Well, I've been working out some of the kinks in my track, hoping that I can run trains again...but it ain't lookin' like I'm going to do that anytime soon...
I have three engines: a Bachmann 2-8-0 Consolidation, a Life-Like F2A, and a Tomix Thomas the Tank Engine.
A few months ago I made several modifications to the 2-8-0, including adding electrical pickup in the tender. It ran like a champ! It ran almost as smooth as the F2, and it was my best creeper. I put it in the box for a couple of weeks, took it back out again and it ran terrible--making a horrible clicking noise and wobbling when it ran any distance, but most often stalling every inch or two. I examined every square millimeter of the thing, including electrical connections and gearing. My determination was that the free-floating gears in the gearbox were jamming--I was actually able to observe this happening. So, I put the pieces away until I could figure out a solution.
Thomas was a great little switcher. He handled those Atlas turnouts very well (considering that he's an 0-6-0), and was a decent little puller despite his size. But he started having problems, too. It started with what appeared at first to be electrical contact problems. I thought that the solution was to somehow add more weight, because I could gently press down on him and he'd continue on for a while. His performance got so bad that I decided to take him apart and examine his works. It turns out that his back wheels get out of sync somehow and put too much tension on one of the drive rods, thus jamming the mechanism. I fiddled with it for several hours this evening, but couldn't make it stay in sync.
And to top things off, my F2 won't run worth a hoot. It has never had problems negotiating the turnouts, and ran smooth and quiet. Now it appears to be suffering from the same symptoms as the other two engines--frequent stalls. I took it apart and could find nothing wrong with it. The problem appears to be electrical, because when it stalls, the light goes off. If I push it a little bit, it will continue down the track for a while before stalling again. It hesitates over turnouts, too...which seems to indicate a contact problem somewhere (or an open circuit).
All of the engines have been cleaned (including the wheels), and I've examined and removed any flash from the gears.
I'm all out of ideas. Anyone had any similar problems? Any had these things happen to their entire fleet?
Sorry for the long post!
-Rory
I have three engines: a Bachmann 2-8-0 Consolidation, a Life-Like F2A, and a Tomix Thomas the Tank Engine.
A few months ago I made several modifications to the 2-8-0, including adding electrical pickup in the tender. It ran like a champ! It ran almost as smooth as the F2, and it was my best creeper. I put it in the box for a couple of weeks, took it back out again and it ran terrible--making a horrible clicking noise and wobbling when it ran any distance, but most often stalling every inch or two. I examined every square millimeter of the thing, including electrical connections and gearing. My determination was that the free-floating gears in the gearbox were jamming--I was actually able to observe this happening. So, I put the pieces away until I could figure out a solution.
Thomas was a great little switcher. He handled those Atlas turnouts very well (considering that he's an 0-6-0), and was a decent little puller despite his size. But he started having problems, too. It started with what appeared at first to be electrical contact problems. I thought that the solution was to somehow add more weight, because I could gently press down on him and he'd continue on for a while. His performance got so bad that I decided to take him apart and examine his works. It turns out that his back wheels get out of sync somehow and put too much tension on one of the drive rods, thus jamming the mechanism. I fiddled with it for several hours this evening, but couldn't make it stay in sync.
And to top things off, my F2 won't run worth a hoot. It has never had problems negotiating the turnouts, and ran smooth and quiet. Now it appears to be suffering from the same symptoms as the other two engines--frequent stalls. I took it apart and could find nothing wrong with it. The problem appears to be electrical, because when it stalls, the light goes off. If I push it a little bit, it will continue down the track for a while before stalling again. It hesitates over turnouts, too...which seems to indicate a contact problem somewhere (or an open circuit).
All of the engines have been cleaned (including the wheels), and I've examined and removed any flash from the gears.
I'm all out of ideas. Anyone had any similar problems? Any had these things happen to their entire fleet?
Sorry for the long post!
-Rory
