Pulling Power, Kato Couplers and Routine Maintenance....

[Anonymous]

I bought 2 Kato AC4400's [:D]over the weekend @ a train show here in Baltimore to help with pulling and provide some additional locomotives. I already had an Atlas GP-38 and a GP-40-2. My trains are all N Scale.

I noticed prior to this weekend, that both atlas engines were getting maxed out when I put on 13 Kato/Atlas Bethgon Coal poarters, 2 Atlas Box cars and 3 Microtrain Box cars, for a total of 18 cars total on 0% grade[:(]. Thought that was a little light in the pulling department... Or is this typcial of what I should expect from Atlas? If so, is there some routine maintenance I should be doing for the locmotives like a car a 15K, 30K, 60K Miles etc based on runtime of the engines?[?]

When I put both of the KATO's on and removed the 2 Atlas, the locomotives flew with out any trouble. Each of the ATLAS Locomotives only have about 5 hours max running on them prior to this weekend.

The only down fall from running the news engines is it seems the KATO couplers are a piece of junk[:(!]. Several times coming around a 13.75 inch curve the Kato Coal poarters would de-couple from the engine. Is there a good Micortrains replacement coupler or do I replace the entire truck assembly? If so what is a good part number?

thanks for your help!!![;)]

[ATSFCLIFF]

This is the drawback with the new Atlas engines with the so called 'scale speed' motors. I also find that they lack pulling power unlike the Kato. I still prefer the old motors on the earlier Atlas models.
Try using a long shank on the rear coupler of your Kato, this might solve your derailment problems.
Cheers,
Cliff

http://cliffordconceicao3310.fotopic.net/c328807.html