Now that the first run of BLI California Zephyr cars are hitting the rails, I’ve dug out some old motive power to run some short passenger trains. I have a PA-PB set of the first run that P2K made in the four-stripe D&RGW scheme. This is the set that had only the A unit powered. This has been a NIB loco, but has been on the shelf for close to a decade at this point.
My problem is that this PA makes a rather loud squalling noise when I run it. I’ve taken the shell off and lubed it lightly with plastic-compatible grease, but this hasn’t helped a bit. The noise seems to be quite distinct from the usual problem with split gears that has happened with many P2K GPs. Yeah, I’ve got some of those, but the sound of their distress is nothing like this.
With the shell off, I can rock the chassis gently back and forth from side to side as it runs along, which seems to help with the noise. But I can’t seem to make the noise go away. It is definitely only in the front truck driveline, but I can’t seem to figure out what the issue is. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
PS I also happen to have a PA-PB set of these in the later single-stripe D&RGW scheme. Both units are powered on these later runs. I took the PA chassis out and put my four-stripe shell on it and it runs nicely. There is no objectionable noise. So I’m OK for now. But I’d still like to get my squalling, first-run PA chassis quieted down and others may not be so fortunate to have “protection power” sitting on the shelf ready to utilize like me.
Just a note of clarification, if I may. When you say, “squalling”, are you meaning “squealing”? If it’s squealing, then it may just be a lubrication issue you are dealing with.
Mike, you mentioned lubricating the gears. Did you also lubricate the wheel bearing with some lightweight oil - e.g. Labelle #108. Hopefully that will take care of the problem for you.
Tom
FYI: Kalmbach Publishing (Model Railroader Books) makes a good reference written by Jim Volhard called:
Maintaining & Repairing
YOUR SCALE MODEL TRAINS
It might be a handy one for you to pick up. They cover diesel & steam locomotive, as well as rolling stock and layout maintenance.
I have never taken a diesel truck off and apart, but if you feel you can do that, my advice would be to remove it and disassemble it. You may find that a tiny piece of plastic has worked its way into the works, is jammed, and resonating at this awful frequency at movement.
I’d try putting a little oil on the motor bearings, and the worm gear bearings on the top of each truck, if you’ve not already done so - intermittent squealing noises are usually caused by dry motor or worm bearings in my experience. Hope this is of help!
From decades ago slot car days(some of the first can motors) sometimes bearings on the motor are misaligned. The cure was to rev up the motor as high as possible and give it a good thunk with something- preferably a small rubber mallet or piece of wood. This would seat the bearings in line. Sounds stupid but it reallly works. On a train it is best to do this with the drive shafts unhooked from the truck as the no load rpm is much higher.
I read over everyone’s advice and had another crack at things tonight.
Initially, the squalling noise (too low pitched to be a squeal, IMO) seemed to come from the front of the loco, so that is what I had attempted to deal with last night, without too much sucess, leading to my post. I looked over the parts breakdown and found that the worm gear bearings seemed to be the most likely issue. There is a bit of play in the system, but I applied a drop of oil to the bearings on each side of the worm. The worm feeds the gear tower in the truck, which I lubed with grease last night. The oil helped some with the noise, but it was still rather loud.
After further analysis, it seemed that the noise was now coming more from the back truck. I removed the circuit board and oiled the worm gear on it. Then I greased the gears in that truck.
And my PA runs a lot quieter.
‘[:D]’
So the main issue seems to have been dry worm gear bearings, either from sitting on the shelf for so long or possibly a little dry from the factory. The newer run chassis I substituted definitely ran quieter than the first run chassis that was squalling then quieter after lubing properly, but there may have been other improvements that account for this.
Now I’m a happy camper. The P2K PAs seem to have the best flywheel momentum of any locos I have. They look good pulling a few new Zephyr cars, that’s for sure.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
PS
I briefly considered cutting off the trip pins, then thought better of it.
[:o)]