I was just curious if this was something anyone else experienced when I wrote the post. Being that my hobo hand car was the first one I owned it does the same thing. Yes the elves do get beat pretty good into the floor of the hand car. After I got my xmas layout cleaned and dissassemled, I pulled it from the wall and cleaned the track and both hand cars ran fine. Even the hobo car ran perfect for the first time since I bought it I got some fastrack that is well used and they have trouble on them but on the layut I also run wire taps to different sections to keep power consistant and perform well on the layout after cleaning the track. I really don't have a problem with the elves at slow speed getting stuck and causing it to stop. Track seems to help these a lot and if you have poor conducting track they are very erratic in operation. I also ran both for an hour with no load for break in. I taped the elves so they did not interfer with operation.
Personally I think the PE handcar should have been designed so the elves did not hit on the down stroke of the operation
Great! I hope it works for you as well as it did for me. I also DID add a little spritz of silicone to the floor and I think it works pretty good. I can run it now without the elves doing somersaults and without the jerky movement of the car due to their feet jambing onto the floor. Who knows how long the silicone will last with the constant rubbing of the elves. Well... how long do you run the hand car anyway?? Too bad the elves didn't have articulated limbs like the other Polar Express people do. Right now, this train set (which was new this past Christmas) was just run under our tree. I do have a 4X8 platform from earlier HO days that I will set it up on now. Possibly I will run a seperate track and transformer to run the hand car....
Jim
BTW, the hobo cart also seems to have issues with its figures that makes it run jerkily - the slide pick-up doesn't help either. Mine are cleverly connected to the cart by hooking the figure into it. And if not quite right, the motor isn't strong enough to push them 'up'. I'm going to try disconnecting them.
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
I tried your idea! Thanks ........
Hi Chris, I thought of that... but the more I looked at the hand pump when it was down, them more I thought that their feet would hit the "back" of the handle area where in the picture the elves back is hitting... and if the feet are extended... then I think I would run into the same problem. However, after I had let the elves sit in the position of being cramped up like in the photo, they seem to run fine now. I may try just a "spritz" of silicone on a cotton swab and smear that onto the floor of the car. I just think it is a rubber vs plastic and the elves are rubber and they seem to stick to the floor. Just as your sneaks do when you walk on a gym floor... so if they are a bit slippery... then they really should slide very well. I will post back here again after I try that.
Welcome Jim!
Can you take the two elves off the handle and reverse them so that their backs are facing the end of the car instead of the center (so their feet face the center of the car)?
Maybe it would prevent everything from hanging up against the center of the car?
Chris
From a previous post with a link shown below...
riverrailfan wrote:.......Is it just me or are hand cars that finicky to run. I have a hobo hand car and I just picked up the PE hand car. You have to run them at full power to just get them around the whole layout with out stalling and at that they are jerky. .......I would like the PE hand car to crawl alittle as the little elves are doing hand stands on the hand bar at the speed you need to run it to keep it going.
.......Is it just me or are hand cars that finicky to run. I have a hobo hand car and I just picked up the PE hand car. You have to run them at full power to just get them around the whole layout with out stalling and at that they are jerky.
.......I would like the PE hand car to crawl alittle as the little elves are doing hand stands on the hand bar at the speed you need to run it to keep it going.
Hello, I want to say hello, am just putting up my first post here and I have/had a slight problem with my Polar Express Elf Hand Pump car. I would have to run it at very high speed in order to get the car around the track. I also wanted to start a "new" post about the POLAR EXPRESS Hand Pump cars and not reply to this one as I thought my problem my get lost in the older post from this topic and get replys saying motor problems:
http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/982118/ShowPost.aspx
I think I found the problem with it... I believe the elves are at fault. I tried to make my car go slow, and it would stop or run "jerky", and then you can see the elves feet get "stuck" on the floor, then, PING, they cut loose and then the car starts to move just for them to get stuck again as their feet come back to the floor. I taped up one the elves in the front for a test, and lo and behold the car ran slow and smooth. As you can see in the pictures the elves are "squished" and this is what they look like just before they cut loose and the car moves. Also, as a test, I had the car go slow and as soon as it "stopped" I pushed the one elf away and bam, the car moved. I do not believe it is a motor problem with these cars. Just a "rubber" elf that sticks to the floor. To fix it?? well... I tried to leave the elves sit in the "squished" position hopin that they will take that shape. After they sat in that position for a few minutes, the car ran problem free and SLOW too. I think I may put just a "smear" of slicone on the bottom of the feet, OR, just a "smear" on the floor if it keeps occuring.
Ideas?? Thoughts??
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