Loco Body becoming a sound chamber

[Smudge617]

I have a lovely Trix loco which I have recently purchased, needs a bit of work, basic service, converting to DCC etc. But runs, and pulls very well, and all wheel pickup on the 8 wheel tender. The problem I have is the noise it makes, it sounds like a bag of nails in a tumble dryer, I appreciate there will always be noise coming from the loco considering it's age and design of the time etc, but I think the motor is vibrating against the body, and turning it into a sound chamber, does anyone know of a means of deadening the sound, some form of insulation perhaps that I could use.?

 

[cypherman]

Hi Smudge,

You could use strips of polystyrene to pack the body to deaden the sound..

[RexAshton]

On 29/11/2021 at 18:44, cypherman said:

Hi Smudge,

You could use strips of polystyrene to pack the body to deaden the sound..

You could but don't pack it too tightly. The motor needs to keep cool particularly as polystyrene doesn't like heat.

[The Johnster]

You could stuff strips of foam rubber inside, but as Rex says the motor will need space around it, to keep it cool as well as the sound deadening material.  If noise is being caused by the motor vibrating against the inside of the bodyshell, you will probably see exactly where this is happening as there will be a mark or scratch at that location.  A strip of foam rubber here will absorb the mechanical noise caused by the rapid repeated contact between motor and bodyshell. 
 

But your motor shouldn’t be vibrating in he first place, and you may need to cure the cause as well as the effect.  I would look at the mounting screws and check that they are a) all present and correct, and b) tightened.  My memory of Trix mechs (CKD Western in my case) is that they were well engineered, ran like sewing machines, and were pretty smooth and quiet by the standards of the day; bag of nails in a tumble dryer suggests that there are more fundamental issues to be addressed.   What is the slow running like and does she stop and start smoothly?

Edited December 1, 2021 by The Johnster

[SamThomas]

If the locomotive in question is typical Trix then the noise will be coming from the all metal gears.

 

I have a number of Trix OHE** & Diesel HO locomotives in my fleet & have tried various ways of taming the noise without, it has to be said a lot of success. As these (earlier design) locomotives only drive from one power bogie then the empty space can be filled with foam, that does help but in the OP's case i double if there will be any spare room.

 

About all you can do is to make sure the drive bearing are lubed & a small amount of grease on the gears.

 

Hope this helps.

 

** The older ones actually sound quite good with the gear noise.