This is a marklin 8895. They graciously sacrifice their mechanism for this gruesome experiment. For those of you leery of slamming down the clams for something that you may ruin, consider this. You can buy two of these, ruin the first one, succeed with the second, and still have an engine for less than the going price of an ready to run (RTR) loco. And look at what you learn along the way. Besides, if I can do this, you can do it too.

The first step in the process is to remove the shell from the Marklin mechanism. On the model 8895 that I used in the conversion, removing the shell is done by pushing in a small tab and gently lifting the shell from the chassis. The tab is just inside the horizontal slot under the numbers on the back of the loco. You can use a small screwdriver to push in the tab.

To remove the chassis from the newer models of the 8895 you just have to push back a plastic latch that is located just behind the pilot. Obviously you have to move the leading truck to the side in order to get to the latch. Once the latch is pushed back the chassis can be pulled out without much effort. By the way, while these mechanisms appear to be quite delicate, I am amazed at how much man handling you can get away with.

Congratulations, you have taken your first step to completing your Gold Rush kit. Now that wasn't that bad, was it? Now is a good time to really look over the innards of this beast. It will pay off in the long run.

The next step is pretty much a piece of cake. You need to remove the light from the front of the mechanism and toss it in your "I'll maybe use this later" box because you won't need to put it back. I've got to figure out what to do with it.

At this point the cylinders and the valve gear rods on the front of the mechanism need to be removed. At first this was a bit daunting to a neophyte (pronounced idiot) like myself. Tom Knapp was nice enough to tell me the secret but made me promise not to tell. Sorry Tom. The cylinders sort of clip on to the front of the frame by means of small tabs on the bottom of each cylinder. Just spread the cylinders outward from the frame and they pop right off. Just like that. Now is also a good time to remove the leading truck so it's out of the way during the surgery. Just remove the front screw that holds the drive wheels in place, gently lift the cover, pull the truck out, and then replace the screw.

This is the plastic cylinder part and the value gear pieces. Do what you will with them as you won't be needing them. To be honest though, I have seen Nn3 Moguls with the value gears replaced so you might want to hold them for awhile.

From here there are two schools of thought as to how to proceed. One option is to wrap the whole works with the exception of the front of the frame. I tried this but was constantly concerned about messing up the brushes and the side rods. Besides, I didn't like the sticky stuff left on the mech by the tape I used to wrap it. I decided to take the other route which is to remove the side rods and the brushes. Just take the front brushes that held the light out first. The motor brushes just come out. The capacitor that is held by the front brushes will also pop out. As for the side rods, just use a needle nose pliers and gently pull out the crank pins on each driver.

It's time to give your Marklin a new nose job. I used a regular steel file and alot of elbow grease to file down the frame. All I've got to say is be careful that you file off the right amount. And remember, you're better off filing off too little as too much. I'll tell you all about this later. Also, be careful with all of the metal shavings that you create. You don't want to get any in the motor.

This picture shows the side view of the altered mechanism. Constantly check to see if you've filed away enough of the length of the frame. If you don't file the frame short enough the leading truck could have problems swiveling. I'll talk about this later.

This picture shows the front view of the altered mechanism. Always check the altered frame by trying to fit the Gold Rush cylinders to the frame.

Here you can see a comparison between a new 8895 and the one that you just altered. Just wait till you start slapping those white metal parts on to it.

OK, now where did you put those brushes? Now is a good time to put them back in and test things out. Putting the brushes back in is much easier than you would think. You can start by putting the front brushes on first. The hook on the one end of the brush goes around the front of the plastic piece that rests on the frame. The bent end will go to the inside of one of the pins that are just behind the big post. Done? Putting the back brushes in is a little trickier. You put the contact end of the brush in toward the motor post then lower the brush so that it is just to the inside of the V shaped contact post. Then, bend the back brush slightly so that it clears the front brush and there you go. The capacitor can be put in by spreading the front brushes at the point where they touch(at the pins) with a screwdriver and inserting it from the engine end.

Before you take one more step, put that leading truck back in it's rightful position. But wait, bob the front hook off first. If you don't, the pilot and cylinder casting won't fit properly. I just nipped my little hook off with a rail nipper. This is one of those little things that is omitted from the instructions. My guess is that they assume that this is obvious.

This picture shows the first step in the next part of the journey. I've now attached the combination cylinder and pilot castings to the front of the mech. Now if you've been reading along you already know that I mentioned the telling of some stories about filing. Here goes. The first pass at this left some rather unsatisfactory results. After glueing the casting to the frame, I tested the loco on some track and noticed that the leading truck would not navigate any corners. This happened for two reasons. The first reason was that I didn't remove enough of the frame towards the engine. This caused the cylinders on the casting to be to forward thereby preventing the leading truck from swiveling any great amount. So I removed more of the frame to get the cylinders out of the way. The second problem was that the newly filed nosejob was too low. This caused the casting to sit between the flanges of the leading truck wheels. This problem was fixed by putting brass shims between the casting and the frame. Now everything seems to be running just fine, corners and all.