I would like to hear from owners of Broadway Ltd trackmobiles, about any stalling problems they have experienced??
Do you own one and am having problems or are you thinking of buying one? The short wheelbase could result in stalling.
I’ve kinda’sorta wanted one to, but I’m staying away from BLI. Too many threads in here on BLI locomotives.
Mike.
Nah, the only real issues with BLI are associated with their proprietary decoder on their Paragon 3 steam engines.
I don’t own a Trackmobile, but the wheelbase is so short that a powered frog would seem mandatory.
Rich
I sometimes wonder why some manufacturers are able to make smooth running, tiny HOn30 0-4-0s, that do not stall on a turnout with plastic frogs, and some have issues with much larger and heavier engines.
The BLI Trackmobile should have enough space to incorporate a keep-alive system.
If Wolfgang could fit a SOUND decoder and speaker in one of those Grandt Line boxcabs (and an even smaller one) AND not have the cab filled up with a speaker, it should be doable for sound in a Trackmobile.
Certainly room for a keep alive of some sort. The little Walthers Plymouth loco has enough keep alive for a dozen locos, so a cut down one with less duration should work for a Trackmobile.
–Randy
I have 3 of them; 2 DC one DCC. The only thing you want to check to see if there is some build-up of dirt on the wheels, which can happen. Track needs to be cleaned very well. I have a dioramma which uses a trackmobile as a demo and it runs flawlessly. If it stalls, I clean the track and it goes on its way!
Neal
I have a five year old BLI Trackmobile in UP livery. It zips around my Digitraxx 10x17 foot layout with no problem what so ever. I have Peco code 83 track with Peco insulfrog switches. Your problem may be dirty track or dirty wheels. Hard to say.
Brian, thank you for providing me an opportunity to rant about a peeve:
A trackmobile will be moving a car, at best, at speed step 4. It should be designed with this use in mind…just like any other short wheebased loco, IOW ALL switchers move slowly over frogs…like in a yard.
If it, or others, can’t negotiate an unpowered frog at creeping speeds, it is a design flaw and is worth about 20% of MSRP. Yes, switchers being unable to negotiate unpowered frogs at switching speeds is a peeve of mine. Maybe they should all have keep-alive’s from the factory?
Its why I generally only have the best switcher ever made to handle these duties, the Atlas S2. Never a stall, ever. (and many modern businesses will have an old alco on the premises just for switching, so it is prototypical for a modern era scene)
Brian, after that rant, I would say that if the BLI does not come equipped with keep alive technology, you should expect it to stall over unpowered frogs upon the first attempt to run it at creeping speed, regardless of your trackwork.
Of course, an answer about slow creeping speeds over frogs by actual BLI users would be better than my expectations given what I’ve seen from short wheelbased (IOW, slow moving) locos over the past decade.
It is in no way a design flaw if it can’t go over unpowered frogs. It’s a model train. It relies on electricity from the rails for power, not on-board power like the real thing. If there is no way to get power, there’s no way it can move. To design a Trackmobile with the wheelbase of an S2 would be to make the most unrealistic looking Trackmobile ever produced. A Trackmobile can sit entirely on a #8 frog, probably almost all the way on a #6 frog as well - without electricity, it isn’t going anywhere.
Pretty much applie to anything that short (the EMD Model 40 from Roundhouse/Athearn comes to mind as well). No four axle, 2 truck loco should stall - but these things are much much smaller. Even a #8 is pushing it for shorter 4 axle power. And people with the spare outbuilding size layouts, they might even use #12’s. Good luck with anything shorter than modern 6 axle power there.
–Randy
In modern times, yes, its a design flaw. Back in the day of train set docksiders, things were just physically not possible. Which is why they invented powered frogs, for the most part.
Powerd frogs are going away…less popular…dcc is emerging. The technology exists for manufacturers to make short wheelbased locos negotiate dcc friendly frogs right from the box, without the customer than having to pop the shell and fiddle with the loco or the trackwork to make a slow moving loco actually work.
Its their job to make it work. Not mine. Or else, sell it to me at the price of a TYCO docksider, what, 20 bucks? JMO
I see no reason why the BLI Trackmobile should not perform like this Minitrains Gmeinder 2-axle Diesel, shown running over Peco Insulfrog 9mm switches.
The loco runs on DC, no keep alive or whatever, just as comes out of the box.
That’s an excellent example of what I’m talking about. They should run that way right from the box. No special wiring to the turnout, I suppose.
My rant stems from certain locos not performing. No, its not my trackwork, since the Atlas S2 performs just fine. Its the design, or maybe the assembly.
I’m currently frustrated over all of my Tsunami equipped Athearn GP15s stalling on a Walthers #7.5 curved turnout. Longer loco, longer frog, I get it.
But the Intermountain GP10s and u18bs sail over them, even at speed step 1. Atlas MP15s no problem. Atlas S2s no problem. Its not the turnout or the wheelbase, its the truck design of the GP15, or the signal sensitivity of the Tsunami relative to the Loksound/QSIs.
Relatively speaking, the Athearn Tsunami equipped GP15 has a design flaw compared to the others.
I’m not fiddling with them, or my trackwork. I’m selling them immediately at probably a loss of $40 each, and will tell the tale on internet forums whenever the opportunity arises. MSRP $279. But golly, thanks for those proto specific applied details, LOL.
