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Post by carrman on May 6, 2012 13:58:31 GMT -8
Yesterday I ran my SP U50 for a few hours on the club layout, as we were hosting the conventioneers from the PNR-PCR NMRA convention being held in Medford this week. It ran pretty flawlessy with some Genesis F units I have, but I noticed when it ran over a number of switches, it sounded like you dropped a bucket of bolts on the floor. The idler trucks seemd to dance as they went through the frogs also. So, I needed to do some programming anyway, so I took the unit to the work desk and gauged the wheels. 8 out of 8 axles had tight gauge. It was easy to get to the axles, I just had to remove two screws in each truck and the cover plates would come off, and the axles would drop out. Again, as I've said before, there was nothing Athearn about the drive, and looking inside of the trucks you can tell it was sourced elsewhere; my guess is that it's the Lionel Turbine drive. With great effort, I was able to twist the wheels and loosen the gauge, but these things were so tight on the axles, I had to use a rag over the wheels to keep them from hurting my fingers. Even now, my fingers are still sore...... Added some Labelle greas, and all is well now.
Dave
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Post by rhpd42002 on May 6, 2012 14:19:44 GMT -8
That was pretty quick detective work on the cause of the problem. Good for any other U50 owners to know about. Thanks for posting the info.  |
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Post by calzephyr on May 6, 2012 14:51:15 GMT -8
Yesterday I ran my SP U50 for a few hours on the club layout, as we were hosting the conventioneers from the PNR-PCR NMRA convention being held in Medford this week. It ran pretty flawlessy with some Genesis F units I have, but I noticed when it ran over a number of switches, it sounded like you dropped a bucket of bolts on the floor. The idler trucks seemd to dance as they went through the frogs also. So, I needed to do some programming anyway, so I took the unit to the work desk and gauged the wheels. 8 out of 8 axles had tight gauge. It was easy to get to the axles, I just had to remove two screws in each truck and the cover plates would come off, and the axles would drop out. Again, as I've said before, there was nothing Athearn about the drive, and looking inside of the trucks you can tell it was sourced elsewhere; my guess is that it's the Lionel Turbine drive. With great effort, I was able to twist the wheels and loosen the gauge, but these things were so tight on the axles, I had to use a rag over the wheels to keep them from hurting my fingers. Even now, my fingers are still sore...... Added some Labelle greas, and all is well now. Dave Dave MTH has the rights to the tooling for the previous Lionel Turbines acquired from the lawsuit that was settled . I purchased the Athearn Turbines in addition to the old Lionel and for some reason, both used the single truck drive at each end and might have been made by the same factory, who knows, but the shell and handrails are much better on the Athearn compared to the old Lionel and newly released MTH turbine. One thing for sure, the out of gauge axles always show up on turnouts like your example and normally derail at those locations. Larry |
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Post by carrman on May 6, 2012 15:31:43 GMT -8
Makes me wonder if Mikey got the shells, and Athearn bought the drives.
Dave
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Post by riggelweg on May 6, 2012 18:46:33 GMT -8
Yesterday I ran my SP U50 for a few hours on the club layout, as we were hosting the conventioneers from the PNR-PCR NMRA convention being held in Medford this week. It ran pretty flawlessy with some Genesis F units I have, but I noticed when it ran over a number of switches, it sounded like you dropped a bucket of bolts on the floor. The idler trucks seemd to dance as they went through the frogs also. So, I needed to do some programming anyway, so I took the unit to the work desk and gauged the wheels. 8 out of 8 axles had tight gauge. It was easy to get to the axles, I just had to remove two screws in each truck and the cover plates would come off, and the axles would drop out. Again, as I've said before, there was nothing Athearn about the drive, and looking inside of the trucks you can tell it was sourced elsewhere; my guess is that it's the Lionel Turbine drive. With great effort, I was able to twist the wheels and loosen the gauge, but these things were so tight on the axles, I had to use a rag over the wheels to keep them from hurting my fingers. Even now, my fingers are still sore...... Added some Labelle greas, and all is well now. Dave Interesting. Thanks for the information. Do you think the wheels are glued to the axles, or was the press fit just extremely tight? I'll have to check mine, as I haven't run it yet. |
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Post by craigz on May 7, 2012 5:06:33 GMT -8
Dave, I have two U50s...16 wheelsets all tight. I have three turbines which are built with the same trucks - 24 tight wheelsets. Regauged them just like you did - they're *tight* on the axle but they will move with a little grunt.
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Post by carrman on May 7, 2012 7:03:58 GMT -8
A lot of grunt. Save your fingers, grip them with some cloth!
Dave
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