Fill the socket with Labelle teflon grease, will make the connector work much more easily. (iz that gud engrish?)
Watch the tender brushes, keep them clean and use a THIN coating of “conducta-lub” on the backs of the wheels… every so often clean the backs of the wheels with alcohol, and then re-lube.
If you see any buildup on the brush holders or the backs of the wheels, then you have lubed too much or not cleaned often enough.
I love mine, it’s just got some maintenance.
Greg
Greg Elmassian said:
Fill the socket with Labelle teflon grease, will make the connector work much more easily. (iz that gud engrish?)
Watch the tender brushes, keep them clean and use a THIN coating of “conducta-lub” on the backs of the wheels… every so often clean the backs of the wheels with alcohol, and then re-lube.
If you see any buildup on the brush holders or the backs of the wheels, then you have lubed too much or not cleaned often enough.
I love mine, it’s just got some maintenance.
Greg
I will look into the Teflon grease, for right now I just left the tender connected and slid the entire train onto a board to bring it back in the house. I was afraid I was going to break the socket with how hard I had to push them together to get it to fully connect.
Will the wheels on the tender roll freely in time or do they stay very stiff? I need to get some of that lube you mentioned for the brushes. I wonder if it is the same stuff I used to use on the brushes of my R/C cars when I used to race them?
Vincent D’Agostino said:
Greg Elmassian said:
Fill the socket with Labelle teflon grease, will make the connector work much more easily. (iz that gud engrish?)
Watch the tender brushes, keep them clean and use a THIN coating of “conducta-lub” on the backs of the wheels… every so often clean the backs of the wheels with alcohol, and then re-lube.
If you see any buildup on the brush holders or the backs of the wheels, then you have lubed too much or not cleaned often enough.
I love mine, it’s just got some maintenance.
Greg
I will look into the Teflon grease, for right now I just left the tender connected and slid the entire train onto a board to bring it back in the house. I was afraid I was going to break the socket with how hard I had to push them together to get it to fully connect.
Will the wheels on the tender roll freely in time or do they stay very stiff? I need to get some of that lube you mentioned for the brushes. I wonder if it is the same stuff I used to use on the brushes of my R/C cars when I used to race them?
Can you say ball-bearing wheelsets? Seriously, the tender trucks on Accucraft products roll like bricks! My Accucraft #346 tender trucks were re-bearing’ed by Phil Dippel of Phil’s Narrow Gauge. No comparison to the OEM trucks. Yoy can also replace the stock wheelsets with Accucraft’s ball-bearing wheelsets. Easy drop-in job.
“Fill the socket with Labelle teflon grease, will make the connector work much more easily.”
Greg,
I might have to try this. I have found the plug on my Accucraft C19 is very difficult to plug-in and remove. I try to keep the tender and engine plugged in all the time.
So this grease will not short the plug?
Gary Armitstead said:
Can you say ball-bearing wheelsets? Seriously, the tender trucks on Accucraft products roll like bricks! My Accucraft #346 tender trucks were re-bearing’ed by Phil Dippel of Phil’s Narrow Gauge. No comparison to the OEM trucks. Yoy can also replace the stock wheelsets with Accucraft’s ball-bearing wheelsets. Easy drop-in job.
So the ball bearing wheel sets will help even with how the brushes press up against the backs of the wheels?
One other question, what the heck do you do with the round loop that is cast into the coal tender!?
Vincent D’Agostino said:
Gary Armitstead said:
Can you say ball-bearing wheelsets? Seriously, the tender trucks on Accucraft products roll like bricks! My Accucraft #346 tender trucks were re-bearing’ed by Phil Dippel of Phil’s Narrow Gauge. No comparison to the OEM trucks. Yoy can also replace the stock wheelsets with Accucraft’s ball-bearing wheelsets. Easy drop-in job.
So the ball bearing wheel sets will help even with how the brushes press up against the backs of the wheels?
One other question, what the heck do you do with the round loop that is cast into the coal tender!?
Vinnie,
Check the Accucraft E-Store and look-up these wheels. You can see the electric pickups on the axle. Different set-up than the wipers.
Please explain this cast “round loop”.
Gary Armitstead said:
Please explain this cast “round loop”.
You can see it in some of the pictures I have posted, but it is located in the coal load of the tender.
Looks like a key ring that they soldered in the middle of it. I know I can probably snip it out of there, but trying to see how others took care of it.
Look on the coal load and you will see the ring:
(http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b107/139vinny/Trains/DSC09098_zps540f9fa2.jpg)
The loop on the coal load is to help in removing coal load from Tender, I have found that you don’t really notice it much after a while. All AML newer engines have it.
Nick
Hi Vinny,
Very nice review. Your H-L-W passenger cars look great with that loco.
Jerry
I like this loco a whole lot. Very partial to smaller locos, us. Pity it never came over here, IMO, as I’m certain it would have found a place on a number of US/Canuckian layouts.
tac, ig, ken the GFT & The Fox Hollow Banjo boys
Nick S. said:
The loop on the coal load is to help in removing coal load from Tender, I have found that you don’t really notice it much after a while. All AML newer engines have it.
Nick
If anybody notices it and asks, tell them it’s a train control system aerial used by the switchyard management system…
tac, ig, ken the GFT & The Fort Rock NHS Boys
tac Foley said:
Nick S. said:
The loop on the coal load is to help in removing coal load from Tender, I have found that you don’t really notice it much after a while. All AML newer engines have it.
Nick
If anybody notices it and asks, tell them it’s a train control system aerial used by the switchyard management system…
tac, ig, ken the GFT & The Fort Rock NHS Boys
I was initially disappointed with the carbon brush pickups, but thought there must be a reason to not use ball bearing pickups.
After discussions with BB manufacturers, heavy electrical loads through BB’s tend to pit the races and the conductivity goes to heck.
That’s why the ball bearings on the Aristo “prime mover” are NOT conductive and do not function for power pickup (steel races, ceramic balls).
So, I live with them. Drag on a tender is not as bad as a lot of drag at the end of a train from a caboose.
Greg
If it was good enough for Edison, it’s good enough for AML. Innovative they sure ain’t.
LED lighting?
What’s THAT?
I got that wrong, just make it ‘lighting’…
tac
You wouldn’t know if this has a flywheel inside would you? I missed the K4 and I’m looking at this one.
How’s it holding up?
Joe Paonessa said:
You wouldn’t know if this has a flywheel inside would you? I missed the K4 and I’m looking at this one.
How’s it holding up?
I don’t know if it has a flywheel.
I have only run it a few times outside but I have been very happy with it and can’t wait to get it back out there again in the spring.
They still may be found on clearance pricing of around $799
No Fly wheel,
These are also well engineered, but dont free wheel like the K4. The 0-6-0 is a solid engine, powerful and good detail. There was only one issue with the original run versions - the gearing could cease up. It was a really simple problem, and it happenned to mine right out of the box. Basically the metal axle gear is very firmly slipped onto the cente drive axle. Its tight just as it is. However Accucraft in addition have a grub screw that screws down into a threaded hole in the steel axle itself (this this is hugely robust drive). The problem was that this grub screw was not tightenned into the hole. I suspect several models went out with the gear tightly placed onto the axle and the grub screw just left in place waiting to be tightenned into the axle. The bind was caused when the end of the grub screw would snag the inner gearbox casing, sometimes pulling the grub screw out and jambing between the gear axle and the gearbox cover. It was a real easy fix and the bind doesnt seem to cause any damage. The gearbox is all metal, including the main axle gear.
I wouldn’t be surprised if many models out there have never had the grub screw tightened and dont bind anyway, or the grub screw fell out and is lost. Doesn’t matter, the axle gear was a tight fit anyway. If you experience some binding, all you need to do to check is remove the screws to take the bottom cover off the gearbox (no need to pull the loco apart), and slowly rotate the axle till you see the grub screw hole at the side of the gear wheel, check that its wound all the way in. You may find that you need to slowly move the axle relative to the gear to try and find the threaded hole in the axle to aline it all. If the grub screw is gone, look around the grease to see if its glued itself to the insides somewhere.
David.
The only issue I and some friends had was the drive rod screws loosen up quickly and lock up the
drive train. As with all accucraft and AML steamers, I recommend removing all side rod and linkage bolts and screws and locktighting them with blue locktight before running and then you good to go.
This is one of my favorite loco’s to run because it’s so good running.
Nick S. said:
The only issue I and some friends had was the drive rod screws loosen up quickly and lock up the
drive train. As with all accucraft and AML steamers, I recommend removing all side rod and linkage bolts and screws and locktighting them with blue locktight before running and then you good to go.
This is one of my favorite loco’s to run because it’s so good running.
