I want to recreate a portion of a branchline that is about 30 miles away. What I mean is I wan’t it to split off of my single track mainline, run in view for about 5-10 feet, run into the closet to a reverse loop/staging that will connect to another part of the layout. The prototype runs about 10 mph, I could go with 20 or so, but I can’t find a motor that will run that slow constantly. Most of my fleet of locos are Athearn engines and Proto 2000. Can anyone help me?
With the Athearns, if you haven’t already, take the bar that connects the 2 trucks and toss it. Remove the top copper bar on top of the motor and remove it. Be careful not to lose the brush spring and brush. Now solder a wire from the copper bar and each truck re-assemble everything and you’ll have a better running engine, and maybe slower also.
The only other way to lower the running speed of an Athearn is to put about a million (real) miles on the loco. It’ll run so smooth that you can pass it off as a Kato !!!
Why does it help by removing the bar?
What bar that connects the two trucks?
And do Kato engines run that smooth?
The bar has sliding intermittent contact with the bar attached to the trucks. Soldering a jumper wire between the two greatly improves the reliability of the electrical connection.
Kato - yes.
On Athearn: NWSL wheels. On P2K, if the gears crack, replace with Athearn.
If you want a slow smooth running locomtoive, look Hobbytown http://bearlocomo.zoovy.com/ and TVM http://www.lynnet.com/~tigervalley/ with low speed gearing. TVM’s low speed gearing provides around 45 mph at 12 V.
Another choice is a Spectrum Shay.
Nigel
Another way to achieve slow running with Athearns is to install an Ernst gearing kit - they don’t have any website that I can find, but Walthers carries them, and they’re simple to install. The kits for four and six axle diesels change the gear ratio between the motor and wheels from 12:1 to 32:1, so the locomotive runs about 40% as fast as before. I have a 1980s Athearn SW with an Ernst kit, and it works well. In Walther’s on-line catalogue: http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?manu=259&split=30