frank sinatra once said 'i did it my way' . so here's the way i did increase pulling power of locos. since there is a thread regarding atlas gp38 i will explain what i did to my fleet of gp38. first of all break them in. at 90% throttle with heavy load. but no wheel slipping yet. let the loco run in any direction for at least 20 minutes. then change directions for another 20 minutes. change again. let it run for at least 1 hour in each direction. you will notice a change in the pulling power. you might need to add a car to keep the loco right before wheel slipping. after this 2 hours break in i disassemble the loco. wash out the trucks, re-lube them using a tiny drop of labelle. i remove the motor and cut off the inner bearings (these grey square blocks between motor and worm). unfortunately i can't remember who found this out but after removing the inner blocks your loco will run smoother and almost silent. a tiny drop of labelle for all bearings. (outer blocks, motor bearings). then i add a drop of "commutator contact booster" to the motor. there are several products available for r/c electric cars. the brand i last used was trinity. these sprays improve electrical contact while reducing wear on brushes and reduce arcing. you'll get more power for less milliamps. before i assemble the drive again i try to make sure the frame halfs are exactly straight. put the frame halfs on a piece of glas and you'll see where the frame doesn't contact the glass. in this case it's time for some tweaking. twist them with your hands. YOU WILL PROBABLY BREAK A FRAME OR TWO IF YOU DON'T TAKE CARE ! sanding the frames flat is another option. but just a very little bit. then normal assemby process. add motor, adjust bearings, add trucks. screw the frames together tight. then release both screws for 1/2 - 3/4 turns. this will give some play which is used especially for the two remaining grey bearing blocks. if your frames are too tight this will cause unwanted friction and noise. while the shell is still off turn your loco upside down. put it on the tracks and apply 50% power. let it run for a few minutes in each direction. this will evenly spread the labelle oil in the whole drivetrain. until here it is probably nothing new at all. so off we go for the 'magic thingy'. most of you know these thin cutting disks for dremels. yes, they break very easily. don't throw away the pieces. there's a use for them. i usually use half a disk. if you don't have pieces on hand just break a new one into two. remember, your loco is still upside down. now apply full throttle. using one hand to hold the loco on the track and holding one truck between thumb and index finger. with your other hand you press the piece of cutting disk to the first turning wheel. sand down the wheel. get rid of this shiny surface. don't worry if there are a few scratches on the wheels. (having high rpm prevents from uneven sanding). do this for every wheel on this truck. then turn the loco around (still upside down) and sand down the other wheels. you might use another cutting disk. don't forget to sand the flanges a little bit. make them shiny but don't sand them off !! recleaning the trucks is not needed. due to high rpm on the wheels any dust will just fly off. and you shouldn't have visible sanding dust anyways ! if you do you sanded of way too much. this procedure will improve electrical contact and tractive power. from my experience i can say that pulling power of an atlas gp38 can be increased by approx 40%. also i didn't encounter faster oxidation because of sanding of the protecting coat. that's all folks ! you see, i also did it my way. a few years ago i had the chance to run one of my locos on mike haggartys layout. my c44-9w was able to pull 10-15% more than his out-of-the-box c44-9w.
oooohhh, this should be an interesting debate. I want to hear the arguments. Are we against abrasive cleaning or in favor of it? What is our experience? Sandro, do you believe you have more tractive power because the wheels are rougher and thus don't slip as readily?
yes. maybe also because my track is also cleaned using a dremel cutting disk. once a year i use a centerline track cleaner soaked with ordinary electrical contact cleaner.
Thats a great write up, albeit a tad overwhelming for someone as green as me, who's never even pulled a loco to bits!!
Sandro, thanks for sharing. I am not too sure about the long-term effects of abrasive wheel cleaning. A few years back I used to clean the loco wheels with the Minitrix wheel cleaning brush (the green thing with two rows of brass bristles: The bristles would transmit power, so when you set an engine on the bristles the wheels would turn). It was great to clean wheels, but after a while I needed to do it more and more often. The small scratches accumulated more dirt than a shiny wheel. I tried to polish the wheels with chrome polish, but they were never as maintenance-free as they have been before. Just my 2 cents... Cheers Dirk
thanks for the info Sandro. I just started working on my locos recently and find your comments interesting. I have a question for you. what do you use to lubricate the contact plates inside the trucks? David R, they look intimidating at first, but if you take your time you will find that the newer diesels are really well designed and not hard to put back together.
Sandro, Thanks! I'll never attempt this but I can remember the last time I opened my locos I made drawings of it. You may want to take photographs along the way to record how it goes back together.
traingeekboy.... i just use contact cleaner on the contact plates. if they wear out i get new ones. any kind of lube or contact paste will attract dust. did you disassemble a kato ac4400 ? well designed is different.... i completely disassebled more than 60 kato ac4400 for renumbering, adding decals and dull coating. i know all part numbers and their prices..... let me assure you, disassembly and assembly of n scale locos is almost like....uh... we're a family board, yes ? ...in that case holidays.... if you ever disassemble a g scale dash-9 or sd40-2 or gp38-2... they're a real pita.... aristo uses lots of hot glue. for some unknown reason they use hot glue to fix the lamps which light the steps... no chance to gettem out without breaking....
