when I bought my shunter something has been bugging me.

The thing just seemed slow, I couldn't understand why. I thought perhaps the motor was a bit old and dodgey. Then it clicked when I put the thing into reverse.

The instructions ask you to place the motor backwards on this model, so simply turning it 180 and putting it with the upward-facing holes at the front will make it run a hell of a lot quicker.

I haven't seen any comment about this before so perhaps it's only my motor. If anyone else tries it, let me know if there's any difference.

Not just your motor, lots of 12V motors out there need maintance.

I bought nine 12V motors, and six of them were not running smoothly. Some of them wouldn't even

start moving unless there was more than 6 volt on the track (that's just the motor without a train!).

What they need is lubrication. They need to be opened up because the gears need lubrication (e.g. WD40).

Two of my motors even had a bunch of hair in them (no wonder they didn't run right!). This gunk obviously

has to be removed.

Now they run very much better (2 volt is enough to make all of them move).

A lubricated motor will move with much less friction, will thus use much less current,

get less hot, and last much longer.

If one motor is running slower than another motor, the slow motor is actually working much harder than

the fast motor, because the slow motor is slow only because it needs to turn gears that have lots of

friction due to lack of lubrication.

PS. It is not easy to open up a motor, but I think that if I want the motors to still be working 10 years from

now, there's really no other choice.

[Helmantel]

PS. It is not easy to open up a motor, but I think that if I want the motors to still be working 10 years from

now, there's really no other choice.

Early ones have a tendency that the bottom plates lets loose from the cover (I guess the glue they used doesn't last as well). Nowadays, that's an advantage, because it allows you to open the motor and make repairs. If they are still glued together, it's very difficult to open them without damage.

[lightningtiger]

I've done it - repaired a motor, a little tricky but the train ran nicely after.

There are two main problems with motors, worn bearings and worn bushes/commutator, as long as the bearings are not oddly shaped and the commutator is not got serious scouring marks then some simple W40 will do the trick.

Maybe 'The Brickster' could start a forum thread on train motor/electrical/mechanical repairing, like a Q&A page.

I'm a conformist! everyone !

[hoeij]

I've done it - repaired a motor, a little tricky but the train ran nicely after.

There are two main problems with motors, worn bearings and worn bushes/commutator, as long as the bearings are not oddly shaped and the commutator is not got serious scouring marks then some simple W40 will do the trick.

Maybe 'The Brickster' could start a forum thread on train motor/electrical/mechanical repairing, like a Q&A page.

I'm a conformist! everyone !

Among used 9V motors, it's not uncommon to find one with worn out bushes/commutator. But I have yet to see that in any of the used 12V motors that I bought. In every single one of them, this part is still in excellent condition, which tells me that the motor will still last a long time.

Two of my motors have worn down contact points at the bottom of the motor (anyone know where I can find a replacement for those?). When the contact points wear, they get flatter, making it harder to go over switch points. But even those motors still look very good on the inside (at least, after I removed all that hair...).

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Hello all,

This is my first post, so I wanted to make sure it was a good one.

After much procrastinating I finally decided to dip into 12V trains and begin building an obsession that could not be afforded to me as a child (In Australia Lego is rather expensive, even more so when the 12V and 9V trains were going around, I'm 27 now FWIW and my parents were migrants from the old Yugoslavia). I've put together a rather nice collection, but the one that had always caught my eye was the 7760. After much researching and looking through photos sent to me from no less than 10 different sellers on Bricklink (seeing as I was spending a lot of money I wanted to be very anal retentive about this), I finally decided to make my move on one that I felt was in the best condition for the price. When it arrived I was very surprised to see how good it actually was! Box - perfect, Instructions - perfect, Stickers - perfect, Bricks - perfect!

I've made a slight mod to it though (purists please don't shoot me), and installed some nice lighting to the set. I cut down the correct length of wire to ensure it was a perfect fit, and tracked down some stickers to place on the lighting bricks.

The allure of this set is the rarity of the parts, in particular the blue weight bricks and the 3x2 blue windows (the windows cost an OUTRAGEOUS AMOUNT on bricklink, with the cheapest selling for $29.00 US each, if you have any of these spare, CHERISH THEM!). In any case, below are some images of the progress of putting this beauty together, including the lighting modification. Quite an easy mod to make, and the effect when the train runs is priceless. I have to say that I'm a very, very proud and happy owner of one of these now, and won't be letting it go any time soon!

That last shot shows the lights in action front the front as the train flies towards me.

I hope that fellow owners of this magical piece of history enjoy it as much as I do.

I own this set and I've done the same lights MOD (great review )

The effect of this diesel shunter with the lights on running on the rails is awesome !

