HO Scale 2-10-2 running rough

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I recently purchased a second hand Bachmann Spectrum 2-10-2 off Ebay (KCS 220, for those curious) it ran great for about a week and then it just straight stopped running, however the motor was still spinning and recieving power. The culprit was a pickup that got jammed into the driver. One cut pickup later and the driveshaft was free again, however it was encountering extreme friction in one section of each rotation and would only run under higher power, while making an awful crunching noise. To prevent further damage I stopped running it, as I assumed the crunching was the gears or motor slipping due to the friction. Opening it up I found the axle causing the issue was the front driver, and upon even closer inspection it seems that the front driver is ever so slightly misaligned with the rest of the drivers. For reference, the jammed pickup was on the second axle.

Would this be a quartering issue, should I get it re-quartered? I wanted to get some opinions before I go doing something I’ve never done before.

2

Matt - Do you have pictures or video of the issue in question?

It might be a quartering issue, but it could also be several other issues. Pictures would help greatly.

3

Misaligned? How exactly. Models have some traits built in so they can run on layouts.

4

In my experience, quartering issues lead to erratic running, not a crunching sound. If there is no obvious binding, you might have to dig deeper. I would remove the boiler and look at the drive train, gears, etc.

Simon

5

Some of those Spectrum steamers were prone to getting knocked out of quarter. I worked on one that 3 of the 4 drivers were out.

If you’re careful you can twist the driver back into place. I have used super glue to lock the driver in place.