Ello folks! Need some advice.

[stevedenver]

Respectfully, regarding my lgb 0-4-0s and 0-6-0s, these, in my experience, regardless of r1 or r3 points, have no issues with pickup, provided the track is clean.

Fwiw, a good power supply can also greatly improve performance. 5A is a start.

 

[dunnyrail]

Respectfully, regarding my lgb 0-4-0s and 0-6-0s, these, in my experience, regardless of r1 or r3 points, have no issues with pickup, provided the track is clean.

Fwiw, a good power supply can also greatly improve performance. 5A is a start.

Level track and fully working pickups also help. Surprising how many of those LGB locs often have failed plungers or dodgy pickup sliders/skates particularly if obtained second hand but in ‘as good as new’ condition.

 

[Zerogee]

Using an LGB power supply on DC, though apparently from what I saw, my “Big One” LGB Mallet was a rare variant (all black) and had a “primitive version of DCC” and a smoke unit? Don’t know if the smoke mech works but the engine runs well.

It sounds like the black Mallet you have may well be exactly the same model that I have (is it the one with the big air tanks and various other "gubbins" on top of the boiler?) - which I acquired from a private seller via German eBay many years ago; it dated from the very earliest years of LGB's MTS (Multi-Train System, their name for DCC), and had a frankly awful factory-installed lash-up of one of their first 55020 decoders plus a very short-lived device coded 55030, which was a DCC power "booster" to enable a two-motor loco to run from a single 55020 decoder.... the 55030 booster was apparently discontinued very quickly, and LGB then used a pair of 55020s in their twin-motor locos. The Mallet has a very nice sound system, again factory installed, which responds to DCC commands but only through the early serial command system. I removed and threw out the 55020/55030 lashup and replaced it with a Massoth XL decoder, which can be set to create the necessary serial commands for the sound board even though I'm running it on a much more modern DCC system.

Of course, as you're just running it on DC analogue then none of this matters at all, you can ignore all of the above and simply enjoy running a lovely loco!

Jon.