Four out of five of the Lowey style aluminum passenger cars with my K-Line PRR Torpedo set short breifly as the uncoupler tab passes over the frog on my Lionel #5165/66 turnouts. Although hardly detectable at higher speeds, I like to run em' slow. The tabs on the unaffected car look and operate no differently than the ones that spark'a'lot. I rarely run these cars because me and fragile aluminum models are not a good mix. The shorting only occurs in one wheelset of each of the four cars (why not both sets?). Not sure if there is any indepth customer support for K-Line anywhere/anymore. In the 15 volt range (in low lighting) you can actually watch blue arcs trail through the wheel assembly to the end of the coupler knuckle. Does anyone know why just the one wheelset of each car is affected? Also can't figure why one car with the exact same undercarriage as the problem cars can pass over the frogs without incident- even at a crawl. The inconsistencies don't make sense. From what I've read, even the more expensive prototypical turnouts have occasional shorting with certain styles/makes/lengths of cars and/or engines. There may not be a fix other than some sort of manipulation/mutilation which I don't think I'd want to do on these cars. I'm glad problems of this nature are few and far between for me!
Thanks,
Rich F.
Do all K-Line cars have this problem or is it only certain ones? Is the track Lionel Fastrac? I have read about some issues with Lionel's Fastrac and think that your problem may be more related to the track. Let me know what happens as I have some K-Line passenger cars.
What it sounds like to me is that the wheel sets are too low, maybe you can take some metal off by sanding the tabs a little or you can replace the truck assemblies with a more compatible one for your track.
Lee F.
There may not be a fix other than some sort of manipulation/mutilation which I don't think I'd want to do on these cars.
You could try a piece of black electrical tape on the trucks where the arcing occurs. Just look for the marks left from the sparks.
Neil
Bob Nelson
Hi Bob, sorry I don't know the correct terms but your guesses are right on. I also butchered Mr. Loewy's name! What I was calling a tab is the square thing (armature?) the electro-magnet would pull down toward the center rail to uncouple the car. I thought the frog was the center part of a switch that looks like an X, but as you suggested the armature is making contact with the center rail. Those tubular switches don't seem to afford to much clearance off the center rail. I sometimes have problems with the uncoupler armatures that look like a thumb tack. I picked up a set of Williams GG-1's tonight and spent a couple of hours shaving down the ? (if it were a steamer it would be the cow catcher). I probably need to change over from tubular track to something more prototypical. I like tubular because I can torture it up pretty good. I like to alternately overtighten track screws here and there for that branch line rock & roll effect, or like the main line trackage in the good old Penn Central days, which added another dimension of excitsment to train watching. Probably my biggest constraint would be the cost for new track and switches. I've got about ten sets of modern era tubular switches. I've broken a couple trying to fix compatability problems with regards to shorting out engines. Just to clarify, I do not twist up any track before or immediately after the turnouts. Everything is level and unstressed, after all, only Penn Central could get away with such voodoo! I'm pretty sure it's not the K-Line cars, it's the center rail height inherent with tubular turnouts, which by the way work flawlessly with about 95% of a large collection of steamers, diesels, and rolling stock that I run from a variety of manufacturers. I was hoping there might be an easy fix for this type of armature problem with regards to tubular switches.
Lee- I'm not using fastrack, just the old fashion O-gauge tubular switches, most being 072 modern era. I don't have any problems with any of my K-Line streamliners, and one of the aluminum cars. All my post war Lionel engines/rolling stock work great with these switches, as that is what they were designed for. Some modern stuff can't transition that pesky center rail. It's still odd that the K-Line wheelset including the coupler mechanisms seem to be designed very similar to Lionel as is K-Line tubular track, yet most of my K-Line aluminum cars short out. I tried Neil's electrical tape suggestion and it works! So if you ever need a short term fix with your K-Line equipment, reach for the tape! Otherwise, I'd look into as you suggested, swapping out the trucks.
Thanks everyone
Rich, I have found several (Lionel) passenger-car armatures with enough slack to allow them to droop and touch the center rail. You may find that you can adjust them. The Lionels can be adjusted by bending the corner between the inner and outer arms of the armature, part 485-20 in this diagram:
http://pictures.olsenstoy.com/cd/mistrk/mistrk10.pdf
In the Lionel case, I insert a screwdriver and push on the inner arm to make the outer arm protrude, then push on the outer arm with my thumb, to slightly reduce the angle at the corner just enough so that the outer arm comes up snug against the bottom of the truck when I remove the screwdriver.
You may be able to find a similar trick that works for your trucks.
Good timing Bob. I was doing some routine maintenance on my Lionel 8300 GG-1 tonight and noticed how tight against the truck the uncoupler armature was. The K-Line droop maybe a sixteenth at one side. Thanks for the info!
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