Manufacturer:
Omnicon Scale Models
Product Category:
Locomotive
Model Name:
Steam
Notes Type:
Product Upgrade
Title:
Gearbox
External Web Link:
External Web Link:
Notes:
The Omnicon brass steam locomotives that were manufactured by Samhongsa out of Korea, have a gearbox that runs fantastic. The problem is, it doesn't last very long. Once the gearbox fails, that's it; you have a nice display model. Both companies are long out of business, so spare parts are not available.
Brian Jackson, via his company Jackson-Standard, has created a replacement gearbox. Brian states that these each take at least 2-1/2 hours to machine for just the gearbox halves. Since these are very time-consuming to produce, Brian only made an initial run of 100 of these gearboxes, and they are getting close to selling out. He has indicated that when they are sold out, he will only consider doing another run if he can get at least 25 firm commitments.
The Omnicon models that are affected are the PRR K4 (4-6-2), PRR L1 (2-8-0), PRR I1 (2-10-0), and NYC Mohawk (4-8-2).
Here is a more complete picture of the motor and gearbox assembly. Please ignore the bolt in the gearbox (on the right), as that was Bill working on trying to prevent the free-rolling feature from working. The photo does, however, give you a good view of what the assembly looks like, should you decide to open your model up.