Just Venting!!

[jmarksbery]

I am madder than an old wet hen. I laid some track and thought I would run my engines to see how that ran. All my steamers sucked. Not a one of them ran right (3) or at all. I mean "New, out of the box, never been on rail before, my pride and joys, custom decaled and all." Geeze, dern, holy ----, flabbergastlocomudder!!!!" Damn where my pills? All by the same company! My Alas deisels ran fine, but not these suckers, and I have 10, that's right TEN of the same companies deisels and I am afraid to even try them!!!! Quite an expense for STATIC DISPLAY don't you think? Where did I hide my Jack Danials? Not only do I feel like a dummy, but my trains are too! Live and learn you say? Well they can learn this, (*). OK, ok, I feel a little better now. Yeah, give me another beer! Thanks, Later, :cry: Jim

 

[Tyson Rayles]

Jim you mentioned the brand on the AMR forum, are they the Spectrums? Were you trying to run them on your micro layout? If so I don't think they can handle a radius smaller than about 10 inches. Most of em new out of the box need to be put on a oval with 12 inch radius and run for 10 or 15 minutes in forward then the same backwards, then lubed to break em' in IMHO. Pete (sumpter 250) had his 2-8-0 here and it ran O.K. on my mainline (12 min. radius) but on the branch (9.5 min. radius) it had problems. I would make a test loop with a 12 inch radius on a scrap piece of plywood or foam and break em' in some before giving up on them. Even broke in though it's doubtful IMHO you will get the low speed perfomance that you will get from the desiels. They are beautiful engines and can perform good out on the high iron, but branchline and yard duty are not their strong points, IMHO this applies to ALL n-scale steam.

 

[jmarksbery]

Thanks Ty, but they won't run on straight track, at 40 some a loco you would think they would do sumpin! hehe. Jim

 

[NYC-BKO]

You're allowed to vent, Jim, but something just doesn't seem right, I can't see where you got all lemons. I don't know 'N' but I hope it's just a glitch and everything will work out!

 

[brakie]

Jim,Dang! You most surely have a problem. Are your former P&Js picking up juice from the rail? What seems to be the problem?

 

[Tyson Rayles]

What the heck is a P&J???????????

 

[CN1]

What's wrong with them?

What scale?

What brand?

 

[brakie]

Tyson,That short for Pride and Joy(s).. We use that term a lot at the club.

 

[shaygetz]

How old are they "New in the Box"? You may have to disassemble and clean them as most lubes congeal into a wax like mess after a few years. Got a GG1 I'm working on right now, new in the box since 1984 that looks like a gremlin took and emptied his ear wax into the gearboxes. (Sigh) , it sure looks pretty on the shelf for the time being.

 

[jmarksbery]

Hi guys and thanks for the encouragement. I calmed down a little and things are better. I raised hell with Bachmann and I was told to (by Bach-mann) send them in and they would fix them. I said I wouldn't pay the postage of their junk. Well, thanks to Tyson, the first thing I did was to make me a test track, and then the fun began! The better running of the worst was the Prairie 2-6-2, so I started on it, totally took it apart and started from scratch. The motor seemed to run fine, next I cleaned the gears and lubed everthing with WD-40 ran the chassie and cleaned again and relubed with a lite oil and dabe of greese on the gears. Put on the track and ran wide open for an hour. Slowed it down then to a craw and let it run while I started on the 0-6-0. Well it need more as it would jump like a frog on the track. I messed with quartering the drives (geee) and got them working properly. Put it back on the track and it was so light when it hit a it would hop of the track. Tore it down again and studied the thing for a while. Went to the garage and started making weights out of lead wheel weights. A little machineing with drill and file, glued them in place, reassembled ,put on the track and ran that sucker as hard as it would go for about an hour, then slowed it down to a crawl. Hey, bingo, it worked fine. Then get this, I double headed the two and they worked together like a charm and at a snells pace. I am so proud of myself. Took me all day and it is 1:10 am here now but it was worth it, and as I type this they are still crawling around with eight weighted box cars and a caboose and doing great if I don't wear the out! Tomorrow, the Mikado, it keeps pulling the worm gear off the gear when you snug the screw that holds it to the weighted frame. Maybe some sloting of the hole to make an adjustment, I don't know. Already had ran my Atlas deisels and they did fine but got 10 more Live Like and Bachmanns to try and tweak. So, right now everything is coming up roses for now. Thanks guys, :sleeping: Jim

 

[hudsonelectric]

Good Morning, Jim...

Makes you wonder, doesn't it? I was in a brass dealer's showroom once talking to one of the staff. He was testing a new On3 D&RGW C-16 that someone paid $1,500.00 for. It was a replacement because the first one ordered wouldn't track right! If you get them from an on-line supplier, they need to be tested immediately. I'm at a loss because I'm a year away from building my layout. When I picked up my Broadway Limited Imports Erie 2-8-2, it was through a trusted on-line supplier that I've done a lot of business with, but they don't test run their locos when they get them in. I took it to a friend who tested it for me and it was okay. It would make life easier if the dealers would test them first, weed out the bad ones, and sell only the locos that have tested to be okay. My LHS has a test track and always tests the loco before you buy it. I also think they test them upon arrival, too.

Russ

 

[NYC-BKO]

Jim, I'm glad thing are working out, I know how frustrating it can be, sometimes I want to throw things against the wall when they don't work right. I've had things that just wouldn't work right till they were totally disassembled and put back together with some tweaking and then they run just fine. Go figure!! It's just alot work you weren't planning on but the end result is worth it.:thumb: