I like to clean my tracks with my CMX and isoprople alcohol. My intermountain diesel has no trouble nor my E type 6 wheel diesels. Just for fun, I tried my 3 truck Shay and it would barely move. It spins all 6 wheels.
I thought a shay would have more traction than that.
Many model steam locomotives have relatively poor pulling power because there is no place to put much weight. But it does seem surprising that a 3 truck Shay would do so much worse than diesels. Is it by chance one of your newer locomotives or one that has not been run much? It can take a while for the high gloss sheen on the wheel faces to become a bit roughened with use, and I know with new out of the box brass steam locomotives, some of them are nearly worthless for pulling much of anything – including their own tenders!-- until they have had a chance to be run in a bit.
Dave Nelson
No personal experience, but I’ve heard similar comments about some of the 3-truck Shays. Apparently, the way the driveline is set up has something to do with this, as it torques the “tender” and causes wheel lift on one side.
Should be room for more weight in the tender, assuming the motor has enough oomph.
Curious about your issues, as I one day hope to own one in HOn3.
Thoughts:
A) What kind of grade and/or load are you speaking of? If a Shay locomotive with all axles powered is spinning, then it would seem that there is way too much “grease” on the rail. This is not unheard of, especially in the autumn. Up at Cass, WV, the damp falling leaves can create problems for the Shays, but that is on a stiff grade.
B) You don’t mention the brand of 3-truck Shay. With a brass Shay, one can be pretty confident that all axles are indeed receiving power. That is not always the case with the popular Bachmann 3-truck Shay. The plastic gears pressed onto the axles can split and then spin on the axle. The locomotive will generally operate as “normal” and it might not even make a noticible noise, but one or more axle may actually be un-powered. A fellow that replaces these gears professionally with the NWSL metal gear sets told me that it is not uncommon for 2 or 3 gears to be actually split and not performing on locomotives that are otherwise thought to be “fine”.
Bill
The Bachmann gear problem started a few years after they were manufactured so “new” out of the box or one sitting unused on the layout can have the problem. It is not a “use” problem but a “time” problem.
I’m thinking that CMX car might weigh as much as that Shay.
They need weight added to them like most steamers.