Hmmm...sounds like Walthers knew the problem fairly quickly...like yours' wasn't the first time this has come up..
This sounds like the same design that's also on the P1K GP15's. I had the same intermittent pickup problems with 2 of them, same truck on both.. Bending the strip cured it.
It has to be a very slight bend. Too much and you can make things a lot worse. It was difficult for me since I found the small strips kind of hard to access.
And I would caution against putting any type of lube or oil into the trucks, since it seems easy for any excess to find its way onto the strips.
Personally, I like the old Athearn design better.
- Douglas
I believe this design has been used for 4-5 years , it the 14-1 helical gears BUT every thing that is *new release * has this design....the older p2k had the athearn look alike with the cracken gear issue ...
visual difference is the bottom truck cover on the *new* is wider and goes almost flange to flange where as the older was half as wide and the bushings were exposed ,were talking 2 Axel truck here ...at least thats what I have been led to believe.. Jerry
Aha interesting. Glad you were able to fix it.
I have a brand new Proto GP60 in the box. Haven't had time to put it in service yet. But in case I have a similar problem, I'll try this fix first.
Why did they change the truck design? Is it a bad design?
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
*UPDATE* .....problem appears solved ,thanks to advise from walthers C.S. , the newer truck/gear towers have a small brass strip on each side that useing spring tension bears against the bearing/bushing axel block thus passing power , so just bye slightly bending this strip towards the bearing/bushing, power problem is gone ,(and I mean slight bend) simple fix .
thanks ...Jerry
Does this engine have wires running from both sides of the trucks for power pick up? My guess is that it should. I suspect that one or more of those wires is not connected.
Lee
hey there all , just a quick ? on the newest release of Walther's p2k GP20 w tsunami dcc,
Anybody pick one of these up AND note a less than acceptable power pick-up issues ?
I caught one of these in CB&Q on exxx, super cheap and have noted that this newest release,a very nice unit, is not up to snuff or expectations placed by prior p2k units as far as power pickup , I have least 20 p2k units in this chasie size gp7,9,18,20 and they are ALL sure footed and cross my dead frog turnouts with out skiping a beat .BUT this newest release exhibits some sound /power dropouts on some of my dead frog turnouts ?
I have removed the shell checking for loose connections ,and took apart & cleaned the the truck pickups /wheel/bearings hoping to fix , but still very weak or inconsistent power pick up.
It has the tsunami decoder and gone is the tee-pee duel speaker set up of the QSI releases, it has a soldered /shinkwrap connections to decoder, NO clips ,that I can see ,it has smleds on plastic pillars and the wheel/truck design of the p2k f-7 releases. I only see 1 flywheel, though it looks and runs very nice,
EXCEPT for the drop outs that appear to be on dead frogs of say #6/#8 atlas turnouts BUT in a lash up with older release p2k gp20 ,gp9 7s only this newer unit has power drop out....
Anyway anyone have or had this issue on these newer release GP-20s ?
as always , long winded ..Jerry