I’ve been running diesels (in DC) for 17 years and thought I’d try a modern steam locomotive (still DC). Instead of running a train pulled by just the steam locomotive I would couple it in front of the diesels in a freight train like the real railroads sometimes do when moving a steam locomotive light from point A to B to get it to a passenger train to pull an excursion for railfans.
A couple of months ago I purchased a Bachmann 2-10-2. I liked the locomotive but it had multiple drive axles with the drive wheels not square, so it wobbled. And it was a little touchy at a point or two on my track work. So I returned it and eventually ordered and received a Bachmann Pere Marquette 2-8-4. The first thing I did was to remove the 8-pin plug on the DCC board and install the two enclosed dummy plugs.
This steam locomotive has worked fine after I (a) lubed it, (b) slightly loosened (about two full turns) and very lightly loctited the screw holding in the lead truck. The problem was that when tightened all the way (which is the way it arrived) the screw head gave the truck a very narrow vertical range in which to move. No pony truck derailments at all now. And (c):
The locomotive by itself weighs 12 oz. I believe, but whatever, the point is it is light on its feet. Whenever I tried coupling it with a pair of Bachmann or Atlas Trainman locos to pull a train the steam locomotive’s drivers would always slip (start off spinning and stay spinning.) Also, not helping things is the fact that the loco’s longitudinal center of gravity is just in front of the third driving axle (a little too far back for best traction.) With the added torque of the motor this makes the front-end relatively light and helps the drivers spin.
So, all in all I thought that if I could put about 3 oz. of additional weight in the forward part of the boiler (a) the traction would greatly improve, (s) its drivers wouldn’t spin, and (c) the steam/diesel lashups would pull together nicely. Usually this kind of planning is often wishful thinking on my part, but it worked! First time I tried something like this. Here's the details.
I couldn’t figure out how to open/remove the smoke box front (without tearing something up), so I did find the three screws holding the boiler/cab on – it was easy; nice design.
I cut some old railcar weights into two pieces about 2.5” long and ½” wide, the top one narrower than the lower one (because the boiler rounds and narrows up) and glued them in front of the motor on another built-in chassis weight. I added and glued in a ¼ oz. lead weight right in front of the motor (not plugging any air holes.) That left the 1” long area in the smoke box, which only had the LED headlight with resistors in it.
I read that you can bend the LED “wires” so I bent them down at a 90 degree angle (the LED just slides into the headlight; easy to pull out.) After putting the LED back in the headlight I took some metal bbs (got them at Walmart), put them in a cut-down sandwich bag (very thin plastic), wadded it into a “ball,” then test-fitted it into the smoke box. Had to remove bbs twice. I then added a little bit of caulk in the bag, closed the bag, mushed the bbs and caulk around, used some small piece of wire to tie-close the bag, then form-fitted the wad into the smoke box front around the LED assembly. It fit perfect and the headlight still works. As the caulk dries it will get harder but stay flexible. And if needed the form-fitted weight can easily be removed.
All in all I got 2.5 oz. of additional weight in the loco. This brought the longitudinal center of gravity toward the front of the loco – from originally right in front of the 3rd driver axle to just behind the 2nd driver axle.
Test time: I took turns putting the locomotive on the front of 3 different trains – each with over 50 cars and each with two mu’d diesel engines. Train 1 Bachmann FT A&B. Train 2 two Bachman GP30s. Train 3 two Atlas Trainman RS36s.
I like the results and they are interesting. On all three trains the steam locomotive runs about the same exact speed of the diesels now (no slipping of course.) On the trains with the Bachmann FTs and Atlas RS36s the diesels actually just slightly PUSH the steam locomotive. On the train with the Bachmann BP30s the steam loco actually PULLS the diesels just a little. I can see all this by watching the couplers’ spacing between the tender and lead diesel as they move.
Am I worried about burning out the motor with this additional weight? No, especially with not pulling a load behind it, and all the tracks are flat (no grades.)
