Hello everyone. I just finished laying the track for my first layout last week and I’m now running a couple of trains. I’m so excited! However, I am concerned with a used locomotive I got from my brother. It isn’t running too well. It tends to stutter around the track. I have two seperate loops and it stutters on both. It’s a Life-Like Trains SD7, N-scale, see picture below.
Last week I purchased a Kato locomotive and it runs great on both loops with no stuttering on either loop even at really low speeds so I figure it’s not a track problem. I am assuming the used engine isn’t making good electrical contact but I’m so new to this hobby that I don’t really know where to look first. Wheels, motor? Initially the train was derailing at all of my turnouts so I read up on wheel spacing and found my wheels were too far apart. I moved them in to an inside distance of 7.5mm and now it goes through all the turnouts smoothly every time.
I’m hoping someone can help point me in the right direction as to some likely causes and things I might want to tackle first. I thought I better post here and get some suggestions from those more experienced before I pull it apart and start “tweaking”. I’d appreciate any help you could offer. Thanks.
Lifelike? Is it a Proto 2000 brand? Do they even have Proto 2000 in N scale?
I would guess the wheels are dirty. Take a paper towel, dampen it with rubbing alcohol, and place it on the tracks. Place the locomotive with one truck (wheel assembly) on the rails, the other on the paper towel in the alcohol. Turn the power pack up to full speed while holding the locomotive in place. The wheels will spin on the paper towel, cleaning the wheels. Turn the locomotive around and repeat.
This is something you should do regularly on every locomotive, along with cleaning the track. To do this, take a rubbing alcohol-soaked paper towel (I use the same one I use to clean the locomotive wheels and clean the rails with it. It’s a good idea to do this at the same time, as if the loco wheels are clean but the track is dirty or vice versa, the dirt will get onto the clean surface.
I’m not an N-scaler, I’m into HO, but one of the problems could be dirty wheels on your Lifelike loco. What you might want to do would be to invert the locomotive, use a Q-tip dipped in alcohol and apply power to the loco, then clean the wheels with the Q-tip.
Also, does your locomotive pick up current from both trucks? I have heard that some Lifelike diesels only are driven through one truck, with the other one free-rolling and used to help pick up current. Better running diesels in any scale are usually the ones that have both trucks geared to the motor.
But you might try cleaning the wheels. They may have picked up a lot of gunk from being previously run.
Any stuttering problems that I’ve had have been related more to the wheels on the locomotive being dirty, both of the cleaning methods work extremely well. I used to always normally clean the track with either a paper towel in alcohol, or even in extreme cases, I’ve attacked the tracks themselves with an eraser.
Your problem is dirty wheels and pickups. The Life-Like Proto 2000 SD7 has 12 wheel pickup and 8 wheel drive (the 2 center axles aren’t driven). I have one of these N Scale gems on a shelf in my bedroom left over from my N Scale days. Mines in SP black widow paint. The entire truck bottom and sideframes are one piece and can be unsnapped at the end of the truck. Look carefully and you’ll see the locking tab. Be careful as these parts can be easily broken.
I cleaned the wheels and I still had the problem. I let it run around the track about 4 times and it stuttered all the way. So I decided to start tearing it apart to find out what was going on. As I tore it down I couldn’t really see anything wrong so I put the bear bones engine on the track and it ran great. Then I started to put everything back on, the weights and the various parts of the plastic body. I got everything put back together and it continued to run well. So I don’t really know what was wrong but it works fine now. Thanks for all the advice.
I guess nobody’s told you yet. You get what you pay for. LifeLike N-scale is like buying a 1974 Mustang running on 3 cylinders. Kato is a ferrari on steroids. I know this because I used to own several N-scale layouts. Your life like engine may run OK now that you’ve torn it apart, but it will never compete with Kato or Atlas.
Thanks Driline, I kind of figured that when I took my first trip to the hobby store last week and saw the wide range of prices on locomotives. That kind of applies to most things, you get what you pay for. As I mentioned I got the Life-Like from my brother so I wanted to use it for a while. I just bought a Kato last week (it’s excellent) but thought my wife would kill me if my bought two at once! So I guess I’ll play around with the Life-Like for a few months until I can sneek another new loco under the radar.
I’d rather have one sweet Kato or Atlas engine over 50 Life-Likes anyday. Even the Atlas N scale units built 20 years ago were top of the line. IIRC Kato made Atlas back then.