If any other product had to be fixed up to that extent before it performed as it should the manufacturer would go out of business real quick! As for adding more units, I don't want to have to use six units where the prototype used two. Those who say there's no problem with a geep pulling ten or so cars have a point for small layouts, I'm building one myself for home when I can't get to the club and this will be sufficient, but it's like saying autos don't need good gas mileage because I only drive to the store twice a week. On a layout built to take full advantage of N scale we run prototypical length trains and need prototypical pulling power. Good pulling locos can be made, I have a small Micro Ace 0-6-6-0 mallet that out performs my Spectrum 2-6-6-2 and pulls as much as a LL 2-8-8-2.
Sandro and all tuned in, I just read your lead post. Me thinks you might have something there. Perhaps, after you've done all that you said, try putting in an actual sander. Not sure how fine a sand we need but then you can really sand the tracks. Ahh...or....not...grin! Ok, so I make a joke. Still I think you have a good idea with regard to the wheels. The same principal, sand adds traction may also apply in N scale. I will try the cutting disc, sanding technique on an old locomotive and get back to you with the results. Let's see... I brake enough of those fine discs on a daily basis, I shouldn't have a problem finding one. I wonder if this procedure would help tame down a traction tire? Perhaps I can get rid of those pesky TT"s....YES! Edited add on: The ten+ car rule is all about pulling a train up a 2% grade on curves tighter then 10 degrees. With the exception of some club layouts, I don't believe our home layouts have room for prototypical 10 degree curves. On the flat it is 20+ plus cars per locomotive and that's only a suggested/recommended minimum. Have fun!
Hey, I'll jump in here and defend this. I did it a little different - I put a jewelers file to the wheels of my SD24 while it was under power to do the same thing, and got about the same results. That's when I first discovered Atlas Slippery Wheel Syndrome. Most of you have seen the line scale I modified to be a dynamometer car. That measures pull in grams at the coupler. I then got a nice digital scale for measuring casting rubber mixes that also does grams of locomotive weight. So, if you measure the tractive effort and divide it by the locomotive weight, you get an adhesion factor. This isn't rocket science. You really can develop data that PROVES, without a shadow of a doubt, how significant the wheel material is. Best 'grip' is a worn-out set of plated wheels where you are down to the brass surface. New Kato NW2 wheels are astoundingly good - whatever they do for wheel metallurgy they did it right. Old Atlas classics are OK, I consider those normal adhesion. And the WORST are new Atlas. Across the board. OK, now to really make it bad, make the frame out of lighter material, and put in less of it to allow room for light boards and DCC, and don't forget that now you don't weight up the fuel tank that much either. The combined impact is nasty at the drawbar. I used to just accept it as the price of 'progress'. Then I got the Kato NW2, and it charted really well on weight (just as much as the Life-Like with a cab weight, only it didn't have one) and pulled well on the adhesion tests. So now that I know Kato has a heavy frame material and a wheel material that doesn't slip, all I can do is put a spotlight on this. I'm tellin' ya, it doesn't have to be this way. You can have a heavier frame, and better adhesion, and still have room for DCC. It might not be as good as an '82 Kato GP38, but I bet it will pull double what it does now. N scale is the only scale where you can have a relatively prototypically-length train on an average-sized layout. Having them be this lightweight this far on the evolutionary path is just unacceptable. I really like Atlas products, but now I've evolved from beating them up as a result of DCC pockets to materials selection. Kato sure beat it. I won't buy any Atlas new power now. I'll buy old stuff and Classics and old Katos for my ATSF layout, because I have long, heavy trains and grades. With me, I'd need not just another locomotive rather than one, but 5-6 unit lashups to handle my 24-30 car trains. ATSF doesn't run them that heavy. Even in the 70's, a 3-4 unit set of six-axles was normal. I have one four-unit freight, and everything else runs with three-unit sets except locals.
did you ever hear of microsoft ? their products don't even perform after hundreds of fixes. are they out of business ? no ! do new tires on your car bring 100% performance ? no ! they need 500-800 miles before they perform 100%. do new brakes on your car bring 100% ? no ! they need a break in time as well. several 100 miles will do. does a brand new engine in a car bring 100% ? no ! it needs some break in. all these things have to be done by the customer. the locos perform as 99% of the buyers expect. 1% of the buyers want more. this is the same with every product. otherwise there would be no aftermarket (car tuning, computer modding)....
Agreed on all these things, but N scale locomotives that run and pull well can be and are made, it's just some US manufacturers that don't seem to be able to do it right. Taking your example of cars, they do need breaking in, but I've never had one that I've had to strip down to nothing and completely rebuild myself to get to to what it should be able to do. Randgust sums things up pretty well in his last post. I think when Kato decided to get into the US market themselves and stopped making mechanisms for the competition that the losers were Atlas. If Kato had been as prolific as Atlas with new releases Atlas might not be such a big name today.
