peahrens On the potential of cracked gears, the cracks can be hard to see. If you remove the axles you should not be able to twist the wheels opposite directions with moderate force, as the axle to gear force fit is pretty tight. A crack is often along the longitudinal cylinder of the gear where the axle fits in. I had a P2K E unit with bad gears and when I pulled the wheels from the gears I could see the crack when I twisted a gear and shined a light into the axle hole. Note the number of gear teeth as they can be different on different locos or different release dates. I could not use the Athearn gears readily available for my E6 as the teeth number was different and it would not run well with the Athearn. Walthers did not have the correct gears but had some front trucks from which I used the wheelsets. The Walthers tech guys can advise on details and options.
On the potential of cracked gears, the cracks can be hard to see. If you remove the axles you should not be able to twist the wheels opposite directions with moderate force, as the axle to gear force fit is pretty tight. A crack is often along the longitudinal cylinder of the gear where the axle fits in.
I had a P2K E unit with bad gears and when I pulled the wheels from the gears I could see the crack when I twisted a gear and shined a light into the axle hole.
Note the number of gear teeth as they can be different on different locos or different release dates. I could not use the Athearn gears readily available for my E6 as the teeth number was different and it would not run well with the Athearn. Walthers did not have the correct gears but had some front trucks from which I used the wheelsets.
The Walthers tech guys can advise on details and options.
I'm not familiar with that particular model, but I've some experience where a unit will stop running at slow speed.
You may want to try something that's worked for me.
Take a wire that's bare at both ends. Hold one end on one rail, then take the other end and, if you can, touch it against the pickup for that side of the motor.
If the unit starts, you have a break in the circuit somewhere betwenn the rail and the motor.
As an earlier poster said, most likely a pickup.
They can get ozidized over time and make intermittent contact.
You could try to clean it, but depending on the way things are done, you could also try hard wiring from another location to the motor contact, bypassing the pickup.
Again, without being familiar with that engine I'm not sure what's possible.
I hope this helps.
Thanks very much for all the suggestions! I will try these and report back on the results.
In answer to several of the questions asked - the C-Liners don't have to be lashed together to make the grinding noise; as soon as they are under any sort of load it begins.
With regards to the potential problem of the Atlas units shorting out, would this trip the circuit breaker if they were? I have PSX circuit breakers installed, with trip current set at 2.5 amps.
The other solution that had crossed my mind with the Atlas Trainmasters was to check and see if the wheelsets are all level in the truck - is it possible that they could be just enough out of alignment that it would cause poor pickup?
Thanks again!
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
The C liner problem sounds like a cracked gear. I have a 70-ton switcher that has the same symptoms, and it's from a cracked gear on one of the trucks. At low speeds with no load, it runs fine. After it picks up speed or has more than 2 cars, it starts making terrible noises.
The first engine probably has bad pickups. I'd start there. I have a walthers engine where the brass pickups ended up on the outside of the wheels and it led to similar problems. It could also be a bad solder joint or even a break inside the rubber coating of the wire.
The C-LINER trucks are direct Athearn BB clones, so if there are any problem gears, Athearn gears can be used as replacements. Do they only make the grinding noise when run as a set?
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For the second part (C-Liner), if the two engines are quiet by themselves, but noisy together, it probably means they haven't been properly speed matched. Try putting them in a DCC consist and set them about 3' apart, and see if one is going faster than the other.
I'm not really familiar with those particular locomotives, but here is something else to look at that gave the same problem on one of my diesels. Even though the track is clean and the wheel treads, make sure the brass pick ups that ride against the insides of the wheels are clean and making good contact. I always place a small drop of electrical conducting oil on those. Sometimes the small side to side play in the wheel sets will break contact with those if they are weak, dirty or don't have good tension against the sides of the wheels. Ken
I see you have replies to date...so I'll venture some guesses.
Your intermittent problem is a puzzler..Atlas engines are usually great runners. Are you sure you don't have a short occuring? My guess is you have a short. Keep alive will help a short but only briefly as the super caps are quickly drained. If the problem was an open KAs would help more. Short diagnostics can be frustrating...try turning the lights out and looking for arcing. If you don't have a PM42 circuit breaker in your system you can solder in an auto light bulb into one of your power leads..the auto bulb will light up if there's a short and it will "clamp" at about 1.5 amps...this is a little dangerous as it could damage parts...but I've never had a problem doing this and we regularly run with bulbs at the club.
good luck....
As to gear noise. It's almost certainly in the gear train somewhere. Proto engines have a rep. for broken axles..the engines go thump thump...athearn axles are the easy fix...doesn't sound to me like your problem. Take apart the trucks and inspect the gears. In particular check the centering of the gears on their axles and use kadee washers to center them if necessary. Also...use NWSL thrust washers to take out excessive slack on the worm gears. I have had good luck reducing noise on most (not all) of my noisy Athearn or Athearn like drives.
Hello,
I have a couple of locomotive issues I'm having trouble diagnosing.
1)I have a pair of Atlas HO Fairbanks-Morse Trainmasters. One had factory QSI sound (I have replaced it with Loksound), and the other was DC from the factory (currently has a QSI Titan in it, but will be getting replaced with Loksound). Both of these units have a terrible time with electrical pickup, to the extent that they can't hardly be used in my yard as they are constantly stalling. Even when running on the mainline they still randomly lose power. None of my other motive power has this trouble, and I have both 4 axle and 6 axle units. Even after cleaning the track thoroughly and the locomotive wheels, the problem persists. I have installed keep alive on these units and it helps, but still doesn't fix the problem. I have verified all the connections are intact and that there is no resistance between the track and the decoder power connections. Any ideas?
2)I recently purchased a pair of older Proto 1000 C-Liners. They were new in the box. When these units are pulling a train, they grind away like a coffee grinder. Running single, there is hardly any noise; consist the two of them together and they run smoothly until about speed step 55 of 128, then the grinding starts. I have tried lubing the trucks and motor bearings, to no avail. I am considering replacing the trucks with Atlas trucks - does anybody know if this is possible? Or does anybody have any ideas about what could be causing the noise? It definitely is in the trucks because when the driveline is disconnected from the trucks, the noise goes away.
Any advice/tips would be greatly appreciated!