The other day I purchased a AHM 4-6-2 pacific steamer. I realize that they can be terrible runners but I wanted something to tinker with as a challenge. I cleaned it up, cleaned the wheels and put fresh lube on everything that needed to be lubed. It runs fine most of the time but sometimes when starting up it needs a nudge and at other times it will run erratically. What else do I need to do to get it running better or is this the way with these locos.
thanks
Bruce
Check to make sure that the tender wheels are clean.
Clean wheels on both loco and tender was my first though. The electrical connection between loco and tender is another possible source of problems. The post on the tender presses against a thin wire on the drawbar. You might try a little contact cleaner on those as well.
Since switching to DCC, none of my Rivarossi steamers are in use but on my old DC layout, they were all excellent runners.
I did clean the tender wheels but never thought about the drawbar and tender post. Will try that next, thanks
I don't own any Rivarossi locomotives but, what is the condition of the motor brushes and commutator? If all the wheels and drawbar connections are okay, those are items I would also check.
Also check the connection between the engine and tender. There juis a wire on the locomotive that makes contact with the post on the tender. Bend it toward the center if the hole in the engine draw bar
Rivarossi engines are kinda just fundamentally poor runners. their pickup design makes for poor connections. Pancake 3 pole motors draw lots of current and are weak. metal/brass gears are noisy. stamped metal frame and no bearings adds more noise. This isnt to say theyre not good quality. These mechanisms are bullet proof and last forever. BUT they need work.
1. Make sure the wheels, contacts which touch the wheels are clean, along with the part of the wheel which the contacts touch. 2. Make sure the tender to loco connection is clean. 3. Make sure the motor commutator is clean.
Good luck!
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loco is running fine now lets hope it stays that way. Thanks everyone for your input
NYVTRR loco is running fine now lets hope it stays that way. Thanks everyone for your input
I found that the electrical contact between the tender trucks and the body contacts are sporadic at best. What I do is solder a feeder jumper wire(very fine flexable black wire such as used on DCC decoders) between the power pickup on the tender truck and a spot on the tenders frame that will conduct to the drawbar pin on the tender, which is where the engine gets its power from the tender at. This would greatly help these run better. If you go the DCC route. A decoder with a Keep Alive will be highly recommended. Mike
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What the heck... Just wire the tender wheels directly to the locomotive and fiorget about all of that mechanical stuff.
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As an additional question regarding this topic. I, also, have several Rivarossi steam locos that run fine, once they get started. Every once in a while they need a light "bonk on the head" to get them started. On older, open frame, motors, like Mantua, I was always able to clean the brushes AND the comutater to keep them running smoothly. With the Rivarossi motors, mine are all round, I can clean the ends of the brushes, but I see no way to clean the comutaters. Any suggestions.
(comutaters - comutators)
The other day the loco started acting up and was running erratic again and needed a nudge occasionally to run. I did notice that the tender post was a tad loose. I screwed it in tight and voila it has been perfect since. leewal maybe that might be something for you to check?
There are a couple of options to improve performance, and one would be to replace the motor with a better one.
Another would be to add all-wheel pick-up to both the locomotive...
...and tender...
Wayne
I'll give it a look. Thanks.
Walt