Kato Ktt Double-deck Through Train (Hong Kong - Guangzhou)

[Hambal]

Hi, I am Hambal. I own a complete set of the Kato Ktt Double-deck Through Train. I bought it in London in 2003. It has not been operated a long time BUT I decided to 'play' with it since the Covid 19 lockdown. But lately I found it looses power and stalls frequently. I suspect it must be the motor. I have cleaned the tyres and oiled the motor BUT still faces the problem i.e. stalling and difficult to run again. I suspect it to be the worn out carbon brush of its motor. Anyway I welcome any advice and help to resolve the problem.

 

I am also willing to buy if need be the relevant spare parts or motor or any other trains motor that can be used to replace existing motor.

 

Thankyou.

Edited May 17, 2021 by Hambal
Spelling mistakes

[cteno4]

Hi Hambal,

 

sorry it’s not working well, a few questions 

- Do you have other engines to try on your track to see if the dips occur with other trains?

- Have you cleaned the track well?
- what is the track, how long and how many power feeds?
- is it always a stall or just a slow down sometimes.

- does the frequency of issues decrease with speed

- Do the stalls and slow ups happens t the same places?

- did you look at the power pickups from the trucks to the chassis when you had it apart to see if they were corroded or dirty?

 

this could also be due to some voltage loss in track joints at some places. Depending on how many power feeds you have and it can be a bit dynamic on a bad rail joiner if track is loose as they can flex when the engine goes over then a little and have a little temp voltage drop. Usually you will see with dirty track or voltage drops all the engines will have issues in the same places generally. Although some engines are more forgiving than other, running better or having large flywheels that can push thru a bad connection area.

 

some things to try

 

sent up as minimal loop of track you can with as many power feeds to the track as possible and see if the engine runs smoother,

 

set up a small loop and run the engine at a decent speed that it keeps going and let it run for a half hour. Check it every few minutes to see if it’s getting really hot. If it gets hot stop. This is a good sign something is binding in the motor or drivetrain if it gets hot fast. Then it would be tearing it down completely and running the motor separately to see if it’s running smoothly as you cycle power up and down. If it stalls then it’s maybe something sucked into the stators that’s rubbing (if an open motor design) or bad brushes, which may or may it be able to be replaced.
 

If the motor runs fine then it may be the drive train and tearing it all apart and cleaning everything out well and reassembling everything and lubing may do the trick. Cat hairs and some carpet fibers can get sucked in and wind around just one rotation joint and not be very visible until you pull everything apart.

 

disassembly also let’s you look all the contact point between the wheels and the truck wheel pickups and the truck pickup to chassis wipes. Stalling can be these not making good contact (bent or out of alignment) and or dirty or corroded. 
 

at times just stripping the whole engine down and reassembling just fixes it. At that point you just have to shrug. Something was probably fitted a bit off in the first assembly and putting back together again carefully fixes it. Don’t quite have a reason but you got a collation.

 

when you oil the motor bearings make sure to use a really fine oil meant for very small bearings (watch out and not a general purpose oil) as these bearings can easily get gummed up. Use very tiny amounts on the motor bearings, too much will just make things worse in the long run. Same goes for all the other lubing, do it sparingly and add a tiny amount and run a moment and repeat until you just see a good sheen of oil on the gear surfaces, you don’t want to see a bunch of oil itself on the gears.

 

Tips on the teardown:

- work on one piece at a time. Ie remove a truck and tear it down, clean and reassemble it, then do the second (it will be much easier the second time!).

 

- as you disassemble take a lot of pictures as you go along, preferable one of each part in place before you pull it out and if there are tricky orientations take a picture with the part partway out of the place it sits. Take notes as you go along or even a video and narrate. Really helps when you go to put things back together and can’t quite remember how something snaps in.
 

- Arrange parts on some surface like a sticky silicone phone mat (ones you use on your das board so cellphone doesn’t slide off) or a piece of solid color velour fabric. This helps you keep track of parts as you go in sort of how it comes apart and don’t let the tiny parts roll away.

 

- do a Google and you tube search as many times you can find someone who has documented problems, solutions, teardowns, etc or your particular engine or a close cousin.

 

good luck!

 

jeff

[Hambal]

Thankyou Jeff for your elaborate suggestion/tips. Anyway I am quite sure that the railway tracks are OK as my other locomotives are running well on them. With that I guess I will have to consider taking the train apart and look at the motor etc etc and of which I am rather reluctant to do at the moment.

 

I am more keen  in looking for a replacement motor or as someone has suggested there is a possibility that replacement parts for an RE460 locomotive is exactly the same under the hood (apart from the couplers). I am just wondering if anyone can recommend to me a shop that sells the RE460. 

 

Thanks again for your help ... Jeff and I have been very lucky to be able to find and been invited to join the jnsforum.com

[cteno4]

Ok sounds like it’s somewhere in the engine. Best to first go thru the drive train to rule out any issues there as well as power pickups on wheels and chassis. If those all seem good the pointing to the motor.

 

jeff