Hello,
I apologize if this is the wrong forum but I’m stumped.
I purchased a Life Like Feeight set a few years ago. It has a locomotive and 6 cars. The tracks are the Power Loc tracks (black) in a 65"x38" oval. I’ve never been able to get it running right. There have always been power issues. The loco runs very poorly, as the power cuts in and out intermittently; it staggers around the track. The loco usually stops on the straights, then with a little nudge will get going. On the curves, it seems to take off. My assumption is the tracks are the problem.
Any thoughts or suggestions will be much appreciated.
Brent
Hello Brent,
It sounds like you are suffering from the ol’ dirty track / dirty wheel blues. Clean the track and locomotive wheels with a cleaner of your choice, alcohol, goo gone etc. Also check to make sure all tracks fit together securely. Dirty wheels and track is a common issue and there is a post on “General Discussion” right now about track cleaning and train rooms that you may find interesting.
Hope this helps
While dirty track and dirty wheels are a possibility, if it has never run properly, chances are that the power pickups on the loco are poor. Before I seriously launched into HO scale nearly 10 years ago, I first bought a “train set” in HO scale to run around the Christmas tree. Like you, I could never get the darn thing to run without stopping and jerking along. I never did succeed with improving performance. On cheap (quality, not price) locos, the power pickups are often not secure and there often are not enough of them.
Your other problem could be a lack of electrical connectivity from track to track which is typical of the sectional track provided with train sets. Make sure that the rail joiners are tight, and add feeder wires where you can.
Rich
Welcome to the forum. [#welcome]
Now, down to business. First of all, the Powerloc track isn’t a good product. It’s cheaply made and isn’t compatible with any other track unless you purchase or make an adapter. If it has black roadbed, most Powerloc provided with sets does, it has steel rail that’s zinc plated. This gets dirty quite quickly and it doesn’t take much for it to start causing problems. If it has gray roadbed then that’s nickel-silver rails. Better than the steel by quite a ways as the crud that builds up on it is conductive up to a point so the train runs longer.
Second, the locomotive is likely one of their ‘standard line’ models with the wheels of one wheel truck being metal and the wheels of the other truck are plastic or in some cases metal. In either case two or more of these wheels have rubber traction tires. This is a big problem because only the wheels of one truck pick up power while the wheels of the other truck push or pull the beast along. These often have very cheap motors that run at very high rpm and burn out quickly. In some cases the gears give out before the motor does.
Either of these by themselves cause problems and both together can be a major headache. For this set to operate properly the track and the locos pickup wheels have to be spotlessly clean. But that won’t last long. Either the loco or the power pack or both will give out and you’ll have an oval of track with some cars and nothing to pull them.
What I would do in your place: The track could still be used but I would replace with a better brand. There’s Bachmann EZ-Track, slightly better. There’s Atlas sectional track, better still. There’s Atlas Tru-Track which is Atlas track on a detachable roadbed. Better still.
As to the loco, I’d put it on a shelf somewhere or use it as a paper weight. A much better and higher quality loco can be purchased from Bachmann or Walthers for around $100 or less. I like the Walthers GP9m which can
Thanks for the quick and thorough responses. Looks like I’ll be upgrading soon!
Hi, Brent, and welcome!
I hope that you’re here because you’re becoming more interested in or serious about model railroading. While train sets are a good way to sample the hobby, they unfortunately tend to consist of the low-end stuff that doesn’t last very long.
I myself am torn between praising or condemning train sets. They’re good because they’re attractively priced and fully integrated (that is, you get everything you need in the box), and may help attract new people to the hobby. The downside is that the quality of the equipment and the track layout plans are so poor that many of these people may simply get frustrated rather than joining the hobby on a more permanent basis.
So, hopefully, we’ve piqued your interest and maybe gotten you hooked. My advice would be to spend some time thinking about what period, area of the world, and type of operations (coal hauling, mixed freight, passengers, etc.) you would like your layout to represent, and then selectively purchase things that fit in with that theme.
Of course, ultimately, this is a hobby and it’s supposed to be fun, so you need to do whatever it is that YOU find fun, not what other people here tell you to do.