Tower 55 ES44AC?

[jphendren]

Hello, I am new here and this is my first post. I recently purchased a Tower 55 ES44AC off of ebay; the seller stated new in the box. The locomotive arrived on last Thursday I believe. Anyways this locomotive looks great, and is very nicely detailed. However when I put it on my Kato Unitrack oval and run it in DCC the motor was somewhat noisy, at least much noisier than the motor in my Athearn Genesis #844 steam engine. This is only my second locomotive, after the Athearn #844, so I am not sure if this is normal. The other thing I noticed is that it jerks and jumps, and is not very smooth when running. Sometimes it will just stop and you can still hear the motor running but the train is going nowhere. I have tried playing with the CV's, that really does make much difference. While I'm not completely sure, it sure seems as if this locomotive may have drive/gear problems. When you flip the locomotive over and try to turn the front wheels, they only move a tiny bit and stop. However the rear wheels do turn, is this normal? Is it even possible to get drivetrain parts for T55's any longer? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Jared

[cacole]

The Tower 55 models were made by Ajin Precision of Korea and were imported by Overland Models.  Jerky and noisy operation is definitely NOT normal for one of them.  I have two and they are extremely quiet, smooth runners.

It sounds like you need to lubricate the model and the decoder may need to be reset to factory defaults and be reprogrammed.  The decoder is a Digitrax Sound FX.  I ripped that decoder out and put Quantum Revolution sound in both of mine because I did not like the sound, but the motor control was very smooth with the Digtrax decoder (and is even better with the Quantum).

Other things to check:

Clean the wheels and track.
Check electrical pickup connections at the trucks and decoder.  If the decoder uses the plastic clips to hold the wires in place, remove them and solder the connections.
Make sure your controller is set to 28/128 speed steps.
Turn off DC operation in the decoder by reprogramming CV 29.

 

[jphendren]

Should the rear wheels be able to be turned with your fingers? The front wheels do not. They move very slightly, and then stop. The rear six wheels can be turned with your finger. Also, at speeds of half or less, the motor does not make much noise. At speeds over 3 the motor noise is very noticeable; the motor sounds like a small turbine. UPDATE: I just removed the shell and took a look. When I spin the front flywheel with my finger, the little drive shaft spins as well as the front six wheels. Everything appears normal in the front end. However the rear end has issues. The rear drive shaft also spins along with the "Tower Top Gear." The rear wheels do nothing, they just sit there. So I am thinking that either the "idler gear," or the traction gears are damaged. Can these still be purchased? Also, how do you get into the rear gear box to look at them? Jared

[CottonBelt05]

 No they should not turn in that manner.

I have a friend's T55 ES44DC on my workbench right now with the identical problem. The problem is that the worm gear is split on the shaft. Thus the shaft turns with the motor, but with weight on the truck, the gear will just sit still while the shaft spins inside it. I'm trying to figure out if there are parts available for the T55 drives, or if there is an appropriate NWSL gear to use.

[7j43k]

Since T55 was an offshoot of Overland Models, I'd suggest contacting Brian Marsh at Overland. I think Ajin was supposed to have been the manufacturer of the drive, so parts really should be available--especially as this seems to be a manufacturer's defect.

Ed

[jphendren]

I contacted Brian at Overland Models, while he did not completely blow me off, he indicated that he had no interest in talking to me about the issue. I would not contact Overland again regarding T55 as it seems that they have washed their hands of it. " I think Ajin was supposed to have been the manufacturer" Yes, the box that the loco came in states "Made in Korea by Ajin Precision." Maybe they have parts for these? I also noticed that the motor is not secured to the chassis, is that normal? It is just sitting on the chassis by gravity, you can lift if up. Jared P.S. Why do all of my post get squeezed into one huge paragraph on here?

[StillGrande]

None of that sounds normal and the locomotive does not sound like it was "new in box".  I have several of them and none have had any of the problems you describe. 

[Darth Santa Fe]

I've heard that some Tower 55 diesels had a problem with the gears stripping. Since you say the wheels can be turned by hand, I'm guessing that's what the problem is. You should never be able to turn the wheels when they use a worm drive.

[jphendren]

I've since contacted Ajin Precision, they did not reply to my e-mail as of yet, I'm guessing that they never will. I now have an e-mail into North West Shorline to see if they either have a gear that will work, or can replicate the original. Parts, as well as complete T55's seem to be pretty scarce. Can anybody tell me which gear it is that splits? I cannot see which gear is broken/damaged, as I have no idea how to disassemble further than removing the shell. Can anybody give me directions? Jared

[cacole]

If you have an Athearn model you can temporarily remove a gear from to see if they are the same size as the Tower 55 gears, you can get replacement gears from Athearn.