Subject:
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Re: Super Chief will be ready for prime-time: a trick to make it work.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains, lugnet.lego.direct
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Date:
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Thu, 24 Oct 2002 01:18:06 GMT
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Viewed:
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1739 times
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Hi Ben,
In lugnet.trains, Reinhard "Ben" Beneke writes:
> Dear all,
>
> a German Afol posted the (maybe only his?) solution to the wheelblock trouble:
> http://f24.parsimony.net/forum61776/messages/53196.htm
> (only in German)
>
> He found out, that most troubles were caused by wheels that touched the wheel
> blocks in 12 o'clock position. And of course that is the more the case the
> more load is resting on the wheel block. So the wheels might spinn free
> without load, but with the superchief above they cause trouble by friction.
I think I've observing the same thing with my wheel blocks but I'm a little
confused with where you describe the trouble occurring. In the pictures you
provided I couldn't quite tell where the Dremeling was done but this is
probably just me missing something obvious in the images. What I found is
that with any wheel set I have, if I hold it upside down, I can push down on
the wheels so that they rub against the wheel well. I would describe it by
saying it rubs at the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock positions, if you imagine
your clock as the wheel of an upright train. I imagine that a reasonably
heavy train car would provide the same effect as my pushing down. It may
not be that it is rubbing at both positions at the same time but I would bet
that when you're in a turn you'd get the effect where the two wheels on the
axle rub the wheel block at opposite sides. Is this the behavior you're
talking about?
To be honest, as a trains newbie, I can't quite tell if my Santa Fe Kit has
a problem or not. I've built the whole train, two locos + five cars, and
with a single motor and a sufficiently high power setting I'm able to get it
to run my kitchen table track designs without stalling or obvious slipping.
The tracks designs I've used all have switches, tight turns, and cross-tracks:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=27331
I do see it slow down a bit in the turns but not so much that it looks
silly. I imagine that a real train would have to slow down to take such
tight turns anyway, so it may just be a matter of perception as to what
"looks bad". My only other train is the MOT kit so I don't have any
original 9V trains to compare it to. The MOT train behaves similarly in the
tight turns. The track that gives both of them the most trouble is this one:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=263410
The problem is in the turn-switch-straight-switch-cross-switch-turn sequence
in the center. Adding my MOT train engine on the front helps it do this
more smoothly. I haven't yet tried adding the motor to the second 10020 but
expect similar acceptable performance. On the other hand, I can turn the
controller up to full power and not worry in the least about the train
losing control. As a newbie I don't know if this is normal for a
substantially sized train or if this is a clear sign that there's a big
problem. I know with a single engine, full power would send it flying off
my kitchen table and into oblivion.
Again, as a newbie, the only wheel sets I have are from the MOT kit and the
Santa Fe Kit. I don't have any original 9V wheel sets to compare to. I'm
not a mech. engineer, but I'd suppose in an ideal world you would never want
your wheels rubbing on the wheel wells in any circumstance. Of course, in
the real world there may be some compromises made, especially in toy design,
where a certain amount of non-ideal behavior is acceptable. If you (or
others) could check original wheel sets from "way back when" and find that
there's no way to push the wheel such that it rubs on the wheel block, then
I think we could conclude we know what's changed. We'd also have a very
simple test for folks to tell if their wheels deserve replacing. Jake did
say that they found an unapproved design change made by their third party
wheel supplier, so maybe the change was that they made the diameter of the
wheels slightly larger.
> IF it was the metal part only, I think at least we adults could replace it by
> ourselves. Could be cheaper for TLC to send all of us just a
> little handful of metal, instead of replacing hundreds of times the whole
> wheel block assembly.
I think I share you're feeling that I don't want this to turn into a costly
problem for TLC. I'd hate to see the cost of solving this wheel sets issue
(if there is one) costing TLC so much money that particular projects (new
set ideas) are canceled or TLC sours on the idea of doing more detailed
trains stuff. I can't say how thrilled and amazed I am with these Santa Fe
sets. They're just beautiful (Mr. Mathis you're amazing!). I built them
for the first time this past weekend and it felt like one long Christmas
morning. Non-LEGO friends have visited the house and not realized at first
glance that these were LEGO sets at all. LEGO Direct is doing so many
things right (IMO), such as these Santa Fe sets, creating MOC sets, 10030,
reissuing 8460, etc. I wouldn't want a bad experience with these wheel
problems discouraging LEGO Direct from doing more of any of the great things
they've been doing. Hopefully their third-party supplier can pick up some
of the cost if it turns out to be their fault.
Regards,
Paul
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