Don,
A stronger spring on the front truck will help keep it on the track. Main thing with this is keeping the water bath warm. Have a syringe with tubing on it and a piece of brass on the end. You can easily squirt the warm(not hot!)water in the warming tank with it. A Summerlands Chuffer is a nice thing to install, gives real good bark to your stack talk.

Posted By gibs035 on 20 Feb 2012 05:18 PM

Sailor

Are you saying that both the runs were manual. Looks pretty good to me.

 You dont have much to do to get your track to good level.

Sailor Don, Did you even try to fix the electrics? Just curious.


Bill

Posted By swanpondwv on 20 Feb 2012 10:08 PM
Sailor Don, Did you even try to fix the electrics? Just curious.


Bill

I tried to get the electronics to work.  I wiped some white stuff off the bottom of the circuit board.  It scrambled the manual commands and the remote didn't work at all.  The ignition worked for a little bit.  Then all the electronics quit.  Not worth the effort to disassemble and try to fix.  I'll just continue to run it manually as suggested by others on this topic.  It runs OK for my purposes.  I'm sort of partial to narrow gage models anyhow and the only reason I bought this mainline live steam locomotive was because it was cheap.  (I really want an Aster Berkshire!) 

Posted By Shay Gear Head on 22 Feb 2012 02:15 PM

But don't you miss the great bell and whistle!

 I am sure you are kidding about the bell and whistle. True "Sparkie" bells and whistles are better.

Posted By SailorDon on 22 Feb 2012 12:34 PM

Posted By swanpondwv on 20 Feb 2012 10:08 PM
Sailor Don, Did you even try to fix the electrics? Just curious.


Bill

I tried to get the electronics to work.  I wiped some white stuff off the bottom of the circuit board.  It scrambled the manual commands and the remote didn't work at all.  The ignition worked for a little bit.  Then all the electronics quit.  Not worth the effort to disassemble and try to fix.  I'll just continue to run it manually as suggested by others on this topic.  It runs OK for my purposes.  I'm sort of partial to narrow gage models anyhow and the only reason I bought this mainline live steam locomotive was because it was cheap.  (I really want an Aster Berkshire!) 

Don, sorry I did not post this sooner.  Just get some LPS #1 and spray it on the circuit board, then blow it dry more or less.  Should work unless you really fried it.  I have used this on numerous boards and electronic stuff and it always works.  The worst was my airwire 900 transmitter that I put the batteries in backwards and melted them.  I have sprayed it at least three times and it always comes back to life.  I also saved the Hals 3119 that someone left out in the rain out at Zube by spraying the control box with it.  One of the airlines ran one of their planes off the end of the runway into the bay.  They brought out a tanker of the stuff and sprayed the whole plane with it.  I don't know if it is still flying but I hope I never end up on it.  lol.  There is a salesman that always comes to the OTC here in Houston selling the stuff.  His demo is to spray an electric drill with it then submerge it in a bucket of water and run it.  He is still alive...........  You can usually buy it at auto parts stores or hardware stores.  I use the LPS #3 to coat battery terminals in my car.  Keeps them from corroding.

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum as of today I got my Mikado about 3 weeks ago, about 40 runs on it already. Definately a break-in period of about 5 runs or so. This is a huffin-puffin monster - when it runs. I'm having basically the same problems as are mentioned on this forum. I've found that fuel clogging issues are almost completely related to fuel freezing. I can only get good performance when using very hot water in the bath, and even so, the water is very cold within 10 to 15 minutes. First of all, is that funky regulator in back of the tank really necessary? Is it really necessary for the fuel line to wrap all the way around the tank? I have already done the thermo and electrical calcs to make a dc heater of about 15 watts or so, but I would prefer not to. Thanks in advance for your consideration!

Thanks charles, I would much rather use steam than an extra battery to heat the bath. Where can I find info on how to dol this? Is there significant pressure loss when doing this? Many thanks!

Okay, I see by your photo that you use the overflow drain fitting, something I never considered necessary anyway.

I installed a steam heater for my butane tank and described its installation back in December http://www.mylargescale.com/Communi...fault.aspx

Charles did one for me, works great.

Eric, that's a great design. I don't have the lathe to make my own valve but I wonder if a fuel needle valve from a model airplane glow fuel engine will work. Only proplem is that it relies on an o-ring for sealing and how would it hold up. Also, I need a flexibe connection between the tender for turns and lateral shifting. Perhaps some silicone tubing would work . . .

I also remove the gas regulator from the fuel tank and then added a hot water system just a little different than mentioned here.  Main thing it works and that is a key to keeping the fuel flowing with trying to freeze up thus reducing the heat to keep the boiler temp up.  Later RJD

Removing the regulator was the very first thing I did, that alone made a big difference, the regulator was a haven for fuel freezing. I'm using a ball cock valve that makes it difficult to adjust, just a tiny amount of steam is needed to warm the bath. Thanks for the advice!

I'm having a problem with excessive smoke coming out the front of the loco, not just the stack but everywhere. This is an intermittent problem that occurs when the fire has a gurgly sound. Unfortunately, I had a fire on my last run. Minimal damage and everything still works. I've been heating the water bath with steam, keeping it warm but not hot. I'm wondering if the smokebox is somehow getting fowled with steam oil, or if the flue(s) need cleaning?

Most likely you have to reduce the diameter of the oil tube going off the oilreservoir(find a tube which will fit inside the oilline and pinch it slightly 1/2 will do)also the Loco carrier is not the best choice to transport the Mikado,unless all the oil and water has been removed(shaking and rolling the box will spill oil+water in to smokebox and upon lighting will stutter and puff all over,will be hard to pop back the fire on the flue!

Manfred

Yes, I had used the carrier recently, but had a good run before the bad one. Keeping her upright just seems to be a better idea anyway. Also, Aristo says to fill with 7 to 8 ml oil every 3 to 4 runs. I wonder if 2 or 3 ml every run would be better . . .