The rear truck on my Atlas N H15-44 has started binding, rendering the locomotive imobile. I tried using some Labell 106 grease to free it up to no avail. The engine will move about 8 inches in either driection before binding.
The funny thing is this is the third one of these engines with this problem. The first came a from a mail-order company had this problem out of the box. It was sent back, in exchange for the one I have now. Another was purchesed at my local hobby shop and had the problem out of the box as well and was swapped for a different engine.
Has anybody else had a similer problem? If so, what course of action should I take?
sounds like lint or fibres wrapping around a rotating part like the motor or worm shaft. if you can reverse it when it binds and go the other way, then the binding obstruction unwinds and then winds back up jamming it from the other direction.
I don’t have N scale, but it sounds like it might be a wire getting wrapped around the drive shaft. Take the shell off and check for dangling electrical wires to the truck that could be getting tangled up.
I took tok the shell off the locomotive and put it on the tracks. When I applied power, both worm shafts spun. When the truck in question bound up, the shafts remained spinning. My guess is something could be jamming one of the gears in the truck.
Are you sure the worm shafts are spinning and not just the flywheels? These locos are bad about splitting the little horn (?) plastic piece that fits into the ends of the flywheels. This is what transfers the power to the worm gear. When these split, the motor and flywheel will still spin, but the worms will not.
Atlas does offer replacement parts. NWSL also does. Just make sure you get the small 1.5mm size. They just press into place, sometimes with a bit of difficulty.