USAT Alco PA-1, PB-1

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General:

These are very nice models of the Alco PA-1 and PB-1 units. There are/were available in road numbers 51 and 52. 

They have great detailing, and are handsome locomotives.

Care:

Pick them up from the bottom, holding them on the sides can damage the fine grillwork.

Run them on the layout carefully the first time, they are pretty long! Check your clearances.

Drive system:

They have standard USAT 3 axle trucks. The motor block holds 2 axles, and the 3rd, "outer" are hinged to swivel side to side. Some people have had problems with this, and others have no problems at all. I'm in the no problems at all camp. I did discover something that could explain people's problems, see the tips section.

The wheels are are 1.376" in diameter (measured near to the flange, which scales out to almost exactly 40 inches.

The smoke units have small motors, and a separate regulator/controller board. Use 25-30 drops of smoke fluid. They should run about 20 minutes. They do have auto shutdown, but the manual says to turn them off if you run the loco without smoke fluid. Good idea.

Lubrication: be sure to lube the axles (I would use a gel grease or heavy oil). Lube the ends of the axles well, since the power is conducted there (only 2 of the 3 axles on each truck).

You can lube the gearbox after every 100 hours of operation, remove the bottom of the gear box and use a good quality grease.. 

Disassembly:

First: pay attention to the different screw sizes:

• • The 10 body screws are the longest and thinnest
  • The 4 screws that hold the nose piece are larger diameter, and shorter than the "body screws"
  • The coupler pedestal screws (which do not have to be removed) are short, and the same diameter as the nose piece screws.
  • The fuel tank screws are smaller and different

• Lay the loco on it's back.
• On the A unit only, remove the coupler or the pedestal
• On the A unit only, remove the lower nose piece with 4 screws.
• Remove the fuel tank with 2 screws.
• Remove the the 2 fuel tank skirts, pull straight up gently, the grab bars stay on the loco. Note that the tank holds these skirts in place. They will only go back one way, so don't worry about getting the left and right sides mixed up.I remove them to avoid damage later. The filler port goes to the rear of the loco.
• Remove the screws from the 4 ladder/foot "stirrups". First, use a small flat blade screwdriver between the stirrup and the body to release the wires that serve as handrails. Do this gently and you will not damage the paint.I prefer not to remove the upper ends of the handrails from the body, because it often damages the point. Now unscrew the 4 stirrups, keeping their unique screws with them.

Your are now left with 10 deeply set screws to remove and the entire chassis will lift out. It's easier to have the loco on it's back or at a 45 degree angle when doing this. Be sure to unplug the smoke unit wire and the headlight connector as you separate the shell from the chassis. Make sure you find all 10 screws!

Mark the front of the chassis inside on the weight on B units, so you do not put them back together backwards.

Reassembly is the reverse. On the A unit, make sure the front part of the chassis sets down below the body sides or you will never get the nose piece back on. Just put in the 2 chassis screws in the front, not the rest of the 8. Once the chassis drops down in place, then you can put the rest of the screws in. 

Disassembling the trucks:

To remove the cover that goes over the main gearbox, remove 6 screws and lift the cover off. Notice how the brass bearings are aligned. They fit in a slot in the housing. It's easy to not get them in place. The brass bearings need to have one of the points pointing straight up. This is VERY important. Many people destroy these after taking them apart, and not getting the bearings back right will not allow the gear mesh to be right, and you WILL destroy the gears.

Here's my tip: (I did this after swapping out the wheelsets with traction tires for "solid" ones).

Get the axles pretty much in place. Align the bearings so they are centered in their slots on the sides of the motor block.

Try to get the points up on the end nearest the fuel tank. Now put something small under the motor block at this end, on each side. Something around 1/4" works. These will push the motor block up towards you and help seat the axle and keep the bushing from rotating. Look VERY carefully to see the bushing is in the right place. When properly placed, it will have very little play in either direction.

Now do the same thing to the next axle away from the fuel tank. Once you have all 4 bushings in place, the 4 shims under the truck will keep the bushings from coming loose when you put the cover on.

Put the cover on very carefully, and put the screws in gently, so you do not disturb anything. As usual, make sure you find the original threads, and I lube the screws with Armorall to keep the plastic from wearing out.

DCC

If you buy some JST 2 pin connectors, you can just unplug the trucks from the main board. The connectors with 4 wires are track pickups, and the connectors with only 2 wires are the motors.

I'll describe the polarities, but you SHOULD ALWAYS check the track pickups with a meter.

Rear truck right rail is black, left rail is red.
Front truck right rail is red, left rail is black.
Rear truck motor + is black, motor - is red
Front truck motor + is red, motor - is black

Tips and modifications:

Couplers:

The Kadee site does not even list a conversion, and when you try, you will have to use the large offset ones. See the section on couplers below.

Wheels:

Many people have replaced the traction tire wheels with solid wheels and removed the sliders. (replace the R22-519 with R22-518) I have done this on all my F units, and it reduces cracked axles and increases pickup, so you can do without the unsightly sliders. This does reduce traction a bit, but these locos were designed to MU, and an ABBA combo looks great.

R22-518 Metal Wheels With Gears (2) (for center axle of the 3 axles)

R22-519 Traction Wheels W/Gears (2) (for the "inner" axle comes with traction tires - axle closest to the fuel tank)

R22-520 Metal Wheels With Gears (2) (for the separate/outer "floppy" gearbox/axle)

Swiveling/floppy axle problems:

This is the typical 3 axle USAT motor block with the 3rd "floppy" axle, with the attendant issues. They CAN be solved, see the floppy axle section below. Almost all 3 axle locos will suffer problems out of the box, that lubrication will normally solve. See the "floppy axle" section below.

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