You all have probably been-there-done-all-this but I wanted to share a success.
Doug
A couple of months ago I purchased a Bachmann 2-10-2. I liked the locomotive but it had multiple drive axles with the drive wheels not square, so it wobbled. And it was a little touchy at a point or two on my track work. So I returned it and eventually ordered and received a Bachmann Pere Marquette 2-8-4. The first thing I did was to remove the 8-pin plug on the DCC board and install the two enclosed dummy plugs.
This steam locomotive has worked fine after I (a) lubed it, (b) slightly loosened (about two full turns) and very lightly loctited the screw holding in the lead truck. The problem was that when tightened all the way (which is the way it arrived) the screw head gave the truck a very narrow vertical range in which to move. No pony truck derailments at all now. And (c):
The locomotive by itself weighs 12 oz. I believe, but whatever, the point is it is light on its feet. Whenever I tried coupling it with a pair of Bachmann or Atlas Trainman locos to pull a train the steam locomotive’s drivers would always slip (start off spinning and stay spinning.) Also, not helping things is the fact that the loco’s longitudinal center of gravity is just in front of the third driving axle (a little too far back for best traction.) With the added torque of the motor this makes the front-end relatively light and helps the drivers spin.
So, all in all I thought that if I could put about 3 oz. of additional weight in the forward part of the boiler (a) the traction would greatly improve, (s) its drivers wouldn’t spin, and (c) the steam/diesel lashups would pull together nicely. Usually this kind of planning is often wishful thinking on my part, but it worked! First time I tried something like this. Here's the details.
I couldn’t figure out how to open/remove the smoke box front (without tearing something up), so I did find the three screws holding the boiler/cab on – it was easy; nice design.
I cut some old railcar weights into two pieces about 2.5” long and ½” wide, the top one narrower than the lower one (because the boiler rounds and narrows up) and glued them in front of the motor on another built-in chassis weight. I added and glued in a ¼ oz. lead weight right in front of the motor (not plugging any air holes.) That left the 1” long area in the smoke box, which only had the LED headlight with resistors in it.
I read that you can bend the LED “wires” so I bent them down at a 90 degree angle (the LED just slides into the headlight; easy to pull out.) After putting the LED back in the headlight I took some metal bbs (got them at Walmart), put them in a cut-down sandwich bag (very thin plastic), wadded it into a “ball,” then test-fitted it into the smoke box. Had to remove bbs twice. I then added a little bit of caulk in the bag, closed the bag, mushed the bbs and caulk around, used some small piece of wire to tie-close the bag, then form-fitted the wad into the smoke box front around the LED assembly. It fit perfect and the headlight still works. As the caulk dries it will get harder but stay flexible. And if needed the form-fitted weight can easily be removed.
All in all I got 2.5 oz. of additional weight in the loco. This brought the longitudinal center of gravity toward the front of the loco – from originally right in front of the 3rd driver axle to just behind the 2nd driver axle.
Test time: I took turns putting the locomotive on the front of 3 different trains – each with over 50 cars and each with two mu’d diesel engines. Train 1 Bachmann FT A&B. Train 2 two Bachman GP30s. Train 3 two Atlas Trainman RS36s.
I like the results and they are interesting. On all three trains the steam locomotive runs about the same exact speed of the diesels now (no slipping of course.) On the trains with the Bachmann FTs and Atlas RS36s the diesels actually just slightly PUSH the steam locomotive. On the train with the Bachmann BP30s the steam loco actually PULLS the diesels just a little. I can see all this by watching the couplers’ spacing between the tender and lead diesel as they move.
Am I worried about burning out the motor with this additional weight? No, especially with not pulling a load behind it, and all the tracks are flat (no grades.)
You all have probably been-there-done-all-this but I wanted to share a success.
Doug
I had Bachmann 4-4-0s (N scale), and I never got them to pull their own weight.
