Breathing new life into an old RLW Brass Loco

The motor on this one is completely seized up and needs to be replaced.

The roughly 24 year old Rogue Locomotive Works C40-9W commonly called the “Dash-9” had a Swiss made 0816 series 8-volt Faulhaber Motor which is no longer available, or is it?
After spending some time searching the internet, I was unable to find a replacement Faulhaber motor at a reasonable price point.

Fortunately, I know of another place to get a replacement motor and thanks to this years Black Friday Specials at AZL Direct they were on sale. Say what? You didn’t see them listed? Well that’s probably because you were looking for a Motor. The Buy one Get one Free Deal on the first generation of GP7’s is where you should be looking. Yup the First run of GP7’s, the 6202 - Chesapeake & Ohio, the 6203 - Nickel Plate Road, the 6204 – Pennsylvania, and the 6205 - Union Pacific, all used the same Faulhaber motor that was in the RLW Dash 9’s.



The orignal Dash-9 Faulhaber Motor/Flywheel driveshaft assembly

Placing the GP7 motor assembly next to the Dash 9 motor assembly you will quickly notice that while the motors themselves are identical, the flywheel/drive shaft /worm gear assembly on each end are not the same. So the longer dash 9 assemblies will have to be swapped onto the GP7 motor.



Dash 9 Flywheel drive shaft assembly on top
GP7 Flywheel assembly on bottom


Having worked on a few of these older brass loco’s and haven swapped out the motors once before. I know that removing the flywheel/worm gear assemblies from both motors without damaging them can be a lot more difficult than it might seem. Drive assemblies like this are quite often put together using what’s called a “interference fit”

In this case the interference fit, also known as a pressed fit is achieved by pressing the 1mm Diameter motor drive shaft into a smaller 0.99mm hole on the flywheel assembly. Additionally, some form of adhesive bonding agent like “Loctite” is often used to make sure the motor shaft does spin inside the flywheel during operation.

Now before you attempt to remove the flywheel assembly from the Dash 9 motor measure the distance between the flywheel and the motor body at each end using micrometers, feeler gauges, or whatever method you have at your disposal. I Used a set of Feeler gauges for this. Write this info down so that you will know how far to press them onto the new motor.

I was able to remove the flywheel/worm gear shafts from the Dash 9 motor by sliding the motor into a small Jeweler's Anvil that was clamped in my vice. After clampping a gear puller to the flywheel assembly, I held my soldering Iron against the flywheel heating it up. Then I tapped some small brass wedges in between the anvil and the gear puller forcing them apart. After giving the parts a chance to cool off I flipped the motor over and did the same to the other side.

NOTE: adhesives commonly used in these types of assemblies such as CA Glues or Loctite 222 will release their hold if heated up to around 500* F. This much heat could easily destroy a motor so DO NOT do this to your GP7 motor. The Dash-9 motor was already dead so I was not worried about the heat damaging it.

Removing the flywheel assembly from the GP 7 motor proved to be a bit more difficult. My first ended when I bent the push pin and broke the ears off my old puller . The smallest pin shaft on my new Walkera W010 Gear & Pinion Puller was too big to fit in the ends of the shafts. So I turned down a 3mm diameter piece of High Speed Tool Steel on my lathe to fit in the shaft ends. and used it in my new puller to push the motor shaft out of the Flywheel assembly.

Take your time and make sure you are pulling/pushing the assembly straight off the motor’s shaft. Don’t use a cheap knock off gear puller. You don’t want to chance bending the motor shaft because your cheap puller gave way and broke halfway through the process. (hum I wonder how I learned this)



The gear puller i used with the push pin i made sitting below the 5 that came with it
and the GP7 motor with flywheel assemblies removed

Try test fitting both flywheels on the smaller (1mm) side of the GP7 motor. Having already been pushed onto, then taken off the orignal motor shaft, the flywheels may just slide right on. If either one slides on easily with a loose fit and wiggles around at all you’re going to need the help of some Precision Machine tools. Using a set of Pin gauges to determine what the actual inside diameter of the loose hole is. Then turn the sleeved end of the GP7 motor down on a Lathe to 0.01 mm larger than the hole in the flywheel.

If both are a nice tight fit as these were or are too tight to push on by hand you will want to completely remove the sleeve from the GP7 motor.

The sleeve appears to have been crimped onto the shaft so it’s not going to just pull free. And since I still had my lathe out I decided to remove the sleeve by turning it down. After mounting the motor shaft in a 1mm collet I setup the steady rest to keep the motors from deflecting and used a micro carbide cutter to slowly turn down the sleeve.


A couple pictures (recreations) of how I held the motor in my lathe to turn down the sleeve.

Again, I powered it up and made sure everything was in perfect alignment. Then let it set for a couple days before reassembling everything.

Re assembling is fairly easy. Bend the brass contact strips on the motor out to the sides a little. Then slip the motor into the frame half so that it is resting on the lower motor mount with one contact tab sticking out the side aligning with where you unsoldered the orignal motor wire. Now put the other frame half on top aligning all 4 pins and slowly start pushing them together. once you have all 4 pins started slip the trucks in place then gently squeeze it together with the contact tabs sticking out opposite sides. While holding it together put the fuel tank on the bottom and reinstall the screws. Now slide that little square of clear plastic in between the top of the motor and the underside of the frame halves. Slide the motor assembly forward or backwards as needed so the flywheels do not come in contact on either end. Now bend the motor contact tabs in and solder them to frame halves on each side where the orignal wires were attached and cut any excess off.
Place it on the track and give it a test run.


first test with the GP7 motor

Once your satisfied with its performance slip the clear plastic insulating cover over the top tucking the tabs down between the frame and the fuel tank. You may need to loosen the screws holding the tank on and wiggle it around a little to get the tabs in place. Re-tighten the screws and put the Shell back on. Just remember to pick it up by grabbing the sides of the fuel tank otherwise the shell might just lift off or worse the chassis could unexpectedly fall out.


pulling a few cars

Great that you posted this. I have personally tuned several through the years and it is amazing that so many C44-9W and C40-9W locomotives are still running on various layouts. 500 were made, first as NS, BNSF, ATSF and UP. Later repaints included SP, C&NW and BNSF Heritage.
Now a small correction. These were never a RLW product, but rather the first AZL locomotive.
Intended to be a RLW product with chassis made by RLW and body by AJIN in Korea, RLW closed its doors for good when the brass bodies arrived in the US.
I put the bodies in storage in Los Angeles and ordered C44-9W chassis from AJIN. Upon completion I flew to LA and assembled the locomotives in a motel.
Those were the days
Should have ordered new AZL stickers for the C44-9W boxes, but ran out of time. Thus the RLW name lingered on.