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In lugnet.trains, Mike Case writes:
...
> Does anyone else suspect that by Christmas 2004 we will have retail
> sets based around the Super Chief sets?
The Super Chief locomotive and cars are absolutely beautiful. I've bought 15
sets so far, and I could see buying more. But, it is the poorest running
train since the inception of 9V.
As Jeroen de Haan has noted, the Super Chief cars are heavy, and they are
built low to the track. NCLTC ran a stock engine and cars at a simple oval
layout, but the train had to be kept quite short to run successfully. After
the show, Mike Walsh and I noticed that the bottom of the observation car
had dark marks on one of the bottom 2x6 gray plates below the car center. It
was rubbing against the track ties in the turns.
We had put baseplates underneath all of the track for the show, but had
secured only the straight track to the baseplates. This made the curves ride
approximately 1/2 plate higher, which was enough to cause the rubbing.
Later, at home, I set up a similar oval on the floor of my basement to
experiment. The track rests on Berber carpet (a low pile carpet often used
in offices), which is in turn on a carpet pad and poured cement. I found
that a seam invisible to the eye and touch in either the cement or carpet
was enough to cause the train to get hung as the back wheels of the engine
came out of the curve and hit the straight track. Even after moving the
track to avoid the seam, the locomotive had a lot of trouble pulling the
five stock cars around. The engine wheels slip as much as they roll forward.
To help with uneven track, I replaced the downward facing plates with tiles
on all of the cars. (I remember reading someone else doing this, but I can't
find that post.) That definitely helped with the resistance as the cars go
through curves. I also added a 'B' engine, with the motor either at the
front or back, and a couple of weight bricks over motor. This combination
did pretty well on the oval, but once I transferred the entire train to my
home layout, which has some 'S' curves, the train went to pot. It could
bearly go around the entire layout with the controller at full speed. The
Metroliner with one engine, on the other hand, could pull ten cars easily.
The Santa Fe also tended to separate the engine from the cars if I
accelerated too fast.
The next thing I need to do is test the pulling ability of different engines
to see if the engine is the problem, and probably also try with different
track and different controllers just to eliminate any bad components. But
judging from the experience I've had, and others have had, the Santa Fe
isn't ready to be shipped as a set with the existing controller and motors.
But hey, lots of folks should have trains by now. I'd love to hear your
success stories (and any helpful hints).
Cary
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