HO Steam Engine Slow Speed Stability

[Anonymous]

Has there been any progress in the last decade on achieving realistically slow steam engine speeds in HO? After watching some of Allen Keller's 'Great Model Railroad" videos, I noticed that ALL steam engines in HO scale still suffer from the jerks and twitches at slow speeds. This is annoying and there has got to be a way to slow these things down to realistic switching speeds without all the instability![V] If there isn't an existing solution for this, I think I will make that my retirement goal.

[joseph2]

My two best running steam locomotives are a Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 and a Athearn 2-8-2.Their low speed suits me,its the same as a Athearn diesel's low speed.Dummy couplers on the pilot are a pain though.

[cacole]

Most of the locomotives you see on those Allen Keller videos are older ones running on DC block control instead of newer locomotives running on DCC. I visited one of the layouts in Tucson, Arizona shown on an Allen Keller video that was being operated with a Model Rectifier power pack that was nearly 20 years old, and the owner wasn't too adept at speed control. Locomotives have improved drastically over the past couple of years, as manufacturers are beginning to use more realistic slow gearing instead of the older models that could go a scale 200 miles per hour. With a properly-programmed DCC decoder installed, I can make some of my locomotives creep so slowly that you can barely tell that they're moving, and there is no jackrabbit starting and stopping like you get with DC.

[Puckdropper]

The biggest single factor in new locomotives are flywheels. It makes a huge difference!

[tomwatkins]

I run Athearn light mikes, Spectrum Consolidations and light mountains, as well as some Stewart and P2K diesels. All are run on DCC. The steamers have excellent low speed performance, with the light mikes being particularly good. They all came stock with flywheels and gearing suited for low speeds and DCC helps a lot too.

[Anonymous]

I run Roco and Brawa locomotives, I have had no problem with their slow speeds.

[Anonymous]

I can run my P2K 0-6-0 with a MRC TechII 2400 (DC) and make it creep - more than 5 seconds from one tie to the next, without lurching or wobbling.

Andrew

[Anonymous]

Two things that I've found to cause instability in model steam engines are wheels that are not squarely fitted to their axles (or worse, wheels that aren't concentric...), and traction tyres - these can be OK when fitted properly, but I've had a few locos where the tyres are not properly bedded into the groove in the wheels. Apart from that, I suspect the choice of transformer/throttle is very important - I have a small 0-4-2 (Dapol GWR 14xx class for any other UK railway fans out there) Tank engine that will crawl very smoothly and quietly with no lurches or wobbles - I just need another autocoach to go with it! (these were driving trailers used on branch lines - same idea as modern commuter services with cab cars)