Some help from the community please. I have an old Kato E 8 Pennsy. With shell off the locomotive runs perfectly quiet and smooth over the entire main line run.With the shell on there is a continuing loud squeal worse on the 19" radius curves but also noticeable on straight track. Something is causing friction. Any ideas.
Any signs of rubbing on the inside of the shell? Any signs of rubbing on the drive shafts or fly wheels or any wieghts straddling the components?
SHane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
Thank you, Shane. Nothing visible yet. No untoward noise or evidence of rubbing when the shell is off. Locomotive is quiet as a kitten both in forward and reverse. I'm thinking that the shell makes contact when the front power truck enters a curve because the sound is more pronounced on curves rather than straights. One thing that may be contributing to this is the ladder from the cab which extends below the bottom edge of the shell. Could be that this is constraining the pivot of the truck. Also looks like the rear end of the shell may be a bit low. Less noise and I assume less friction at lower speed. I will do some experimentation.