N-scale GS4?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I have asked this before so bear with me.

I have a Concor GS4 and it seems to loose power intermitently. The tender wheels seem to only roll slightly causing it to be dragged over the rails,in turn causing the loco to only be able to pull a few cars at time.

Is it possible that extra wieght in the tender could help the wheels to turn, thus allowing better electrical pick-up. Even though I add wieght causing the wheels to roll, do you think the loco would end up able to pull more cars?

2

I added wieght,a lot on of the tender, and of the six axles five rolled. I still have one that just does not want to roll. I will try pencel lead on the axles to see if a bit of extra slipery axles on the wipers will help.

3

Check your wheels to be sure everthing is placed properly in the truck. I’ve had an axle or 2 get “loose” that way. Another thing to check is to see what Concor uses to pickup power. It’s possible for the pickups to cause drag.

4

I used a pencil to make the area where the whipers hit the axles slipery and 5 out of 6 axles now turn most of the time without wieght. I think I will add wieght to the tender and see if it will help the 6th axle to start turning.

5

I know this is an old thread but this loco is such a poor runner I may NEVER consider a Concor purchase again.

Does anyone have any experience with modifications to the GS4 for better running and pulling?

I took it apart and added wieght in the cab and front light spaces and also to the tender but it still runs intermittently and the tender wheels do not roll freely. This thing is driving me nuts. IN fact with the same 3 car consist it has been pulling it now struggles even more around my 17" radius curves and 2% grades.

Any info, even of small consequence may help. I am just spit balling hoping something will help.

Thanks in advance.

6

There is a sure-fire way to fix this loco…buy the Kato version.

David B

7

Thanks for the suggestion, just loads of help.

When this unit was aquired Kato did not even have it in the works.

8

I added weight under the running boards and removed the additional weight from the tender. I had it pulling 5 cars but still slipping. Better but not where I want it to be yet.

After it ran for a few minutes the tender became hot so I stopped it and the middle axle on the front tender truck gave me a light show, shorting out. I cleaned it up real good and looked for the problem but no luck. I put a bit of rail zip on the wheel contacts and I think it flowed enough to cause this so I think I will be ok on the short front.

I will keep posting results and checking on constructive suggestions.

9

Spidge–

I’m taking a guess here, because I"m not familiar with the Con-Cor GS-4, but how is the loco connected to the tender? Is it a wire/plug connection, or possibly a wire/drawbar connection? Reason I ask is that when my dad was into N-scale, several of his steamers were really intermittent until I inspected them and found out that the little wire on the drawbar between the loco and tender was loose and not exerting enough pressure on the connector pin. I re-soldered the drawbar wire and it cleared things up pretty well.

Myself, I think that adding a little weight to the tender would also put pressure on those wheels to turn better.

Tom [:)]

10
11

Update

I removed all the wieght from the tender leaving the loco with about 1/4 oz. extra. I also removed the tender trucks to inspect and clean. Here is where I think I went wrong, I thought some contact cleaner(RailZip) would help at the wipers and pickup spots but instead it flowed accross and caused a short in the rear axle(RAilZip conducts electricity). I again took the tender apart and cleaned with alcahol, removing wheels and all. I also took some time to clean the layout using alcahol instead of RailZip and the results are a good running loco that actually pulls all five cars that I want it to pull with no wheel slip. I think the traction tire soaked up some of the RailZip as it expanded a bit, and gunked up. After the drivers were cleaned up it ran especially well.

I am glad my RailZip was empty or I may not have discovered that the alcahol works sooooo much better. Of coarse I cleaned the rest of my roster and the entire layout seems to run better. Time will tell.

[:)][:D][tup]

12

I know I am dredging up an old thread but what worked for my GS4 was to remove the wipers on the tender and bend them up at the ends. After re-installing the locos runs exceptionally well and pulls 5 cars with no effort. Smooth and quiet. Now I just need to add sound.