Newbie question -- the Lionel Speeder that won't...

[Anonymous]

Well my son and I are enjoying his new Lionel train set. Six visits to the hobby shop, a dozen Ebay purchases and a number of evenings with an 11 year old changing his mind about how he wants his layout has been great fun.

But,

Our little Lionel CN Speeder is not working out well. We have a Fastrack layout with half a dozen switches, a couple of operating tracks and a few spurs blocked with seperate circuits (not bad for new guy only having it since Christmas). But we cannot get the Speeder to keep going. It is so short, that whenever it hits a part of the track that seems to get a little less juice, unless it is going full speed, it stops. For example, a 5 inch uncoupler stops it 3/4 of the time.

Is this normal?

I made a simple loop with 8 curves and two straights and it will make five or six revolutions of the track and then stop -- always in the same place. But our other engines run fine. Aargh.

What should I do? Return the speeder? Run leads to every section of track (please say no to this one)?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Jim

[dbaker48]

Jim,
We purchased a speeder last week. It is running on a small loop. We havn't had any problems at all. It just runs, runs, and runs, it make you dizzy. A couple of things we have going on that could be giving us different results;
Remember that with such a short wheelbase that any space on the track where it losses power may cause it to slip to neutral. (The e-unit causes it to run forward--neutral--reverse--neutral--forward, so if it looses power it may slip into neutral)
Also we secured our fastrack down to some plywood covered with indoor carpet with #6 dry wall screws 1" long. Hope the above helps

Don

[Anonymous]

When it stops, turn off the power and tilt the speeder over to look where the pickup rollers are positioned on the track. Check for any gaps in the track joints or a high or low spot in the track. I know those Fastrack uncouplers have a high spot at the magnet that may be pushing it up away from the track. If the speeder has only one pickup then there isn't much you could do except maybe add another pickup. If there are two then maybe the one that is not hitting the magnet on the uncoulper has a loose wire or not enough tension on the springs to push it down on the rail. If for some reason you are unlucky enough to have two pickups that are spaced just right to hit two dead spots at the same time maybe turning one around 90 degrees will change the spacing to one that will work.

[Chris F]

Hi, Jim! First of all, [#welcome]

Since you already into 3-rail trains in a big way (!), your next purchase should be a multimeter (volt-ohm meter). You should be able to find a decent one in the $25-30 range. I recommend digital, auto-ranging, and a continuity buzzer.

With a multimeter, you will be able to measure AC voltage at the tranformer and at various points on the tracks. If the voltage decreases the further you are from the transformer connection (to less than 8V), you may need a feeder wire. If the voltage changes from good to zero, there's a track connection problem. BTW, this would be a good opportunity to cover electrical theory with your son.

If the center rail pickups are too close, they might lose power when going over a switch or specialty track. However, you've already taken that extra step to test on a simple oval, eliminating that possibility.

If the track checks out okay, the problem is in the speeder. I suspect a cold solder joint is increasing resistance enough to decrease the voltage below that required for motor operation. You could use the multimeter to check for resistance from the pickups to the e-unit board, and from the motor to the wheels (should be essentially zero resistance). However, assuming the unit is still under warranty, you'd be better off having your dealer check it out.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all of the great input. I already have a digital VOM (strong background in electronics and computers) so I will test the AC voltage as suggested.

I also checked and when it stops, a slight forward tilt to force contact with the front roller (there are two) gets it going again from the exact some place, so it does seem to be something in the speeder interacting with some minor fluctuation in the track. I just made a circle with eight curves and have had it running continuously for 10 minutes without failing, so some small transition is apparently the problem. I will also check the resistance in the unit itself. The two rollers are only two inches apart, so one isolated track could cause a problem at slow speeds (or so it seems to me).

Now if we can just get this 456R coal ramp working... (I guess that is another post)

-- JimV