Finally happiness up on the KL&L Co. RR.

Two Shays arrived Friday as replacements for the two non functioning units. Happy to say that these churn down the track with no flying or separating parts, and all wheels turning. After some break-in and observation of all the running gears testing was conducted this evening to see what they could do.

Test track was elevated to a 12 inch rise in 6 feet of track. Space inserted for the math whizzes to figure out the grade-----. Single unit could handle four MT cars of 40ft. in reverse with some slippage. Forward it handled them with no slippage until the 5th car added.

Doubleheaded the units and handled 9 MT cars of 40 ft, including the MT big log load cars, which are a little heavier in the consist, with no slippage either forward or reversed.

Dropped the grade to 6 inches in 6 feet and added cars to a total of 12 with no issues either direction.

Dropped the grade to 4 inches in 6 feet and a single unit handled 7 standard MT cars of 40 ft.

Left it there and went back to doubleheaded and handled a total of 14 cars in the consist with two being 65 ft. mill gons.

One of the units has a slight gear whine which is barely discernable at the slow speed I was operating and may be handled by further break-in or a little lube to the main internal drive train.

Since the haunts of these guys will be up on the grades and switchbacks of the logging branch I'm not interested in what they will do on waterlevel.

My test track is equipped with two old 7 and 1/2 inch radius switches and it is here that one of the few problems arose. They consistantly want to pick the switch and derail in either direction although they might just squeak through a 7 and 5/8th inch radius.
Switched tracks to a larger radius switch and navigated that with ease. All the switches on my test track have insulated frogs and those that they traversed with ease, the insulated frog caused no issues. The logging line will use code 55 Peco short radius turnouts with electrofrogs so I should not have any issues.

Out of the box the quality was good, these are undecs, except for the couplers. These have some elevation issues of either too high or too low on both and don't couple or uncouple with the ease of my MTs so replacement is on the list.

Only other issue is that the loco is a little too light in the rear evidenced by the slippage present only while running in reverse up grade. Should be room to add just a little weight in the oil or fuel bunk that will put it right over the rear truck where needed.

Overall I'm pleased by the performance of these units so far and they appear to be up to the standard I've come to expect with other locomotives that I own by Atlas.

However the King and Queen of the hill have not been dethroned as the single unit mountain climbing tonnage haulers by either of these units as of yet until I've had time to study if and where more weight may be added.

PS. These units out of the box had a starting voltage of between 5 and 6 volts and as further running occurred that dropped to 3 volts. Both units double head fine and only one unit showed any sign of surging when it first started. After several minutes of start stop time and running the surging issue went away.

[ August 13, 2005, 09:22 PM: Message edited by: John Moore ]