we restart every month so its only on page 18 today
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
rtraincollector That just seems how things go around here we start on one topic and end on another. Come into the coffee shop sometime and see how fast we change the topic in there lol
That just seems how things go around here we start on one topic and end on another. Come into the coffee shop sometime and see how fast we change the topic in there lol
I would but I don't want to read through.........how many pages is it up to now????? 40? 50? lol
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Penny Trains Good to know, thanks guys! Right now I have to spend my limited cash flow on clothes, (can't go another winter without a real coat!) so it will probably be spring before I play switcheroo with the electronics. Anyhoo, weren't we supposed to be talking about couplers??? lol ; ) Becky
Good to know, thanks guys!
Right now I have to spend my limited cash flow on clothes, (can't go another winter without a real coat!) so it will probably be spring before I play switcheroo with the electronics.
Anyhoo, weren't we supposed to be talking about couplers??? lol ; )
Becky
Becky if you decide to go to Williams boards which will just give you direction control there a few guys out here that can give you a lot better price than Williams will. Try Marty at http://www.mapajunction.com
Heres who I used recently now this is his home phone also as we work out of his house but he has a lot of williams parts. Just tell who answers you need some train parts and they will get you to him I forget his name as it was about 6 months ago I delt with him. He's about 1/4 less then buy direct from Bachmann.
Is this your company? Model Trains Outlet 5570 Chambers Hill Road Harrisburg, PA 17111-2507 Phone:(717) 564-8633
Is this your company?
This is what I have found to be true with MTH engines with PS-2, use an MTH transformer!!
I have a fairly large layout and run bunches of MTH locos and only use Lionel transformers. I have 4 Lionel 135 watt bricks running through the MTH TIU and never have had any problems. Through this set-up I run DCS, TMCC, and conventional locos with the MTH DCS controller, sometimes at the same time on the same mainlines.
Bill T.
I also like the modern Lionel trucks with the rotating roller bearing end caps and hidden uncoupling tabs. They look and perform better than any other type/brand of trucks I operate. I feel the die-cast trucks supplied with the old Industrial Rail cars are the worst trucks I have experience with. I have replaced all the Industrial Rail, plastic, and post war trucks on my equipment with Lionel roller bearing and die-cast friction bearing trucks. Everything is rolling along smoothly.
This is what I have found to be true with MTH engines with PS-2, use an MTH transformer!! I have three PS-2 engines. PS-2 hates the Lionel CW-80 with a passion (most likely the MRC as well), in other words the PS-2 engines act totally crazy with a CW-80. I would assume that the MRC transformer is giving you trouble with any MTH engine you have and not the MTH engines going bad on their own.
A possible option is to take the MTH boards out and replace them with Williams by Bachmann circuit boards, cost about $50.00 each to do this. You will have only direction control, go to www.bachmanntrains.com and click on Williams, then click on parts for O gauge.
I have a postwar ZW and two MTH Z-1000 transformers that I use with my MTH engines and the DCS control system.
I still have a small problem with a PS-1 engine, and that is I can not figure out how to open the coupler on the steam engine's tender. May have to take it to a hobby shop and have it reset to factory settings, as I replaced the battery in the tender and everything else seems to work properly. I have taken the tender apart and opened the coupler with a small transformer and two wires attached to the plug-in unit, so it works electrically.
Lee F.
phillyreading This is for Becky, the only problem I have heard of with the MTH engines is the older PS-1 that has the 9 volt battery. If you let the battery get too low on charge, you ruin the circuit board in the MTH engine when you run it. If you need to go buy a Williams by Bachmann circuit board to fix the problem. Or if you want to do this, take out the circuit board and install a bridge rectifier rated at 6 amps 50 volts or better, however you will lose direction control doing this. So far I have not had any problems with an MTH PS-2 engine other than a lighted caboose giving the real problem. Lee F.
This is for Becky, the only problem I have heard of with the MTH engines is the older PS-1 that has the 9 volt battery. If you let the battery get too low on charge, you ruin the circuit board in the MTH engine when you run it.
If you need to go buy a Williams by Bachmann circuit board to fix the problem. Or if you want to do this, take out the circuit board and install a bridge rectifier rated at 6 amps 50 volts or better, however you will lose direction control doing this.
