P2K E6, in the blue box, axle gear problems?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I picked up P2K E6, and I’m putting together a passenger excursion train. I’m not sure of the year of manufacture, it’s in a blue box. Did they suffer the same axle gear problems ?

Thanks,

Mike.

2

One way to know for sure is to run the engine on DC power. If you hear a thumping noise, it has one or more cracked gears.

3

I got a Lifelike P2K HO E6, gray box, that had cracked gears. The paperwork was 2004 copyright. It has QSI Quantum sound and LED lighting. The Walthers tech fellow said the problem was confined to the 4-axle diesels but apparently I’m just unlucky. They were definitely cracked. I could see through the cracks in the center axle when I torqued the gear with the wheels off.

I recently got what I presume is an earlier DC E6, blue box, bulb lights. Converted it to sound. No problem.

If you need to replace gears, count the teeth so you get the right ones. I got some only by buying two front trucks that Walthers still had for my gray box model. NWSL did not have a match, and the common Athearn replacement fo the 4-axles is the wrong number of teeth for my gray box.

4

Athearn gears are a direct replacement for LifeLike products that were made prior to Walthers’ ownership, and are significantly cheaper than NWSL’s.

5

The good news is that the replacement geared wheelsets for the old P2K E units are still in stock at Walthers

https://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/920-584494

Dave Nelson

6

Thanks guys. It runs back and forth on a 3’ test track with no noise. That mars light is awesome!

I see it has the 8 pin socket, I think I’ll drop in a decoder and take it for a spin on the mainline.

Mike.