Question #1
I have a Balwin 4-4-0 made by Bachmann.
It is having trouble pulling 4 Ore Cars connected and a Caboose up a 2% grade. The trucks are older and have plastic wheels.
Would it help to oil the wheels or use grease? Would this just make it worse and collect dirt. Would I be better off changing all the wheels to metal?
Question #2
I use a CMX Track cleaning car with alcohol. The track appears very dirty as we were on vation for a month with no trains running. Does Mineral Sprits do a better job to get the track really clean?
Harold
hwolfQuestion #2 I use a CMX Track cleaning car with alcohol. The track appears very dirty as we were on vation for a month with no trains running. Does Mineral Sprits do a better job to get the track really clean?
Harold, I use a CMX car with denatured alcohol and it does a good job. In between, I include a masonite pad box car in my freight trains most of the time. From past threads, I'd say the consensus choice for the CMX car is lacquer thinner. I just haven't switched, and the (minor) alcohol fumes are theoretically less noxious I'd guess.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
I also can use Lacquer Thinner.
Very dirty in one month doesn't sound right. Is this brass track?
Before I filled my basement with lacquer thinner fumes, I would search "Gleaming" as a non toxic alternative.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I think many modelers experience better rolling qualities with good metal wheelsets, and they help with keeping the track from getting gunky. Also a tool called the truck-tuner (MicroMark sells it) reams out the bearing openings in the truck sideframes and makes just about any wheelset roll better, including the plastic ones. Lubrication of the ends of wheel axles should be modest at best. I have not found it necessary for example, and if the lubrication attracts fuzz and dust it might be counter productive. Don't forget that improving the rolling qualities of the tender might help as well. I am not familiar enough with that particular engine to say how easy that might be.
I do suspect that better wheelsets (or better trucks entirely) on the cars might help your 4-4-0 pull a little better. But 4-4-0s both prototype and model are rarely good pullers and four ore cars plus caboose up a 2% grade is actually not too bad a performance.
There might be room to add a little bit of weight over the drivers of the locomotive.
Dave Nelson
hwolfI have a Balwin 4-4-0 made by Bachmann. It is having trouble pulling 4 Ore Cars connected and a Caboose up a 2% grade. The trucks are older and have plastic wheels.
Did this loco pull this load with success previously? Sounds like a lot to ask from a 4-4-0, a notoriusly lightfooted type in model form.
What kind of trucks/ore cars? Metal wheels that are correctly sized for the trucks will likely help lower rolling resistance, except the train will be heavier. Finding new free rolling trucks will help most, I suspect.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
The track is not brass. It is Nickel Silver. The layout is in a 10' x 16' Air Conditioned Shed in Florida. ( High Humidity). Gleening is not really an option as I have 4 long tunnels.
There are electronic gauges to measure pull. http://www.micromark.com/digital-pull-meter,9577.html
A cheaper alternative would be a spring scale from Amazon. You would need something small like 2.5 newtons.
hwolf Question #1 I have a Balwin 4-4-0 made by Bachmann. It is having trouble pulling 4 Ore Cars connected and a Caboose up a 2% grade. The trucks are older and have plastic wheels. Would it help to oil the wheels or use grease? Would this just make it worse and collect dirt. Would I be better off changing all the wheels to metal? Question #2 I use a CMX Track cleaning car with alcohol. The track appears very dirty as we were on vation for a month with no trains running. Does Mineral Sprits do a better job to get the track really clean? Harold
It's a tiny locomotive, even though your trailing 'tonnage' seems to be light. It's still a substantial 2% grade. Is there a curve involved, say down to 18" radius? That could make quite a difference.
At this point, you have little to lose by doing two things:
a. seeing if a truck reamer will help; and
b. Trying a light and plastic/paint-safe lube like Dexron III Mercon auto transmission fluid, which is what I have been using for years now.
The only other fix, assuming the locomotive spins and doesn't actually stall, is to add some weight. No idea how you'll do that to good effect for this locomotive.
