Which Loco In Roster Is Your Least Favourite ?

[KeithT]

It has to be my LGB 22150 Tenderlok. On arrival it could barely pull itself and tender around my
R3 or even R5 curves without continuous juddering. Why should that be when so far as I can tell it has the splendid Stainz block? My two Stainz perform admirably even the split block one.
I added weight, no improvement whatever. OK I thought, motorise the tender. Easy, except that did not help either.
I have considered getting rid but it is my only European outline tender loco plus I named it for my wife's 100yr old aunt, who is now 104. For that reason alone I keep it.

Not too far behind is my rather nice LGB V251 diesel. I am not a great diesel fan but I have to admit model diesel locos tend to run better than the steam outline ones for some reason and this one looks good in its deep red livery. I purchased it s/h but on arrival one bogie appeared to have a threepenny bit as a pivot. However, that was quickly and ably sorted by Mike D. It is a favourite of many visitors and ran beautifully until some time last year when one bogie began inexplicably to derail whenever it was run in one direction. Dismantling showed no reason although eventually I discovered that one motor was pulling a v high current and not running in one direction. It has been a shelf queen for far too long so this winter it will be on my list to sort out. If all works out I might even treat it to a sound card!

 

[stockers]

That could be as simple as sticking skates Keith

 

[trammayo]

Mine is a Bachmann BH - ex Xmas loco. I partially repainted it as a South Pacific Coast loco.



That was the easy bit. It has the 'new' type pony truck.






Now it sits in the workshop with all its' slidebars smashed - could not keep it on the track in my trailer. Every minor derailment allowed the truck to act as a wrecking ball.

 

[Robert Howard]

My Bachmann James is a shelf queen, which is a pity.

Same problems as Thomas with a wandering front truck and a larger loading gauge.

Will run again once I have made my planned changes to my railway (removing the R1 points and smothing the curves).

 

[trammayo]

I'd forgotten about James! Need a solution for that one - anything bigger than R1 in the trailer is a no-go!

 

[KeithT]

That could be as simple as sticking skates Keith

If only, pick-up is OK but it judders or should I say wheelspins the moment it runs onto a curve.
I thought that added weight would resolve the issue but it had v little benefit. Even the tender run on its own displays the same characteristic.
EDIT: I haven't looked at the loco for some time but I just checked and the skates on both the loco and tender are free.

 

[stevelewis]

Strange one this, I had the USA version of the 0-4-0 tender loco in the late 70's it eventually had a repaint into Maroon , the attached pic (its a polaroid) shows the loco standing in the station on my layout No.1, The thing is though the loco was very powerful, equally as powerful as my first 2095 diesel loco ( bought new for £99.50 in those far off days!).
So the mystery of your locos poor perfomance is baffling, one thing that comes to mind is the skates are they exerting too much pressure on the rails and slightly raising the driving wheels? I have had this occur with a loco the skates springs had become too brittle with age, ( easily rectified with a drop of light oil on the spring)

 

[beachdonkey]

I have a similar wheel spinning problem with my Spreewald and have found one skate does not move at all.Is this an easy fix? I am a bit worried about undoing the screws underneath and upsetting the quartering.

 

[KeithT]

View attachment 203344 View attachment 203343 Strange one this, I had the USA version of the 0-4-0 tender loco in the late 70's it eventually had a repaint into Maroon , the attached pic (its a polaroid) shows the loco standing in the station on my layout No.1, The thing is though the loco was very powerful, equally as powerful as my first 2095 diesel loco ( bought new for £99.50 in those far off days!).
So the mystery of your locos poor perfomance is baffling, one thing that comes to mind is the skates are they exerting too much pressure on the rails and slightly raising the driving wheels? I have had this occur with a loco the skates springs had become too brittle with age, ( easily rectified with a drop of light oil on the spring)

Hi Steve
I just checked the springs and they are free. The effect is an exaggerated one of the inside wheel juddering because it has less distance to travel than the outer one.

 

[stockers]

You can remove the screws and leave the wheels in place. No problem just be careful. The skates are usually held by the plastic base or a small piece of wire that will turn out of the way.
Keith - have you checked the back to back measurement (the distance between the inside of the wheels. It might be too large and the flanges are binding.

 

[stevelewis]

I have a similar wheel spinning problem with my Spreewald and have found one skate does not move at all.Is this an easy fix? I am a bit worried about undoing the screws underneath and upsetting the quartering.

Dont worry about the quartering this is easily checked just a case of making sure the con rod positions look correct the meshing of the axle gears on each outer axle takes care of this.

Actually fixing the skate is very easy they just lift out when the loco is inverted and the base plate is removed, dont worry the wheels wont jump out .

This is the thing with LGB its BIG and everything is easily maintained without doing any damage.

Taking the base plate off will also give you the opportunity to re distribute and remove any excess grease in the gear areas, it is usually found that LGB assmbllers in the factory were very liberal with the grease, not so much so now that Marklin assemble them!!

