IS Your Paragon 2 Steamer Jerky?

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

I’ve been noticing a jerking motion in slower speeds with a lot of my Paragon 2 steam engines. I have several models of P2’s and found that most of them do it. I also have many other brands of steams and all are smooth running engines. And their re-releases also perform the same as well. Too many of them do it, so to say I’m getting bad ones all the time doesn’t seem plausible.

Is there anyway to adjust the movements? With CV’s?

And I have learned my lesson with the last time I asked a question? So I will not respond to anyone that just has an opinion about Broadway Limited or wants to tell me what they have or what they only run.

Thanks

Joe C

GO PENS!

2

Joe,

When you say “jerking” do you mean hesitation (e.g. binding), side-to-side rocking, or both? Both my BLI Hudsons had a slight binding problem resulting in slight hesitation so I sent them back to BLI.

If the drivers are not out of quarter, they may have too much slop to them. If there is too much slop, the drivers can be shimmed. BLI has shims that they can mail to you free of charge. It’s a mechanical issue rather than a decoder solution.

Tom

3

Hey Tom

No, it’s not a side to side nor a hesitation. It’s kind of hard to explain it, but a slight forward jerk while it’s moving. Now it’s more noticeable at slower speeds than higher speeds

4

That would be a bind, a mechanical issue. Your best bet it to send it in for repairs.

David B

5

If playing with the slow-mo CV’s doesn’t cure it, then it is indeed mechanical, and you’ll have to ask BLI for an authorization to return the loco(s). The mechanical problems could be flashing, bad meshing in gears, split gear, improperly bored side-rods, pins out of round, drivers out of quarter, parts of the rods making unintended contact with other pins or rods, and so on…

I have just received two different Paragon 2 steamers and neither seems to hesitate or to jerk when starting out.

Crandell

6

Dear Joe,

I noticed exactly the same behavior with my two Paragon 2 locomotives (NYC Hudson and SP GS4). In slow – medium speed range, they do not run smoothly, speed is not constant and that is obvious. In higher speed range this “jerkiness” disappears.

At first, I thought it is mechanical problem (I first bought NYC Hudson). But when I bought SP GS4, I realized it must be some other issue, because the jerkiness appeared again. Finally I found it: if I switch off BEMF completely (CV 10 must be set to 0), both locomotives run absolutely smoothly, speed is constant from slow to very high range.

Switching BEMF off did not solve my problem, because then locomotive can not start or stop slowly. No matter which value I program in CV 3 and 4, locomotive always starts and stops abruptly.

You can try to switch BEMF like I did – if your locomotives run smoothly while in slow – medium speed range, then my assumption that motor control is to blame for this is correct. If mechanical error would be the cause for jerkiness, then locomotive would run jerkily no matter if BEMF is on or off.

I did not try to program CVs for motor control when BEMF is on, there are several of them.

You can download “Paragon 2 Steam Technical Reference Manual” (nice text to read, just 206 pages) from BLI web site (SUPPORT/SUPPORT DOCS, then look for list under “Paragon2 Locomotives” on the left), you will see there are more CVs for motor control:

CV 10, CV 65, CV 112-113 and CV 114-120, beside well known CV 2, 5, 6 and some other.

Maybe these CVs can help (similar CV’s can make a lot of difference for Soundtraxx Tsunami, for example). If not, the only help is to install separate decoder for motor control (like ESU 4.0 Lokpilot), or completely replace decoder with new sound decoder with better motor control.

Regards,

Hrvoje

7

Joe.

Are you running the wheel set with the traction tire? I replaced all mine with the set that came with the locos and now they run smooth.

Pete