Fixing Old Locos

After I got the spare parts for the PIKO BR 01.5, and saw that the parts actually fit, I now turned to a couple of old locos that had problems. This were 2 BR 110, both produced in the '80s - a red one and a blue one. The red one worked perfect for a while, unfortunately started exhibit strange symptoms: the motor would start making a buzzing sound (like friction) and the power was gone, as the engine was barely advancing. Seeing this, the guy who bought the whole collection of PIKO trains as I was a kid, namely my father, decide to buy another loco, of the same type, thinking that this particular loco had somehow developed a problem. So when he went back again to Germany (this were the '80s - e-commerce did not exist, and because Romania, the country I lived in, was still communist at the time, this meant going to Germany to get some good rolling stock - East Germany that is, since it shared the same ideas about communism as Romania - West Germany was out of the question), the model chosen was a blue one. Unfortunately after a while, the same symptoms were also experienced by this loco. Since any lack of lubriant was out of the question, since the locos were well maintained, something was clearly wrong with the engine for the whole series. Various tests were done with the motor in this blue loco (the reason the roof top is missing in the photo on the left, taken in april 2010), but no solution was found.

Because of the newly found funds for my hobby, I turned to PIKO, in pursuit of a new engine for this locos, or some other solution that could fix my problems. Learning from the past, where no reply came to my english inquiries, I used google translate to send german text stating my troubles. The reply was quick, and PIKO said that they weren't the ones who manufactured the loco, but instead a company named Gutzold produces this loco, PIKO being responsable only with the packaging under the PIKO trademark. I also remembered I had a different model of loco - BR 120 - that was also experimenting the buzzing sound, and looking through the locos produced by Gutzold, I found all 3 problematic locos on their site. I contacted Gutzold, with the same 'google translate' method - and the short reply was that the engines for this locos has reached the end-of-life.

So right now there is no solution in site for restoring this locos to working order.Gutzold still produces the BR 120, although it uses another model number (Lok 120), and the technology has been updated - DCC decoder inside and for some models even a sound module. You can find more details on their website http://www.guetzold.de/. Unfortunately they are no longer selling the BR 110.

The future is uncertain for the 3 existing locos. Some plastic gears attached to the motor wheels cracked on both BR 110 models, and replacements are no longer possible, although a company exists in my own town that does perfect replicas of different gear cogs. I am determined to get both a BR 110 and a BR 120 in the future. The BR 120 produced by Gutzold is 150 EUR (250 EUR with sound). I found that Roco also produces the model, at 165 EUR, and so does Tillig, at 115 EUR. For the BR 110, Brawa does the BR 114, at 250 EUR, including the sound decoder.

But right now I am determined to build the layout and spend some in this direction, rather than just buying rolling stock and having nowhere to use them, as it happened before.