Jump to content

Got a Dilemma. Hoping you guys can help out.


texmaster
 Share

Recommended Posts

I'm an O guage fan but every year for Halloween we put out a G guage train for the kids and every year they love it more and more.    The problem is the engine I have is an Aristo Kraft engine which looks great but it can't handle ANY and I mean any inclines or declines in the track.   Its so weak I can only hitch on 2 or 3 cars at max or it can't make some of the turns.   Now I really try to even out the track but the ground is very unforgiving.  In the past if I put it on the ground the kids would get into the yard and knock it over so I bought some adjustable stands to raise it off the ground and away from tiny hands.   

 

My first question is should I be looking at another engine or are these things able to fit in larger more powerful engines to get better traction and if not, what kind of engine should I be looking at?    I really want to keep with steam locos.

 

My other issue is the cars.   I've got a mix of new MTH cars and Aristo cars   The problem is they do not play well together.   The couplers are not the same height so I've thought about going with some Kadee magnetic couplers but how do you handle the issue with the height being off?

 

Sorry for all the questions but I dont want to spend another hour trying to level off the track and not be able to use all the cars as I did again this Halloween.

 

Here is a short video of the track and the layout.    Its about 18x8.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Looking at the slope between the left and right sides (left being lower) it does look like a fairly steep grade.  The problem you have is a combination of the relatively light weight of the engine, relatively steep grade and the fact the Aristocraft does not use traction tires on their engine.  MTH is the only one I know of that uses traction tires on their steam locomotives.  The smallest steam engine MTH made was the Hudson and it is more of a larger mainline steam engine and not sure it would fit the look you are going for and is probably getting up there in price relative to what you are using now.  One thing you could consider doing is buying a second Aristocraft engine like you have and double-head them.  That would probably give you the extra pulling power you need.  I would also add lead weight to the boiler.  You could add it a number of ways and one easy last resort method could be to buy round lead fishing weights, wrap them really goo with electrical tape and drop them in the front of the nose of the engine till you got the weight up some.  That's obviously not a very professional way to do it but if you didn't want to take the engine apart that might be the way to accomplish what you need.  Would have to make sure there is enough open airspace for them to fit in to actually make it further back in the body of the engine and at the same time be sure you're not impacting any of the engines drivetrain components.(I'm not familiar with that engine so I can't say).  

 

On the couplers I go with Kadee on everything.  I body mount all my couplers but if that is too much work you could just replace the truck mounted versions you have and replace with the right Kadee version to get the height you need.  I bought a kadee coupler height gauge to ensure I had a standard to match to.

 

Are you looking to pull more cars than what you show in the video?  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Aristo C-16 is a weak engine.  Aristo is pretty pricey, now that they went out of business. and parts are hard to find. A Hartland locomotive looks like and old steamer but is a lot stronger. Kadees are the way to go. You can get ones that mount on the tab from the trucks, they have an online page that tells you the ones to get.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Looking at the slope between the left and right sides (left being lower) it does look like a fairly steep grade.  The problem you have is a combination of the relatively light weight of the engine, relatively steep grade and the fact the Aristocraft does not use traction tires on their engine.  MTH is the only one I know of that uses traction tires on their steam locomotives.  The smallest steam engine MTH made was the Hudson and it is more of a larger mainline steam engine and not sure it would fit the look you are going for and is probably getting up there in price relative to what you are using now.  One thing you could consider doing is buying a second Aristocraft engine like you have and double-head them.  That would probably give you the extra pulling power you need.  I would also add lead weight to the boiler.  You could add it a number of ways and one easy last resort method could be to buy round lead fishing weights, wrap them really goo with electrical tape and drop them in the front of the nose of the engine till you got the weight up some.  That's obviously not a very professional way to do it but if you didn't want to take the engine apart that might be the way to accomplish what you need.  Would have to make sure there is enough open airspace for them to fit in to actually make it further back in the body of the engine and at the same time be sure you're not impacting any of the engines drivetrain components.(I'm not familiar with that engine so I can't say).  

 

On the couplers I go with Kadee on everything.  I body mount all my couplers but if that is too much work you could just replace the truck mounted versions you have and replace with the right Kadee version to get the height you need.  I bought a kadee coupler height gauge to ensure I had a standard to match to.

 

Are you looking to pull more cars than what you show in the video?  

Yes I am.   I recently bought some larger MTH cars.  In total I'd like to be able to pull at least 5 large cars with a caboose with whatever engine I end up with.   MTH is what I have the most of anyway in o guage.   Don't really want the dual engines so probably going back to MTH is a good idea but I wanted to avoid the protosouind 2.0 engines because if memory serves, they can loose their memory if not constantly plugged in correct?  MTH just doesn't have many steam locos that are 3.0 and under 1000 that I could find.

 

I'm willing to go about 500 on the engine but no more consider how sparingly it will be used.

