I’ve been having more and more problems with this lately. It seems the longer I make the track, the more my BLI engines slip. The floor seems to be flat, the carpet is relatively thin. I ran my T1 today on Kato unitrack, the straight away is about 12 ft long on the floor, and every ft or so the engines wheels slip badly, so much so that even at full speed the T1 is still chugging in place for a second when I crank up the throttle. Of course at low speed its far worse. What could be causing this if I have no grades on the floor layout? The Kato unitrack seems to arc ever so slightly at certain points, because there is no way to fasten it to the floor.
I should also say that when I ran lionel trains on the carpet using Fastrack, there was never any slippage.
I’m guessing you have carpet fibers (dust) on the track, and the flexibility of the roadbed floating on the carpet causes uneven weight distribution on your drivers. Combine these factors and you get poor traction, which results in slipping.
I’d make sure too that the track is “clicked” together all the way AND that both rail connectors are in place correctly. If one rail slides over the connector, it can cause problems. Otherwise it should work OK, since my layout doesn’t have continuous running capability yet, I’ll put down an oval of Unitrack (which is what I use on the layout too) too break-in a new engine. It seems to work fine.
It is almost certain to be the result of dips in the track, notably at joins where the track is naturally weakest. Carpet running is not encouraged as a rule, but if it is all you have, then you will have to live with what you see until you can provide something stiffer and more planar. Even doorskin or strips of masonite would provide that much better roadbed and you would see a vast improvement.
I just ran my j1 on the track, no slippage. Only with the T1. But you know what I noticed? The T1 is heavier because have of it is metal. It literally pushes up almost every 1 ft of track in front of it, a few mm off the rug as it chugs along. It seems to weigh down the track immediately under it, yet bend up the track infront of it.
Maybe on the rug, this train is too heavy (mostly die cast metal) against track that is too light. Add in the slight bounce of the carpet, I guess I’m bound to have some problems.
I’ll try the unitrack on my brothers train table at his house.
I set up the unitrack at my brothers house on his table last night. Its very flat, but at low speeds there is the same problem. When at a crawl on one curve that has the slightest bumb, the engine just gives up. I hope fastening the track will help, the other engines don’t have this problem.
Avoid running on carpet at all. The fuzz, cat hair, dust and so on in it will end up in the drive of the locomotive resulting in a big cleaning project.
As was mentioned some kind of support for the track is needed as well.
This is exactly why I went to 3 Rail for my Christmas Tree Trains. I had been running my Lionel HO Challengers and Spectrum Steam under the Tree, but I got tired of picking pet hair out of the small running gear. I went to 3 rail under the Tree, and while it will still pick up some pet hair, it is not as effected by it, it is easier to clean and the small details aren’t as small and fragile in the larger scale. I ended up finding that I enjoy O-gauge more than I do HO, but I know that you have seen pics of my collection and know the rest of the story, I don’t want to upset King Paul III, so I wont post them here.
I’ve had that happen w/ Bachmann EZ track in N scale, and it doesn’t cause slippage (yes, no grades), it causes derailments instead. It might cause slippage though, but it would more jsut make one set of drivers ride up while the other side pushed the locomotive through. To me it sounds like dust from the carpet, as mentioned earlier in this thread.
I’ve always understood that one of the best ways to ruin a locomotive is to run it on carpet. The fibers get into the working mechanism and cause problems. Perhaps this is contributing to your issues, I don’t know. I’ve never ran my locos on carpet and don’t plan on it. (plus the working on my knees isn’t fun.)
I will never again run any HO locos on the carpet, however I don’t see how fibers could really get in because of the unitrack plastic roadbed under the track, appears to be a buffer between the engine and the carpet. I mean, thats what I assumed EZ track or unitrack were designed for, carpet running.
I have EZ track and never have experienced any carpet fibers making their way in to the inner workings of my locos. I once had an oval set up for a month straight and never experienced anything wrong with the loco. This particular loco needed lubed and I never saw anything in particular that was wrong with it.
Yeah, I agree, I don’t think lint or animal hair is the problem in my case. I vacuum the rug consistently, always check for animal hairs before running anyway. My other engines run almost perfectly fine, except on slightly uneven areas of rug, then I had wheel slippage, but mostly on T1, and still only on the uneven parts of the rug.
Tonight before running it on the table, I turned it upside down and didn’t see any lint or hair in the wheels or gears at all. It runs a lot better on the table now, except again for one uneven part of the table, I put paper shims around that section of track that rises, due to not being fastened. I’m considering glueing the unitrack, because I don’t know how else to fasten it.
Also, I oiled the rods on thte T1 tonight for the first time, but the squealing won’t stop. Its not as bad on curves anymore, but the squeal is ridiculously loud on straight aways mostly. Any ideas?
One thing I can’t stand is a brand new engine that squeals right out of the box…how do I fix this once and for all?
I agree…I also think fibers and pet hairs won’t be a issue since the track is on raise roadbed and not layed directly on the carpet like the snap track that came with train sets.
In fact I laid a test loop of Kato’s Unitrack(N Scale M2 Master Set) on the floor and had no issues with carpet fuzz even after 5 hours of constant running…
I’d be thinking that any unevenness on the carpet would cause issues like these mentioned. Any kind of woodsurface would prove to be a better surface generally. I can remember doing that for awhile myself but on a piece of good one side that I found at the remnants bin at the Home depot—just make sure there is no warpage—