Pete,
Thanks for your reply. It was the suddenness of the onset of the jerky performance that was trying to mislead me, but as I looked at the decoder settings and ran the locomotives some more, and heard the squeal from inside the drive train I got convinced that it is a lubrication and maintenance issue. So now I have a learning opportunity; taking the thing apart looks like it will be a mild challenge.
I found this video useful as they were disassembling a newer P2K loco that appears to be built much like the H10-44s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYkzmwS-sYg
There's a bit too much side chat for my taste, but they do make a couple of good points:
So I am going to assemble my lubricants and microbrushes and give it a go! I'll probably weather the shell at the same time. Thanks again.
Regards,
Charles Hostetler
Charles
Sounds like a maintenance thing to me. A regular cleaning and lubrication should be done to keep your locomotives running top notch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lU1N9k64HQ
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
I have two Walthers P2K H10-44s that used to be my smoothest runners, bought them both at the same time about 3 years ago. In the last two weeks they have both started to run more roughly; slightly noticeable when they are running alone but a lot more pronounced when they are pulling 7 to 10 cars. It's almost as it there is something resisting their normally free motion. One of them has started squeaking a bit from the front truck as well.
So I am wondering if this is just a normal maintenance/lubrication issue, and if so, how to go about addressing that, but I've also been wondering whether the BEMF settings might have gotten messed up. The decoders in these sound-based units seem to take on their own settings every so often and need a factory reset.
Any suggestions to get these guys back to their normal smooth behavior would be greatly appreciated.