My KATO Southern Pacific 4449 is operating weirdly...

[Dillon]

I don't know if this is the right part of the forum to ask, but my 4449 operates weirdly. I got the model on Tuesday, and I was testing it today on my layout, The Little Nevada, and it was behaving weirdly. I put the controls slow first to ease the model, but it seems like my model is struggling to move an inch, especially on curves, I put the speed to medium, and it did a "little" better, but it struggles on the curves, and at much higher speed it's the same thing, my 844 and 4014 operate perfectly normal, but my 4449 is acting weirdly and struggling.

 

I purchased the model used on eBay, and I don't know if the seller tested the model before shipping it out, I don't know if it's my tracks or the model itself. I clean my tracks every week, so I don't what happened to my model, any help is really appreciated. 

[SwallowAngel]

Not sure if this could be the source of your problems, but if I recall correctly some earlier Kato 4449 had quertering issues due to the plastic insulators cracking and letting wheels slip.

 

Maybe open up the loco and check for any tinsy weensy cracks on the wheels shafts and check the quartering visually. Wonky geometry can cause ginormous amounts of issues

[Dillon]

27 minutes ago, SwallowAngel said:

Not sure if this could be the source of your problems, but if I recall correctly some earlier Kato 4449 had quertering issues due to the plastic insulators cracking and letting wheels slip.

 

Maybe open up the loco and check for any tinsy weensy cracks on the wheels shafts and check the quartering visually. Wonky geometry can cause ginormous amounts of issues

I don’t know if that problem is in the newer KATO 4449(I have the newer model) the model looks in good condition, though I don’t know how much it was used.

[inobu]

Check your rods they could be bent. You keep mentioning curves and which some what supports the diagnosis.

 

Inobu

[cteno4]

A tiny tiny bit of a dryer lubricant like nano lube or a very fine watch oil on the articulation points may help.
 

Also look closely for puzz sucked up behind wheels and axles, I’ve found steam locos tend to suck up more things, especially larger stuff. I pulled like a 4” hair out of one of my ma steamers, blonde and fine so I was probably to blame…

 

jeff

[Dillon]

21 hours ago, cteno4 said:

A tiny tiny bit of a dryer lubricant like nano lube or a very fine watch oil on the articulation points may help.
 

Also look closely for puzz sucked up behind wheels and axles, I’ve found steam locos tend to suck up more things, especially larger stuff. I pulled like a 4” hair out of one of my ma steamers, blonde and fine so I was probably to blame…

 

jeff

I have tweezers if that works.

[cteno4]

Yes fine tweezers can probe around wheels to see if stuff sucked in, but sometimes it gets further in that requires disassembling. But always worth a probe with tweezers between wheel and chassis to see if anything is in there. Very bright light helps to see if anything in there. I’ve had folks bring me cranky locos and found amazing amounts of stuff mucked into trucks, axles, and gears.
 

Stuff sucked in won’t probably create a pronounced difference on its own due to curves, but lowers performance and so any other issues (curves and long steam wheel bases do put up some resistance) could then be more pronounced on curves. I agree with inobu, look carefully at all the articulation to make sure none is bent or mucked up or not moving well as those can really slow things down.

 

jeff

[Dillon]

Thanks.

Edited January 20 by disturbman
Unnecessary quote. Answering above message