Improving the K27

This page will have tips from TOC (a.k.a. The Old Curmegeon, a.k.a. Dave Goodson)

Please be patient as this page is organized.

Cab Doors

The cab doors do not open a full 90°, rather about 60°.

This bothered me a little, as with doors open, I like them fully open.

I investigated the cause, and found the handrail across the outside of the window was impacting the front cab wall. I removed the handrail, drilled the hole through with a #60 drill and pin vise, while holding the back of the door through the open front side window.

A re-check showed it better but not prefect.

So, I trimmed the space between the handrail holes and window into narrow channels for the handrail to seat into with a sharp Xacto knife, once again while holding the back of the door through the open cab side windows.

Opens perfectly to 90° now and stays there.

Locking side to side motion on axles for controlling overhang

Eliminating excess side play  By Dave Goodson
Out of the box, the locomotive I have has about 11/16" side play at the pilot beam. This is to allow all 4 drivers to move 1/4" on their inner axles. It was a little too much for my tighter clearances, as a load could cause it to swing too far to the side, and cause a problem that the axles could not re-center with a load.

To fix this, I removed the #1 axle, took out the cranks and springs, and made some nylon washers to test. I installed the washers between the wheel and frame. Replace the cranks but not the springs. Now the locomotive has less than 1/4" play, but it still traverses LGB 16000 curves without problem.

Next, I did the #4 axle in the same manner. The K-27 still runs smoothly through LGB 16000 curves and switches (old ones, too), still has about 1/4" sideplay at the pilot beam, and the locomotive does not "rack over" to one side when backing a load.

This is a smaller diameter than the 8' diameter specified by the manufacturer as minimum.

For anyone with tighter clearances on their railroad, this could be helpful. Since this is a screwdriver modification, it's easy to remove the washers.