Douglas - DC engines are much more “forgiving” when it comes to a momentary loss of power - you know, that split second moment. However, a loss of the DCC signal for the same length of time results in the stalling of the engine.
2-axle engines require a little more care, when it comes to keeping the track clean, as well as the wheels and the pickups!
Agreed. I’m well aware.
Running different locos over the same track, dirty, mimimally wired, whatever, tells us which locos are the weak sisters relative to others. If one loco can do it, all locos of the same wheelbase and same dc/dcc system should do it. The fact that they can’t, means the manufacturer of that loco simply didn’t put enough thought into it as the others.
For me, I don’t tolerate that and don’t try to resolve their QC issues on my time. They don’t pay me to be the final QC guy, so I just sell the locos and describe them as “operates to factory specs” and move on. Its a hobby, an alotment of time. Dealing with inferior designs is just not worth it anymore for me.
Ok, I hope Brian gets an answer to his specific question.[:)]
BTW Brian, not that this matters, but a trackmobile might be parked at the very end of a spur, where its job is to travel down the spur and grab the cars and pull them, or push them, slowly to a destination that might only be a few hundred feet away. A trackmoblie may never have to go through a frog. Might be unavoidable on your layout, though.
That’s what Keep Alive decoders do keep locomotives from stalling from hiccups in the power.
Loksound ‘Power Pack’ keep alives work beautifully with their decoders.
If you want slow speed, here is a Loksound Select Micro with a Power Pack:
The boxcab is actually too slow. The main reason is that the gear ratio in the Bull Ant drive is 60:1 which is obviously too high. The boxcab also has code 88 wheels which is why it drops into the frog gap, but it certainly proves how well the keep alive works!
This is a copy of Wolfgang Dudler’s 23 ton switcher. This has the same drive as the boxcab, but with a 30:1 gear ratio:
The engine sounds were not synchronized with the throttle settings at this point so the locomotive speeds up before the engine sound does.
Bull Ant drives are no longer available unfortunately but there are other options out there from companies like NWSL.
Both switchers were made by Grandt Line. They come either powered or unpowered. The powered ones use a questionable drive system so I used the unpowered kits and provided my own drives.
Dave
I’m sure the BLI Trackmobile will handle Peco Insulfrog turnouts just fine - the dead spot int he turnout is VERY small. But in the days of Tyco Docksiders - Atlas SNap Track turnouts had plastic frogs. The locos stalled PLENTY. We seem to forgot those days of constant table thumping and giving the loco a prod - this was VERY common with train set level equipment. And those were all small turnouts, the biggest commonly used would be a #6, but those were more often than not hand laid, which menat powered frogs. Now we can get #8s prefabbed from several manufacturers. Just looking at a Peco #8 I just got, there’s zero chance you could use it witht he frog isolated but not powered - the dead space is nearly the full wheelbase of a small 4 axle switcher, nearly as long as an RS3. Anything shorter woudl be sitting completely on unpowered track if the frog were isolated and not powered, and there’s no way that is a design flaw in the loco. I still don;t get how you can think that - if the loco is physically smaller than the dead space on the frog, how is that the LOCO manufacturer’s problem? Unless they are building the things smaller than scale size. That makes no sense at all, to blame the loco maker. I await a solution to this that can transmit power through an insulating material.
Powered frogs going away because of DCC? Hello? Powered frog were, and still are, superior in most every way - specifically because they all but emlininate any electrically dead areas. This may be even more important for DCC, as it’s not the power that is the issue, but the actual control signal.
As for keep alives - I now have ONE loco with one. ANd it STINKS. Sure, it keeps the loco going over the dead part of an unpowered turnout. Or the unpowered surface of my desk - running for a minuter or two like a windup toy when taken off the rails. Only the 3 wire type used my ESU and Lenz really offer a solution - because they can be configured to limit the amount of time power is
As I said,with today’s technology, not yesterdays, a “modern” docksider should be able to go through a peco #8, IMO. So should a trackmobile.
Just put keep alives in all small switchers. All brands, all models. Build it into the price. If they’re too small, put a warning label on the box, like cigarettes “Wont operate over turnouts with insulated frogs”. Simple.
Why should somebody like Brian have to BUY it first to find that out?
When a newbie gets somethng where he wants to creep some cars over some frogs, and it doesn’t work, it prompts them to leave the hobby.
My GP15s enter a 7.5 curved frog and stall. (As do the newly arrived GP7Us btw). That’s 4 Athearn locos. The Atlas MP15s and S2s do not. The InterMountain GP10s and U18Bs do not.
Its not the frogs fault. Its not my fault. Its Athearn’s fault. They chinced on the design, or tsunamis are more sensitive. Had to buy them to find that out. Never again.
JMO, but right out of the box, a switcher should creep over any frog. That’s what switchers do. Switch cars, at slow speeds, usually over frogs.
Maybe Athearn doesn’t know this?
Atlas and InterMountain seem to.
BTW, been searching for years on how to make tsunamis creep at slow speeds as well as the QSIs and Loksounds. The information went something like this: Set bit 4 of CV something to 12, unless its something else then just add 2…but index this to that first; fiddle faddle with page 1027 in the manual that refers you back to page 397. Something about motor trim.
After several years of trying to figure it out, I finally found a simple answer:
Set CV 215 to somewhere around 15, depending upon how slow you want it. [banghead]
So my DCC Trackmobile is also running. It can pull or push 3 ‘60’ cars. If there are more than 4 cars, a switcher is used …