Thanks for the information. It is a great train. I was able to pick up two additional cars and it's almost 10 feet long with them added on. I sent the train out a while ago for repair and it was done quickly at a reasonable price. I removed one of the power trucks and put a dummy in. We are running it on a straight and level autoreversing point to point and the two power trucks were causing problems with the autoreverse. One power truck is enough to keep it going. Since I originally posted this I realized that there was no weight over the power truck. I moved the weight, which is substantial, from the idling truck to the other end over the powered truck and my traction problems have gone away.
You have a great little train there, be it the LCE or the LCE III. Your problem sounds very similar to what I went through a few months ago. The problem was in the pickup shoes. At first glance evrything looked fine but as I looked closer with my magnifying glass, I noticed the spring was melted into the case and not allowing proper contact at all times. When I went to replace the pickup shoes I also found a damaged wire on the same side. $12.00 and a couple hours later we're up and running as if it were new! Since then I've added another drive block and designed & installed my own directional lighting! Hope this helps you.
http://our-garden-railroad.homestead.com/index.html
Connecticut. I updated my profile to reflect my location. Thanks for pointing that omission out.
Jon
One more thing. Your Bio does not tell us where you are. If you were to let us know where you are there might be someone near you that knows of a local repair shop that they trust. It sounds to me that it does indeed need a preventative maintence service.
Tom Trigg
The train either in originally came with a motor in each locomotive at each end or the previous owner added a motor to one of the locomotives. Regardless, one drive truck was completely seized and showed signs of melting on the wheels. I pulled that truck out an replaced it with one in the set that was a metallic wheeled truck, but was not powered. Whenever I start the train in the morning it runs very choppy. After a brief warmup it runs better through the rest of the day. This train runs at my job on a point to point reversing run of 120 feet that is straight and level. The track is elevated 8ft in the air and can run about 8 hours a day 5 or 6 days a week. With it autoreversing and the length of time it runs daily, I want to make sure it is in good running condition before it has a real breakdown.
I will definitely look into the "O" ring. Thanks for your help.
Jon:
You question #2 is well asked, I have had problems with ill fitting tires, (on other engines) simply getting the next size smaller worked for me. In my case I took the tire to an auto parts shop and got an "O ring" of the size I needed and it worked quite well, and much cheaper too. Now for your question #1, many times a poor running engine is just a mater of a quick clean or very easy quick fix. If you provide a better description of what is happening I'm sure someone can give a quick fix or confirm that it indeed does need to be rebuilt.
I have an LGB LCE high speed train. It is not running very well and I would like to have is serviced. Does anyone know a place where I can have it looked at and repaired?
2nd question for the same train. I purchased traction tires for the same train from Silvergate. They definitely help it run, but seem to come off after a while which causes the drive wheels to slip. Is there a way to get the tires to stay on other than the elasticity of the tires?
I run the train on a straight and level track so that should not be contributing to the problem.
Thanks for any help.
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