It might interest you to know that, prior to deconstructing my last layout, I applied the ATF to the entire rail system quite liberally. My aim was twofold; to see if the locomotives slipped where they hadn't previously on my 3.3% grades, and to see it the ATF impeded continuity such that my trains wouldn't run at all, or if they stopped in places due to electrical loss. Neither happened. They ran as well as previously. I didn't have the ATF in place long enough to see what happened months down the line, but the two weeks I ran trains prior to taking the layout apart went well.
Near the top of the grade it enters a tunnel with a 22" radius curve. I will try some of you sugestions as I have nothing to lose. Thanks
i second the used of the MicroMark truck tuner. My layout is flat. But i noticed that some cars rolled down an extremely shallow grade and others did not. Using the truck tuner made those cars roll also.
And if the loco wheels are slipping, I also second adding weight. You might try filling some voids with small fishing weights. If you can find tungsten, it's almost twice as dense as lead.
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
gregcIf you can find tungsten, it's almost twice as dense as lead.
This is what I use:
http://pinecar.woodlandscenics.com/show/Item/P3922/page/1
It's obviously not pure tungsten, since it's moldable, but it is heavy as all
It's a dark brownish-gray, so blends in without painting. It also sticks to clean surfaces, so requires no potentially problem causing glues to attach. And you can pinch off and squeeze in what fits and fills the spaces you have available. Once you tried it, it's like that beautiful girl who is now your wife...where was she for so long?
Note it is a product of a a familair vendor and can often be found in most all-line hobby shops or the big box craft retailers, so easy to find.
Poor pulling sounds like wheel slip. More weight in the loco and change the wheels to all metal like Intermountain metal wheels, not Kadee sintered metal wheels. Use a truck tuner carefully. No oil or grease for the wheels. Many report better rolling with all metal wheels.
A few use Bull Frog snot on the drivers.
Our club for some years have used Intermountain wheels.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Well there is more then one way to solve the problem.
Changed trains. The 4-4-0 is now going up a 1 1/2% grade pulling two skeleton log cars and a bobbor caboose.
The ore cars on the 2% grade are being pulled by a Climax.
I am still going to change wheels
There was an article in Model Railroader magazine quite a few years ago about making a test track with piece of wood and three foot section of track. You might find it in the Magazine index.
Lift one end of the wood to the angle of interest and compare cars rolling. Weight the cars to NMRA specs might help.
First off plastic wheels do not add gunk to the rails but that being said change over to metal wheels (I use Intermountain) and you will have to worry more about runaways if a coupler breaks than pulling the cars you want.
I like using dry graphite in my truck side frames. When assembling or while cleaning my rolling stock (wheels get very dirty on club layouts), I usually keep a truck tuner and a sharpened #2 pencil handy. I rub the pencil inside the side frame where the axle makes contact and also run the pencil on the surface of the axle. I have had pretty decent results (wheel spins freely by rolling it with my finger for over 20 seconds).
If it doesnt spin well, then I use the truck tuner to clean out the inside of the sideframe.
I have two of those 4-4-0s and they are very slippery. I have toyed with the idea of using bullfrog snot on one of the drive wheels, at the cost of potentially loosing power pick up... not sure if the gain is worth the loss.
I just packed up my 4-4-0s because I am moving, so I cant look at mine, but you might look inside and see if there is room to add weight in the boiler. Also under the cab roof or inside the cab might be a good area to hide weight. There isnt a lot of room to play with, but you should be able to squeeze in at least 1/2 oz of lead (If you are okay with playing with lead).
Using moldable weights, you could fill the voids in the 8-wheeler's frame forward of the drivers and the space above the windows in the cab. Just make sure the loco balances about 1/3 back from the front of the driver wheelbase so the front truck will track correctly.
I wouldn't use Bullfrog Snot on a 4-4-0. You need all the drivers for electrical pickup.
Possibility for the micro-machinists among us. Put an N scale diesel mechanism inside the tender. Viola! Super-American, with as many drive axles as a Challenger...
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with some N scale drives under HOj superstructures)