Anyone out there have experience improving the pulling power of this engine? It’s a beautiful model with a smooth mechanism, but I am disappointed in its drawbar pull. Mine will only take about four Con-Cor passenger cars up a slight grade before spinning its drivers. Any ideas about how to add weight, etc? This was an expensive engine and I had hoped for better!
MRR did a review of it some months back and I found its drawbar pull to be disappointing. I think they said it pulled something like 8 freight cars up a test grade. I remember not being all that happy with the way the reviewer seemed to casually mention that fact, since I thought it was a substantial weakness for a locomotive of this ilk.
I’m afraid I’m no help on how to bulk it up any. It’s too bad Southern Digital doesn’t make replacement frames for steam, since they are heavier than the stock frames.
Unfortunately, reworking N scale steam isn’t like reworking HO steam; there’s basically NO room for added weight over the drivers.
You’ve got two options. If you’re mechanically inclined, you could mill out one set of driver treads to accept a traction tire. OR, you could buy a DCC system and mate the engine to a “powered boxcar”, basically a diesel mechanism hidden under a 50’ boxcar body.
Neither are really desirable fixes for various reasons. Unfortunately, you’ve found the biggest problem with N scale steam: lack of pulling power. The only two engines on the market that run exceptionally well AND pull well are the Kato Mike (with the traction tire drivers added) and the Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0. These two engines are the “oldest of the new” N scale steamers on the market: why no one can match their performance with newer releases is anybody’s guess.
I haven’t pulled mine apart yet, but its possible that a bit of tungsten putty can be stuffed into the sand domes or the like. Beyond that, if you’ve got some serious moolah, you could find a machine shop to duplicate the Zamac chassis in a heavier metal, or simply drill out portions of the chassis and fill the holes with lead or tungsten.
Another option, not specific to this loco, that is being experimented with by some folks on the Atlas N scale forum, is creating traction tires using hot shrink tubing.
A trick you may try is to use some double-side tape. Make one pass around the last set of drivers. Sticky side out may help it some.