I have a P2000 FA2 that I recently picked up on EBay and I really dont like it[#dots]. The engine has no power. I am planning on cleaning the wheels and oiling it in hopes it helps but what is the communities opinion on these engines (good/poor) or did I get a lemon.
Second I have built a number of freight cars and coal hoppers recently and I am getting better with my construction techniques. Some of the cars run very smoothly and some don’t some derail frequently and some don’t. Question is what steps do you take to “tune” these cars? Maybe some one could create a thread showing the steps to tuning the cars similar to what Allen B has done for scratchbuilding. Also some of these cars are weighted and some are not and I wonder if mixing the weighted and unweighted cars is the cause of my problems. Also I am using Kadee #5 couplers and Kadee #148 couplers. I thru trail and error have discovered the need for a coupler height gauge but were do I find these, LHS are not very commen in Maine closest is 45 minutes away. Thank you for any help any one can offer
I am surprised. I have several of these locomotives and have not experienced this problem. Do the wheels skid - perhaps they are greasy? Or is the motor just binding up sucking all the power into its own bearings. What is the current draw, perhaps the motor has been fried.
Check the wheel gauges on the axles.
Check the tire width.
Check that the axles roll freely.
Check the coupler height.
Check the coupler action.
Check that the trucks pivot easily.
Check that one of the trucks wabbles a bit (otherwise it will be to stiff and derail often).
Check that the weight is consistant (NMRA standard is a good bet).
Proto 2000 is my favorite brand of locomotives. The ones that I have (SD9, E8) run great and have good pulling power. The worst puller I have had is my Athearn RTR RS3. It can barely pull itself up a 4% grade it seems like.
Did you pick up the Proto 2000 FA2 new or used? If used, you are having to take the sellers word and opinion as to what shape that it’s in. It could have been run quite a bit before it was sold to you.
Wasn’t the FA2 and BL2 one of the first Proto 2000s to be produced and NOT one of their better offerings? After these, LifeLike worked out the production bugs and produced much better locomotives. I’ve always been happy with my S1 and 0-8-0 switchers, and now my GP38-2. I’m always amazed just how slow these locomotives can crawl.
BTW, Cannondale, a brand new Proto 2000 S1 can be picked up from either Trainworld or M.B. Klein for only $29.99. (Not too shabby for a $110 locomotive.)
A Proto 2000 FA2 with no pulling power? It certainly didn’t come from the factory that way. I’m thinking you got one with a barbequed motor and that’s why it landed on Epay, so somebody else would buy the problem. All my Proto 2000’s are great pullers. I have 1 E8, 2 E7’s, 1 E6, 1 PA1 and 1 GP30. The PA1 and all the E’s have gotten decoders. I’m looking at getting an E6 A-B set soon.
It was these two locomotives that impressed the MR community and proved Life-Like was serious about making models for serious MRs. The FA2 still holds the world’s record for longest continuous running model train locomotive. So even if they weren’t as good as later Proto-2000s (which I personally doubt), they were a major step forward from a lot of the things that existed at the time.
There used to be a wonderful history on the Life-like web site. Unfortunately, Walthers saw fit to take down the site and not bring forward the information.
P2K had some QC problems…However being a weak puller isn’t one of the problems…I suggest a good cleaning to include the commutator .Then re-lube the gears,lightly oil all bushing’s and all drive shafts…
You have good advice on your cars but,I will add adding weight isn’t as important as proper wheel gauge,correct coupler height and truck swivel.Those are the 3 main trouble spots on freight cars.
I recently got a FA and FB set from P2K at the Bellingham MRR Club Swap meet and noted that the FA ran well, but the FB STUNK… clunk clunk clunk it went around the track. I contacted Walthers/Lifelike and found that some of these had problems with split axles that slipped or broke. They sent me new ones for the first one and then guess what… yupper, the FA started stinking it up, so they sent me the axles for the second one. Contact Life-Like/Walthers and they may be able to help you. They were awesome for me. Oh, and it only takes like 10min to put the new axles in.
Brian
P.S. All the parts from Life-Like were free (shipping and parts!).
Canondale61, did the F2 come in a brown box? Does it make a clicking sound? If it does then the center grear or gears are cracked. I have bought 6 of the brown box PK’s and ever one has came with 1 if not all the gears cracked. Easy fix, athearn gears work great and are cheap. If your LHS does not hane them contact Athearn.
My old F2A pulls its dummy B and 20 cars with out a sweat up a 2% grade.
On the cars, you did not post what who the maker is. I normaly have no problems with my Athearn Blue Boxes. On the ones I do, first I check the wheel gauge with my NMRA wheel gauge. Besides being in gauge you must make sure the flanges are in line from front to the rear of the truck. If they are not in line they will pick turn outs and just come off in turns. Simple trick is to flip the axel over. In other words make the right wheel the left wheel, it fixed 95% of my problem.
