I’ve got a Lionel Big Boy,( Lionmaster), and have a question.Should the front drivers spin at the same RPM as the rear drivers? Since day one, I’ve had trouble with the engine, and put it on one of my test stands. I noticed a distinct difference in RPM from the front to the rear. Any ideas?? Thanks in advance, and hello to everyone here. I’m a newbie from NY, and run K-line, MTH, Lionel, with alot of Flyer thrown in…
First A big welcome and merry christmas
second I have no idea as don’t have one but I would think that they should rotate at the same speed.
Third where in NY I was born in (lets see if I can spell this right) schentady, NY but only lived there a year.
Know this isn’t really any help but wanted to say hi and welcome
If this locomotive has can motors and one runs faster than the other, you have a problem. The faster motor will be trying to speed the locomotive up; and the slower motor will be trying to slow it down, that is, acting as a dynamic brake. Two can motors run together need to be matched for speed.
Thank you for the welcome… I live between Rochester and Syracuse, just off Lake Ontario.
Thanks for the response… That’s what I thought also… I have a K-line Alleghany that when I put it on my threadmill, both sets of drivers work at the same RPM, at least visually. I don’t have a tach instrument to measure them. The Big Boy definately runs at two different speeds… It seems everythime I buy a Lionel product, they get worse in quality. It’s one of the main reasons why I took down my o-guage layout and put my s-guage stuff up. I have no problems with my MTH or K-line engines, but it’s always the Lionel garbage that ticks me off. Thank you again for the response.
After contacting Lionel via e-mail, I was told that both can motors should run the same rpm. They advised me to take it to my nearest service center for diagnosis and repair. I dropped it off today and the owner, a friend of mine, told me a broken magnet might be causing the problem. They have seen it before, especially in the Big Boy…