Add weight to my GP9 for traction....

[Boyd]

 My DM&IR one motor 8158. It comes to a stop climbing the 2% grade and curve with 10 scale cars behind it. I turned the engine around to long hood foreward and it pulled a bit better. How much weight? What do you use for weights? How do you mount it?

[fifedog]

Try A-LINE Sticky weights.  They have double sided tape,are slim, and will fit neatly inside the shell hood top.

[jjm]

I Googled it, but I could not find the A-Line weights.  Could you help with a source?  Thank you.

[LS1Heli]

First of all something isn't right here. You shouldn't be adding any weights to the engine. These have a powerful AC motor.

- Does the engine have both correct traction tires on? Are they the originals? If they are they should be replaced with new ones as they stretch.

- Has the motor been serviced? If it is ran on a regular basis have the brushes been replaced?

- This is an MPC engine that is designed to pull MPC lightweight cars with needle point bearings. Not postwar cars and not any other cars.

If this engine comes to a dead stop you got too many cars. Adding weights is only going to make the siutation worse. I never heard of an engine coming to a stop.

[trigtrax]

I added lead to an 8031 at one point. I removed the battery box and made a casting.. I'd guess it was about 3/4 lb. That did improve the pulling power but wore the traction tires out faster.

I also changed the power truck on my Amtrak Budd Car set to a postwar Geep type with magnatraction. The performance was greatly improved.

I'm not familiar with your engine but don't be afraid to experiment. There's very little chance you'll do any harm and you may just hit upon a fix.

[fifedog]

I Googled it, but I could not find the A-Line weights.  Could you help with a source?  Thank you.

See WALTHERS Catalog (A-Line flat weights).

[crip]

try your local auto parts store for wheel weights. I think they are called strip or mag wheel weights.
the napa part # is 7025

[sir james I]

The engine will pull better with motor in the rear, but 10 scale cars on flat level track is about  max  for that engine. Adding weight to make it climb with that load means replacement parts in your future. traction tires and plastic gears will break down at some point.

[ADCX Rob]

I Googled it, but I could not find the A-Line weights.  Could you help with a source?  Thank you.

Another method is to use Tape-A-Weight strips.  They are stick-on automotive wheel weights that are scored to break up as you desire:

 

Rob 

[Boyd]

1. Are the car wheel weights or any of the other weights made out of lead?

2. When it came to a stop was on a 48" Fastrack curve on the 2% grade. This engine does not have a lot of hours on it,, 50-100 tops. This engine did once pull all the cars I had on a flat straight back in the 80s. I think it was about 45 cars. Of which most were light MPC cars.

3. The tires on this engine have jumped off a few times under heavy load. I got some new tires when I ordered replacement truck parts for one of my NP GP7s.

4. What kind of glue was it that someone said worked really good to hold the tires on?         

[ChiefEagles]

I have weighted all of my earlier Lionel Geeps.  REmoved fuel tank and filled with fishing weights.  Getting the weight as low to center of gravity helps.  I like the idea of stick on wheel weights.  Fife's suggestion is great too.  I travel to Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's.  They both have lead bars for melting and making fishing weights.  I buy them and use them.  Weight will make the biggest difference in pulling power.  Over weight will not.  I just experimented to get my right balance. 

[fifedog]

That's the beauty of the A-line weights.  They snap off in sections, so you can add or delete weight on the engine until you have the right balance, then you can take off the shell and adhere them inside.  I used to use them all the time with HO engines, and the extra "balast" really did improve their tractive effort.  I would imagine, that reducing the amount of wheel slip would be easier on traction tires as well...

[bfskinner]

Boyd wrote the following post at 01-12-2008 1:30 AM:

1. Are the car wheel weights or any of the other weights made out of lead?

Certainly some of them are. To try to anticipate your next question: on any thing that I intend to allow young children to play with, after seeing that the application of weights results in proper tracking, I encase the weights within 5-minute epoxy, especially if the weights are out in the open, such as under a car. I also mark that lead is present on the car.  At my age, one never knows whose little hands the leaded  cars will end up in.

2. When it came to a stop was on a 48" Fastrack curve on the 2% grade. This engine does not have a lot of hours on it,, 50-100 tops. This engine did once pull all the cars I had on a flat straight back in the 80s. I think it was about 45 cars. Of which most were light MPC cars.

I'm a little unclear as to what's happening. If the motor is still able to turn the wheel, but the tires are slipping on the track, or inside the tires, that's one thing. If the loco still has good traction, but the forward motion just stalls, that means there is too much load on the motor.

3. The tires on this engine have jumped off a few times under heavy load. I got some new tires when I ordered replacement truck parts for one of my NP GP7s.

Sounds like the the old tires got burnished, or oiled up and softened, or the tires stretched out of shape and lost their grip, or a combination of these.

4. What kind of glue was it that someone said worked really good to hold the tires on? 

In thirty years of running locos with tires I havenn't even replace one due to age, much less had a failure, but I don't pull loads anywhere near the ones that your are.  Nor have I ever glued a tire on to the wheel. I don't permit jackrabbit starts or "emergency" stops, which are a particular problem with locos whose flywheel mass, if any, is too low to prevent the cars from pushing the loco when stopping; so I think you may be trying to do too much. From what I have read, however, certain locos are notorious for throwing tires. Some operators have adhered the tires with cyanoacrylate (good quality "Crazy Glue" types) or rubbery contact adesives that work by applying, letting dry to a non-liquid tacky state, and then attaching. Something similar to Walthers "Goo." I don't think it's the glue as much as applying it correctly that makes the difference,  by making sure that the metal wheels are totally free of oil and grease and that the adhesive is fresh and not lumpy. But remember, what gets glued on will eventually have to be scraped off!

I think a "search" of the archives might yield more specifics.

Hope this helps.

 

 

        

[ChiefEagles]

Have used rubber cement on them before.  Will hold them and yet easy to get off later.   Put thsi in your memory bank:  Dick Teal in his repairing of modern trains recommends using one size smaller in diameter [not width] tires to make them stay on better.  I find this really true for MTH engines. 

[ADCX Rob]

Boyd

1. Are the car wheel weights or any of the other weights made out of lead?

Not any more!