Do you have a NMRA Gauge, it is a must and only around $11.00. Another great tool is a booster cleaner, all so around $10.00. Mine was made by Reboxx, inc t-100 Exxact Socket Tool is the name of the tool. It will open up the mounting points of the axle (Booster) and make the cars roll much easyer.
Does you cars have plactic, metal axle’s plactic wheels or all metal axels and wheels?
On the weight miss match them won’t make them derail, but will make them fall over in a turn. It is called string and happen on tight turns or long trains. Use the heaver cars toward the front of the train.
If you like to chat PM me your phone number, I type real slow! If you look back say 6 months ago you will see I was have nothing but problems and got so mad I threw a few cars (work much better after I fixed them). [:D] I can honsty say I have not had a derailment problem for 6 months now and I run 2 to 3 trains 4 hours a day.
I have 2 P2K SD7s and 2 P2K GP7s pre Walthers. I am not impressed with the SD7s and one of my GP7s makes alot of noise. I have taken that one apart but still can’t figure out where the noise is coming from. I’m probably going to e-bay the SD7s. I wondering if the SD7s were one of the 1st models that P2k came out with.
Alot of the pre Walthers had cracked gear/wheels. my understanding Walthers is pretty good at replacing them at no cost.
I was relunctant to buy any more P2K locos but I just got a walthers P2K U30B that I am very impressed with. I also have another U-boat on back order with Walthers. Based on my experience, I would not buy a P2k loco that was pre-walthers.
Jim, have you lubed the arm where the bearings support it? Right where the flywheels mount? I had a Erie Bulit that after say 100 hours statred to make a growling noise. I open the truks and lubed but still the same racket. Oiling the arm took care of the problem.
If you really want to dump the problem engine PM me what you want for it. A PIC would be great as well. I rather buy a engine with a problem than buy one that I was told was OK, not that you would list it that way.
I would like to Thank all for the excellent advice. I will take the time to clean the engine because I think it is dirty, and the wheels appear dirty. As Brakie has suggested I think a good lube job can not hurt. As far as the cars go I will pick up a gauge and I have tried flipping wheels around in the trucks as ken suggested. The Athearn models I have built have had no issues it is just a Branchline model that keeps derailing. I may even change the trucks on that model. Thank you Kevin
The GP7 most likely has a cracked gear. It usually sounds like thump at first then gets loader and can jam the truck occasionaly. It is a simple fix. I really don’t mind having to replace them- the geep is otherwise a very decent loco.
What seems to be the trouble with your SD7s? I believe they were the 3rd engine released in the P2K line (FA, GP18 then SD7). My first Protos were SD7s. In the first run, there was a problem w/ the trucks being too tight. I had a few conversations with Larry Grubb of the technical dept, the problem was found to be the fingers on the worm gear cover. The nubs that ride on top of the bolster were too large not allowing any side play at all in the truck. Any irregularity in trackwork could cause a derailment. I had already sanded the fingers and corrected the problem as Proto sent me replacements.
Other than this, these units have run together for hours at shows and have had no trouble at all.
I only had one cracked gear in a GP9 out of the 5 units on my roster. Others in the club have had many a cracked gear as well. I do have replacements and if one cracks just change them all.
I realize that when Proto just started there would be some growing pains, and
Hi all: Definately contact Walthers about the cracked axles. I have a lot of the P2000 locos and just found some that I haven’t run for a while had 1 axle on each truck with cracked gears. A F7 ABBA set. I Emailed Walthers on a Thursday night and had a reply Friday afternoon, asking how many axles did I need. The email included a list of all the locos that had the problem, so I went through my engines that I was not running at the time (in boxes) and I found a total of 16 cracked axles.
HINT: If you try turning the wheels by hand, if one of them turns without much effort, the gear is probably cracked.
I sent a message back to the email address (Friday night) that they included and Monday morning I had a message they were sending me 16 replacements.
Of the engines on their list with problems I had 15 locos, 3 of them were OK. the cracked axles were on 12 locos. Some of the locos only had one bad gear, some had 4 or 5 bad ones.
I only own Proto 2000 engines… I have Two P2K GP9i’s and two P2K GP9II. They work great. Excellent pulling power and smooth running. Minor problems with one of the sound units resetting frequently.
I don’t think the problem in the GP7 is a cracked gear. The sound from it isn’t a thumping sound. It has more of a high pitch to it. The problem with the SD7s is derailments. I also think the SD7s could use some more weight in them. The GP7s seem to be better pullers than the SD7s.
Jim, read my previous post about the SD7s. I was going nuts when I first got the pair years ago. They were constantly derailing at almost every turnout.
My post explains the problem and the fix for the early run.
My 2 SD7s pull way better that any of the geeps, this could also be related to the truck issue.