Beeps! Man, what's the deal with these!

[msacco]

Okay,

I've had a Milwaukee Beep for a couple of years now. I got it when they first came out. It ran so badly on my 031 curves and 022 switches that I just put it away and didn't want to deal with it anymore.

   I just took it out thinking of giving it to my 5 year old nephew for Christmas. I put it on my layout and it all came back to me. I know this thing is cheap but it's a real loser!!!. It stalls going through my switches both postwar 022 and modern. It derails the car its pulling around 031 curves every time.

 It's easy to want to dismiss these things because of the price and detail, but come on, it runs very poorly on the most basic of track systems.

    Now, I have heard that some of these things were addressed in later issues. Is there anything I can do with this thing now to make it run better? I know many folks are high on these things but I'm not right now. My nephew has 027 curves so I'm thinking there's no hope.

   Mike S.

[jimhaleyscomet]

How about carefully opening the coupling opening on front and back to reduce derailing problem, then run it on a layout without switches.  If  a layout has to have switches run that beep faster (with a kid this should be no problem).  Alternatively you can add a wired car following the beep with an extra set of pickups. 

Jim H

[Anonymous]

I have about 10 or so BEEPS, ranging from the very earliest ones (even before they were named BEEPs) to the most recent versions.

The earliest models had a problem with O27 curves because the coupler wouldn't swing far enough laterally to allow the locomotive to negotiate those curves without derailing the front truck of the car immediately behind the locomotive.  There's an easy fix for that, which requires just a bit of cutting of the area of the pilot immediately adjacent to the coupler pocket to allow for a wider swing of the coupler arm.

This problem was identified early-on, and was corrected in manufacturing in subsequent issues, which includes all the BEEPs currently produced.

As for switches:  At various times, I've operated my BEEPs on Lionel Fastrack and switches, Lionel O27 track and switches, MTH RealTrax track and switches, and Atlas O gauge track and switches.  I have had no problems with these locomotives--even operating as single units--negotiating these switches from any direction. No hesitating an no stalling, at least in my experience.  In fact, as I write this, there's a B&O BEEP pulling a log train on the O gauge pike in the next room, and it's regularly going through a total of four Atlas O switches--sometines on a straight route and sometimes on the diverging route--as it makes its rounds.  Hasn't stalled yet.

I haven't used Lionel's O gauge switches in years, and have no experience with operating BEEPs over those switches.  Ditto for Ross, Curtis, or Gargraves.

I rate the BEEPs as one of my favorite small locomotives.  Affordable, nicely detailed, available in a full spectrum of roadnames, and reliable.  At around $50 or so, I'll never complain even if one or more of them does go belly-up.  I'll just snap off the shell and stick it on another chassis.  Definitely one of the best bargains in O gauge motive power, as long as one isn't a rivet counter.

[poppyl]

Suggestions about the derailing issue -- check the play on the coupler swing arm to make sure that it isn't getting hung up on a piece of the body as it moves back and forth and add some weight to the car the BEEP is pulling.

For the switch hangup, flip the BEEP over, turn off the e unit and run the loco at 16 volts.  This should lessen the problem although it will only be operating in forward.

 

Poppyl

[daan]

To me it sounds like a loose wire on one of the pickups. The way your beep is reacting could be the result of one pick-up roller not working.. Postwar Lionel locomotives also had pickup rollers on only one truck, about 3 inches apart and I've never seen them stalling.

Also, you could have a problem when running on atlas, gargraves or any track with seperate ground rails when the two outer ground rails are not wired together. The Beep has a traction tire, so if you only have one of the two tracks as ground and run the engine with the traction tire on the ground rail, there is only 1 wheel making ground. As I can recall from my earlier day's with h0, wheels are a very bad thing to rely on for conduction, since a bit of loose dust already brakes the contact and the engine stalls. On classic tubular the ground rails are connected through the steel ties, so then you have 3 wheels making contact..

Another reason is gum on the wheels. I've had one postwar passenger car with very flickering lights. It came because of a huge buildup of rubbergum from tractiontire's on the wheels. A lot of manufacturers use tractiontires on both sides of the trucks, that's because it keeps the locomotive straight when pulling, but when you go through a curve, the inside or outside tractiontire needs to slip in order to follow the track. That slipping leaves a residue of sticky rubber on the tracks and that sticks to the wheels after a time.

Before regarding the small engine as trash, try to tinker with it a bit, it could be due to one of the problems I mentionned above..