I did the same (added metal wheels) and loosened the screws that hold the bogies to the coaches. That helped. I also added interior lights, powered by a AA battery pack located under the floor--this also helped add weight and lower the center of gravity. Whenever you have tracking problems, it's a good idea to check the wheel gauge. Most of my problems have been related to improper gauging of the wheelsets.
Generally, I'd steer clear of cheap locomotives. Not just the NQ one, but also the EZ-Tec and other cheap stuff. Rolling stock is easy--there's not much to it more than a plastic box and some wheels. Even the Chinese can get that right. Locos have to be well-made to be durable and reliable; and as my father often comments, "There's no Chinese word for quality"
I was given one that has the centre wheels missing.
I like the body outline and a plan for it is to either put a decent motion work under it or get 2 stainz motion works and bash it into a custom built garret type loco.
The person who gave it to me bought it for $10 at a garage sale he pulled all the R/C out of it and put an ESC connected to a 2.4GHz receiver/transmitter combo from Hobbyking and ran it with that, the reason the middle wheels are missing is he took them off so that the loco would run around his tight curves. He did run it for fairly lengthy time each time it ran.
If you run the text from the Zenner ebay posting (see above) through Google Translate, they do explain that one of the modifications they carry out on these locos is providing more play in the centre axle so that it will handle R1 curves.
Jon.
Reminds me of the old Lada car jokes. how do you double the value of a Lada?
, "There's no Chinese word for quality"
Would be interested to see how you get on with such a venture, as I'm thinking the sameHave to say I have one of the NQD 2-6-2t's and have only ever test run it. Thinking of stripping out the current RC and fitting a different syestem.
JonD
Would be interested to see how you get on with such a venture, as I'm thinking the same
A reply from Mr Zenner overnight "I can send you the central wheels in plastic with a stainless steel axle. The transport costs are 4 Euro and two wheels on one axle costs 6 Euro. It is better that you send me a picture, to be sure that I send the right article."
Now to convert those Euro thingies to real money and get it to him.![]()
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I have to say that I tend to agree with Nick...... you can find a good condition genuine LGB 2-6-2 on eBay from around £250 (in fact there was one the other day that finished with no bids, and has just been re-listed), and with the amount of available space inside the boiler/tanks of this design it shouldn't be difficult to put a pack of Nimh rechargeables and a relatively inexpensive RC system in it.....
You would end up with a MUCH better quality loco, with the option of having it switchable between battery RC and track power if you wanted to set it up that way.
Jon.
Edit: please note this is more in response to the original posting about the suitability of the NQ loco in general, not to GAP's posts about doing upgrades to the one he already has..... how much does Zenner want for a new running power unit?
Now, even though I read that as (in effect) an original centre axle they have removed, those seem very reasonable prices for the 'fiddle' of dealing with a one-off order.
Hats-off to Zenner.
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