So far I have not had any problems with an MTH PS-2 engine other than a lighted caboose giving the real problem.
I've been told that it's my transformer that PS engines don't like. It's an MRC Dual Power O27 270 watt. For some reason the electricity isn't "clean" enough and makes PS engines lose their minds. I've tried the reset chips, changing batteries, I've even had the boards hacked by engineers at Rockwell Systems Automation where a friend works but all to no avail. They're just dead. Since I don't want to re-invest in a whole new O.S. for my layout, and because replacement boards would just end up with the same problems down the road, I'm looking to replace everything PS and start over.
I do have one board that still works. It was from an 0-8-0 switcher with whistle, reverse and smoke. By detaching the whistle board and speaker, I can at least get a prescious few engines to move. But it only works on PS1 and early PS2 engines with the wide plug assembly on the tether. If I can find a way to clone that board, or buy a ready to run replacement, and keep just the neccessary functions like reverse and AC/DC conversion, I'd do it. But more likely I'm going to keep the original boards and continue trying to figure out which components to remove till I get down to those basics. I just don't have the money anymore to replace the brains of a dozen faulty engines.
I have had problems with the newer Lionel truck assemblies that have the center rail pickup for a lighted car on them, they short out at the center rail pickup and cause your command control engines to act like they have the problem.
The absolute best trucks I've used are the ones on the newer Lionel scale cars,.
Here's what I like about them:
1. They roll and track very, very nicely-as well as any I've used.
2. The detail on them is great-including the rotating bearing caps on the roller bearing trucks
3. The coupler design is great. It stays closed, and the hidden uncoupling tab is very unobtrusive.
4. Best of all, they close reliably every single time with just a very tiny bump. They're the only tinplate style coupler I've ever used that can reliably switched at low speeds fro this very reason.
The Atlas trucks are good, but to me Lionel's newer model trucks are in a class all of their own.
Atlas and Lionel. MTH has had a "popping" open problem so I put the rubber bands that are used for kids braces and retainers over them. They will still uncouple when wanted but will hold the strain of a long train.
God bless TCA 05-58541 Benefactor Member of the NRA, Member of the American Legion, Retired Boss Hog of Roseyville , KC&D Qualified
Nitro Man, the nicest trucks MDK K-Line made were the ones used on the Train-19 cars. They function flawlessly. There were ones made after that, which were marketed as replacement trucks for the Husky line of rolling stock. These had a hidden coupler tab.
On the original sprung die cast trucks used on the original K-Line Classic rolling stock, the armature is made from a slightly thicker and stiffer plastic than those on similar Lionel cars. Here's the trick to made these work better. Make sure the end of the plastic armature is securely push up into the die cast coupler arm assembly. Because of the stiffness of this piece, the whole thing comes loose when used over a UC track and this in turn caused accidental uncoupling.
If your train layout is in the basement or a cooler room, use a blow drier for a few seconds and warm up the plastic armature. With one finger holding in the end of the armature furthest away from the coupler, use another finger to gently but repeatedly bend down or flex the opposite end of the plastic armature closest to the coupler. You want to bend it down no more than a quarter of an inch... it is possible to break the plastic armature if you bend it too much, and these are a pain to fix on the sprung die cast trucks.
But this bending technique works and when I do this, there are no more problems.
When MDK K-Line first went to the all metal trucks first used on the Classic cars around 1995-6, the first runs had a metal pin on the armature that was too thick and yes, these cars have to be slammed to coupler. MDK K-Line later made a modification to this part. To fix the orignal ones, take a small jewelers file, and file down the inside of the coupler pin (the pin that goes up into the actual coupler from the armature). When I say inside, I mean the side of the pin closest to the wheels of the truck. Making this pin not as thick will improve coupling on these cars greatly so they work as they should have.
The K-Line plastic trucks are a mixed bag and vary greatly in quality from all periods of the original MDK K-Line. Some work great and others just don't. Replacing the K-Line knuckle with a Lionel made one will improve poorly working plastic K-Line trucks. Be forwarned, you will need the Lionel knuckle rivet also as the holes in the knuckles are different sizes.