 

[beachdonkey]

Dont worry about the quartering this is easily checked just a case of making sure the con rod positions look correct the meshing of the axle gears on each outer axle takes care of this.

Actually fixing the skate is very easy they just lift out when the loco is inverted and the base plate is removed, dont worry the wheels wont jump out .

This is the thing with LGB its BIG and everything is easily maintained without doing any damage.

Taking the base plate off will also give you the opportunity to re distribute and remove any excess grease in the gear areas, it is usually found that LGB assmbllers in the factory were very liberal with the grease, not so much so now that Marklin assemble them!!

Thanks Steve for the advice.

 

[PhilP]

I was going to suggest checking the back-to-back as well..

 

[p.williams]

I have three 'rogues'-

1 Bachman tram - nough said !
2 Bachman Lynn - draw bar length must equal half a carriage length!
3 kit built roundhouse lady Ann - Friday afternoon jobbie.
The kits were delivered with insulated wheels that were out of true and had to be replaced. After a year , trying to get it running properly, I found that the radius arms were very badly out of alignment .These were replaced foc.The final straw was when the safety valve fell to bits. How on earth did these faults pass both brandbright and roundhouse's quality control ?
All three reside on the shelf, now.
Sorry about the 'moan' but you did ask !

 

[Greg Elmassian]

As much as I like steamers, and I have a number of them, my Aristo steam locos are the most irritating, since they often slip drivers on the tapered (and unkeyed) axles, lock or destroy rod and valve gear, and sometimes tear up a gearbox. On top of that, the flanges are often so thick, it's impossible to get both back to back and gauge at the same time. Oh, and the plating sucks and there is no easy way to set the gauge.

But I will figure this out, looking at having custom axles made that won't slip and allow re-gauging.

Greg

 

[David1226]

What a question, bit like some one asking which is your favourite child. A question my daughter asks frequently, but only when her brother is present.

David

 

[Melbournesparks]

Just got around to reading this thread, good to hear other people's take on a lot of this stuff.

I notice the Bachmann Lyn and the trams are recurring themes, which is a bit of a worry since I have both! I haven't had any trouble with them so far, but none of them are in factory condition.

I don't have track power available, so Lyn got batteries straight away. It's also the the latest version, which has an all brass gearbox. From looking at pictures it looks like the earlier versions were far less refined, so obviously there has been some efforts to rectify the shortcomings mentioned in this thread. I really like it, it runs really smoothly on battery power and easily pulls the longest train I'm ever going to run.

The trams are a different story, I can see why these motor blocks give people trouble. They can be made to run well, but a few modifications really helps them out.

The trams run from overhead power, but the usual pickup problems are still present. Having both rails the same pole though effectively gives you double the pickup wheels, which makes a big improvement right away. One of them has been fitted with skates, the other one will probably get them at some stage. Both have large onboard capacitors, which I think is the most important modification. The smoother power delivery to the motor gives a similar result to converting to batteries, noticeable decrease in noise and no more getting stuck on a leaf or something. Like anything really they run better with careful lubrication, especially on the wheel pickup brushes which sometimes get stuck in their holders.

With all of that they run nicely, but you have to respect the fact they're low powered and quite lightly constructed.

I have an LGB electric rack loco as well, which has also been modified with capacitors and to pickup from all wheels.

But anyway to answer the original question, I'm going to cop out and say I don't really have a least favorite. I like all of mine, though I've certainly had to do more work on some of them than others!

I think you have to be realistic about what to expect from certain pieces of rollingstock. I doubt very much the Bachmann and LGB engineers considered my overgrown aluminium track when they were designing their products, so some modification was always going to be required. Anyway what modeller can resist making 'improvements', it's part of the fun!

 

[Zerogee]

What a question, bit like some one asking which is your favourite child. A question my daughter asks frequently, but only when her brother is present.

David

Easy - whichever one of them asks, the answer is the other one.... gotta keep 'em on the back foot, it's the only way you'll win.....

Jon.

 

[chris m01]

My least favourite was my only ever LGB loco which was a toy train diesel. I gave it to my brother in the end when he got started in g scale. I haven't seen him run it for years.
My stock is all USA stock apart from a Roundhouse steamer and my Parry People Mover. The only complete failure I have ever had is an Aristo GP40 which totally strpped it's worm gears and by which time Aristo had ceased to exist . This now runs great on USA Trains power blocks and is back to being a favourite.

 

[beachdonkey]

I don't have a least favourite loco, not since I sold my first purchases which were the usual suspects...Big hauler/Lyn and Bachmann tram,but I do have a least favourite sound fitted to a loco.All of my stock are now retro fitted with sound chips or have sound from new but the one I like least is my LGB 23450 GE2/4.It has the XLS sound chip in which to my ears sounds similar to a washing machine on its wash cycle I do like the look of it ambling around the track but usually turn the sound off.