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Good heavens! I never heard of this problem. I thought my Troller 2.5 amp packs would easliy handle any HO locomotive, even older brass with Pitmann motors.
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I guess I will stick to my Athearn PAs with NWSL repower kits.
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-Kevin
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Some information here and a mention of which models may have been affected:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/744/p/244687/2726349.aspx?page=1
Good Luck, Ed
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Ed. Thank you for the link.
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I rea through the thread. It seems that under normal operating they draw a lower current, and the biggest concern in with DCC decoders.
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Since I run straight DC with 2.5 amp Troller packs, I might not have an issue.
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-Kevin
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A 3 amp motor is a 3 amp motor, regardless of the power source.
If you only run one at a time, you’ll probably be OK witht he 2.5 amp power pack, since it won’t cut power instantly. But if you are trying to run more than one of the high current versions with a single power pack - good luck.
–Randy
From what I read it only draws that high of a current when in full stall.
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If it draws 1 amp under normal load (like the thread seemed to indicate), then I should not have an issue with a double header. If it goes to full stall, the internal breaker in the Troller 2.5 will open, and the OVERLOAD lamp will illuminate, but no decoder will fry.
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What am I missing?
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If I am wrong, that is OK. I have been wrong before, I would only like to know how to correct my thoughts on this one.
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I appologize if this comes across as argumentative. That is not my intention. I want to learn as much as I can, and not melt any locomotive shells in the process.
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I need to test my two E units as some point and see what they have. The thread indicated some Es have the high current motor as well.
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-Kevin
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That’s because those locos don’t have the Athearn BB based trucks. They have Kato clone trucks (not sure about the F3).
Simple diagnosis:
Simply turn over any LL loco and see if the truck looks like an Athearn BB. If it does, it has cracked gears (or will very soon, unless they have already been replaced by a former owner of course). If it doesn’t look like an Athearn BB truck, then it doesn’t have cracked gears. (unless you got a 1 in a million lemon)
I bought this “used” Proto 2000 “Heritage” USRA 0-8-0 at a nearby hobby shop…
…but was disappointed to discover that it was a very poor puller, managing only four cars-or-so on a grade in the area I had planned to use it. It’s from the early release, and has no current pick-up on the tender.
I decided to take it apart to see if there was any place internally to add weight, and discovered a miniscule flywheel and an overly-large circuit board for the headlight. I couldn’t imagine that a flywheel of that size would have any positive effect on performance, and since locomotives in my late '30s modelled-era didn’t use headlights in daytime, I removed both, replacing them with lead to fill all of the available spaces.
The improvement in performance was enough to convince me to keep it, and I stripped off pretty well all of the locos detail, including the undersize piping that otherwise looked so good.
(It’s my thought that the die makers were working from prototype blueprints and weren’t aware that the nominal pipe sizes shown refer the the pipe’s inside diameter, hence the undersize piping.
Working from photos of CNR’s P-5-h switchers, I lengthened the frame at the front end to accommodate the CNR-style handrails and modified the rear frame, too. All of the undersize piping was removed, then the running boards lowered, with new inboard-mounted air tanks (lead-filled brass tubing) installed. The new piping is brass wire, with a few Cal-Scale and PSC details added. The front tender steps were modified, and new footboards, on both loco and tender, built-up from strip and sheet brass. The tender got new CNR-style handrails and a scratchbuilt la