I've been making these (and other) adjustments for years and when I'm done, I have no troubles with any of my train cars. I frequently read of this problem of cars coming uncoupled, but I very very seldom ever have that happen.
brianel, Agent 027
"Praise the Lord. I may not have everything I desire, but the Lord has come through for what I need."
i've had great luck with the mpc era couplers. the metal wheels roll great & thcouplers stay coupled. although i don't pull more than 20-25 cars. the k line plastic couplers are the worst for comming open. i've started putting small rubber bands on them to keep them closed. all the others with die cast trucks are just way to stiff, & the coupler has to go back further than another coupler is able to push them.
I had that happen with a K-Line diecast coupler. I am guessing that the truck assembly was dropped during assembly of the boxcar causing a hairline crack in the diecast frame. Over time the truck just snapped.
I had an MTH truck simply break apart on me for no reason. One minute I'm running the train the next minute, the one truck on a boxcar was broken apart.
George
MPC couplers can't handle a lot of weight due to their all plastic construction. They'll open up on the fly just as easily as the K-line's do. Neither one is very good in my opinion. There was a write up in a recent CTT Q and A on this phenomenon but I don't remember which issue.
Since Lionel invented the technology, and received the patent, it's only logical to assume that the post-war trucks would operate best. Lionel engineers were very practical, and worried about operational reliability rather than scale appearance. Not to mention their efforts to beat Flyer to the punch! If they had been worried about scale, the couplers wouldn't have been mounted on the trucks at all but on the car frame like in real life. But sharp radius curves trumped realism and the couplers stayed on the trucks. Otherwise they wouldn't have been able to make the longer cars like the 6464's or the Cali Zephyr aluminum passenger set. O31 and O27 were (and still are) the most popular so Lionel had to make the majority of it's equipment compatable with what most consumers wanted to buy.
Today I think manufacturers like MTH are trying too hard to re-invent the wheel. The springs in the MTH Rail King trucks are nice and all, but what use do they really have beyond competition with Lionel? Yeah, they're more realistic, but they don't improve the operation of the car. It's the same with the couplers. The farther they go in trying to add fiddly bits to make a dramatically out of scale coupler look better, the more stuff they end up putting in the way of it's operation. And I think MTH realizes this which is why they started installing Kadee pockets on the Premier cars. But that's where it should end. The RK cars are better than scout series post-war cars in terms of size and decoration, but they're still out of scale toys and operational issues should trump realism in that realm. However, since my layouts are small, I've never been able to run any train long enough to overpower an MTH coupler. So I really haven't had any issues in that realm.
I like the Atlas cars the most. Their Trainman line is excellent in all respects and I plan to keep on buying Atlas equipment for my RR. That doesn't mean I'll stop collecting post-war, MPC or even pre-war cars, but I have decided to stop collecting MTH engines. It's too much tech with too many problems in my book and I'm looking for ways to remove the electronics and get my dead engines off the shelf. I'm either going to make new ac/dc converter boards or I'm going DC. I'd rather have 2 transformers and DPDT's to throw than engines with fancy sound systems that don't work at all.
The best set of trucks I've seen yet is on a Flat car I have by K-Line before Lionel took them over. It was a flat that has 3 vettes on it on a flat surface I could just barely touch the car and it would roll about 4-5 feet. Rolled so nicely bet I could get a big lot of those behind the average low cost engine and they would go great. Fair weight to the car also. I sometimes wonder if they were not another companies truck they used like Bettendorf or something. Couplers work great also. these are metal trucks I bet there roller bearing type
I like the Atlas and MTH Premier couplers that have the air hose hanging down., just adds a little more realism. I have not had any problems with any of the couplers used over the 5 years or so. MPC era couplers really were lousy.
i've got several cars from k line, mth, williams, & lionel. the k line trucks just suck. they will come uncoupled on their own, even their sprung metal trucks don't work to good. they don't want to couple just by being backed into. they have to be slammed, then they usually still won't couple. wiliams are better, but very stiff. mth seem ok, but i think their over enginerred (much like the williams), & finally the lionel. they work like they should, & seem to be more free rolling than the others. to me the mpc & newer lionel trucks are what all others should be trying to be beat.
i don't understand why the k line trucks are so different, they are basicly a copy of lionel trucks, but don't work anywhere near as good. why? does anyone else have the same troubles?
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