 

How do you body mount your Kadee couplers directly to the cars?   Jbweld?   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Aristo C-16 is a weak engine.  Aristo is pretty pricey, now that they went out of business. and parts are hard to find. A Hartland locomotive looks like and old steamer but is a lot stronger. Kadees are the way to go. You can get ones that mount on the tab from the trucks, they have an online page that tells you the ones to get.

Thanks very much :)

 

I will probably end up selling the Aristo engine.    Its only got about 10 hours on it anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

No, Protosound 2 engines do not lose their memory if not constantly plugged in. (plugged in I assume means plugged into a charger for the on-board battery)  Do you recall where you heard that?  PS2 engines do have an on-board Ni-cd battery but I have engines that haven't been run in years and they still hold enough of a charge to retain the engine ID.  The only item that can get 'lost' is the engine ID which is assigned when it's added to a remote.  Even if the ID was lost you only need to re-add the engine to the remote with just a few button presses and you're back up and running (total time like 15 seconds).  Engines don't lose their sound loads or anything else due to no battery/no battery charge.

 

There haven't been any MTH steamers released with factory PS3.  All PS2 engines can be upgraded to PS3.

 

On the Kadees, I use small bolts and nuts to bolt them to the frames, I don't use adhesives.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
No, Protosound 2 engines do not lose their memory if not constantly plugged in. (plugged in I assume means plugged into a charger for the on-board battery)  Do you recall where you heard that?  PS2 engines do have an on-board Ni-cd battery but I have engines that haven't been run in years and they still hold enough of a charge to retain the engine ID.  The only item that can get 'lost' is the engine ID which is assigned when it's added to a remote.  Even if the ID was lost you only need to re-add the engine to the remote with just a few button presses and you're back up and running (total time like 15 seconds).  Engines don't lose their sound loads or anything else due to no battery/no battery charge.

 

This was years ago I think about 5 or 6 years that the dealer who sold me one of the at the time new PS2 gave me a charger and said I had to keep it plugged in because the battery would run out and it would have to be reprogrammed.   I know your knowledge is extensive so I have no trouble bowing to your widsom on this issue :)

 

 

 

There haven't been any MTH steamers released with factory PS3.  All PS2 engines can be upgraded to PS3.

 

Who can do this?   I'm in Dallas which only has a single MTH authorized dealer in the middle of nowhere out of town and they can hardly fill orders much less repairs.

 

 

 

On the Kadees, I use small bolts and nuts to bolt them to the frames, I don't use adhesives.

 

Gotcha.  So you drill your own holes as well I would imagine?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

That's not true or even close to accurate.   I find that odd that any dealer would say that or give a PS2 charger as part of an engine purchase.  Saying it would need to be reprogrammed would imply the board completely fails and need service which it would not.  You can run it without a battery would just need to keep re-adding the engine to remote each time you powered up the engine to run it. Board doesn't lose anything else and the NiCd batteries hold their charge for a very long time.

 

Can't speak to who you have near you as dealers but I will be doing the upgrades soon.

 

Yes I drill my own holes to mount them in place.  

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
That's not true or even close to accurate.   I find that odd that any dealer would say that or give a PS2 charger as part of an engine purchase.  Saying it would need to be reprogrammed would imply the board completely fails and need service which it would not.  You can run it without a battery would just need to keep re-adding the engine to remote each time you powered up the engine to run it. Board doesn't lose anything else and the NiCd batteries hold their charge for a very long time.

 

Glad you set me straight then :)

 

Considering the age of the MTH locos with PS2.0, where should I be looking for them?   Its not ebay.

 

Can't speak to who you have near you as dealers but I will be doing the upgrades soon.

 

Well then perhaps I should talk to you about prices :)

 

 

  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
 

Looking back this is a second duplicate thread to the one originally started on Sept 6 2015 and are now rehashing what was discussed then:

 

http://www.gscaletrainforum.com/index.php?/topic/665-question-on-pulling-power-for-engines/#entry5653

 

The issue is wheel slippage due to the grade and the more I look at this video the more I see just how steep that grade is.  I still think the single best way to resolve this is first off to take additional measures to level out the track.  I would take and adjust how far the supporting legs open.  For the ones on the right rework them to they can open more and thus be a little lower to the ground and/or maybe to reduce how far the ones on the left open so it will support the track higher. (Could also use additional plywood to shim as needed on the left side)  If some additional traction is needed look into adding some weight to the boiler to get a little better pulling power.  Between these two should be able to resolve this without spending a lot of money on a new locomotive.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
 

Ok.  The smallest steam MTH made in One Gauge was the Hudson and my guess is would cost more than $500 but may be able to find one.  I would normally say ebay is probably the best bet to find one but people pass a lot of junk on there so I can understand why you wouldn't want to consider it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
  • Create New...