What a pity that the new PW trains haven't any lights

[hoeij]

I own this set and I've done the same lights MOD (great review )

The effect of this diesel shunter with the lights on running on the rails is awesome !

What a pity that the new PW trains haven't any lights

It's easy to put lights in the new trains (lego item 8870, power functions light). Some of my 9V trains have two 9V lights, I'm planning to replace those lights by one 8870.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

It's easy to put lights in the new trains (lego item 8870, power functions light). Some of my 9V trains have two 9V lights, I'm planning to replace those lights by one 8870.

I've put front and rear lights on the RC set 7897 and 7898 but it's not as easy as it seems modify the new PF set 7938 and 7939

[Brickaroo]

Not just your motor, lots of 12V motors out there need maintance.

I bought nine 12V motors, and six of them were not running smoothly. Some of them wouldn't even

start moving unless there was more than 6 volt on the track (that's just the motor without a train!).

What they need is lubrication. They need to be opened up because the gears need lubrication (e.g. WD40).

Two of my motors even had a bunch of hair in them (no wonder they didn't run right!). This gunk obviously

has to be removed.

Now they run very much better (2 volt is enough to make all of them move).

A lubricated motor will move with much less friction, will thus use much less current,

get less hot, and last much longer.

If one motor is running slower than another motor, the slow motor is actually working much harder than

the fast motor, because the slow motor is slow only because it needs to turn gears that have lots of

friction due to lack of lubrication.

PS. It is not easy to open up a motor, but I think that if I want the motors to still be working 10 years from

now, there's really no other choice.

I'd love to see a guide on pulling apart a 12v motor and lubricating it. You seem to have some experience doing this, any chance of you putting together a simple guide with a few images?

[BillytheKid]

It's hard to get 12v motors running smooth again. They need some crease and cleaning. Only 50% will runn smooth again. Other 50% can be thrown away. I fix 12v motors for 7 years now.

Now I have 4 12v motors which I don't how to fix those...

[hoeij]

I'd love to see a guide on pulling apart a 12v motor and lubricating it. You seem to have some experience doing this, any chance of you putting together a simple guide with a few images?

There are some pictures in a file 99_train_motor_history.pdf

A google search for "A brief lego motor history" will find it. The picture of the open 12V motor in there is not very clear. I can make clearer pictures if you like.

I was considering writing some tips/tricks for 12V (e.g. how to repair a bent 12V insert, how to make interrupter rails, etc.). Anyone interested in helping out with that?

It's hard to get 12v motors running smooth again. They need some crease and cleaning. Only 50% will run smooth again. Other 50% can be thrown away. I fix 12v motors for 7 years now.

Now I have 4 12v motors which I don't how to fix those...

I've bought 9 motors, 3 of them were running well, the others ranged from a little slower than the best ones, to a lot slower. I opened up 5 of them, and one is still left to-do. Success rate so far is 5 out of 5, they are all running well.

I hope you have not thrown away any of the bad motors (if a motor is really unfixable, which it certainly can be, some of its parts may still be of use to repair other motors).

Can I buy some of these motors to give it a try?

I have not done this as long as you have. It might be that I can't repair any of them and I end up losing some money, but I'm OK with that. Perhaps the ones I've fixed so far were relatively easy ones. Still, I'd like to see if the four non-working motors can somehow be recombined into one or more working ones.

I'd love to see a guide on pulling apart a 12v motor and lubricating it. You seem to have some experience doing this, any chance of you putting together a simple guide with a few images?

One more thing, how many volts does it take for your motor to start moving? (motor with no train attached). A well lubricated motor should move (very slowly of course) with as little as 2 volts on the track.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Excellent review Hobbes. I love this old shunter engine. What a great little set and it sounds like you really snagged a good one off of Ebay.

I shared the following image a while ago, but here's a shot of a diesel engine that's part of the Nevada Southern Railway. Someone (perhaps you) mentioned that it looks like 7760.

Lego should bring back some of these as Train Legends.

That looks kind of like this set, but it's not a good match. That diesel is large and sits on bogies. Plus it's American.

Here is a much better match:

The British Railways Class 07 0-6-0 diesel shunter produced by Ruston & Hornsby.

[paul_delahaye]

It took me quite a while to locate a nice copy of this set. So many available on the market only had 3 of the small hazard stickers.

Really annoying from a collector point of view

Paul

[Heppeng]

Reproduction stickers are available from http://www.ministickers.nl/ (JopieK). From the reviews I understand that they are indistinguishable from the real thing. I have built this set in red (including the lights mod) and need to get around to ordering the stickers...