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 Posted - January 13 2008 : 12:08:54 AM
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After a year of scrounging certain parts and retrofitting, I have finally equipped the "trailer jet" so that it can actually move!
Recall that Tyco's plastic axle trucks have a TON of drag... compare them to any other modern metal-axle car. Now you know why Tyco's sets rarely exceeded a handful of cars.
But there are 22 cars in the trailer jet! I knew a PT would implode under the strain (making 3 of them something like a cult suicide)... but to my astonishment and disdain, even two new Atlas hogs failed to get it going.
So for the last year I have been scrounging for the scarce, earlier snap-in plastic trucks with METAL axles. You can find them on certain early versions of the caboose, tanker, 40' reefer, and flat car. Tyco also sold them separately, but they seem to cost too much on ebay - I can get the whole car for what those carded pairs sell for.
I got enough to upgrade 17 or the 22 cars... and the difference is amazing. Even just ONE PT almost gets it moving... but not reliably of course. The IHC SD24 gets the whole thing around the layout but still with some balkinees. It's still a beast of a train with lots of drag.
Ever try to multiple-unit 3 PTs in a consist? Or two PT's and an MU-2? HAHAHA that ain't happening.
But one Athearn GP-40 handles it easily now... whereas it would spin in place a year ago.
I may try to get some video soon... I just wish I could run the Tyco units at the front, but that will have to wait for a rebuilding session, and for me to get a Chessie 430 with a PT drive. The MU-2 just does not play nice with the others.
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 Posted - January 13 2008 : 12:16:16 AM
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| Did you add any weight to that IHC SD24? Mine didn't pull too well when I got it new. I added about 5 oz of extra "balast" and it pulls much better! Those locos were just too lite out of the box!
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Posted - January 13 2008 : 12:37:44 AM
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| Nope, it's just straight-stock. I was afraid adding too much weight would snap that flimsy plastic frame [:D]
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Posted - January 14 2008 : 5:56:37 PM
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| I've got one of those IHC's too. And people complain about Tyco quality???[xx(] I had to add a bunch of weight to mine. It would barely make it up a 2.5% grade by itself.
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Posted - January 14 2008 : 6:29:04 PM
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| G-I-C I know what you mean by locomotive not being able to pull the cars. When i did my power torque pull video--all of my tyco cars had been equipped with metal proto wheels--My Stewart powered golden eagle would only spin trying to pull 25+ Tyco cars of which 10 were the die-cast operating Virginian hopper cars and that is a heavy loco with flywheels. It was a struggle for the 2 power torque Virginian alcop 430's to pull them.
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Posted - January 15 2008 : 1:13:15 PM
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Video is on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC4Rwoo9Yqo
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scmich
Little Six
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Posted - January 15 2008 : 1:45:26 PM
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| Love the outtake at the end of the feature film.
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Posted - January 18 2008 : 02:01:50 AM
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| My comments are on the youtube site. I'm the "crownprinceofgroovy."
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