[NedsTJ]

My pacific is about 3 years old. It's been a great workhorse, pulling up to 10 passenger cars at displays that our club as put on in the past. However this year it seems to be losing it's touch. Definitly slowing down now in the curves (20'dia) while pulling 6 heavyweights, and can't seem to handle a 2% grade at all. I've since lubed the wheels of the passenger cars which has helped, but it's still losing power noticably. Any suggestions before I dive in and drop some oil on the gears would be great. It probably does need normal maintenance, but maybe it's something else?

 

[Del Tapparo]

Just on your layout? Or everywhere you run it? I'm thinking voltage drops in track connections. Probably a long shot, but if you have multiple connections to the track, maybe one or more of them is now open. What are you using for a power supply? Has that changed?

 

[Torby]

1. Take a volt meter and see if the track voltage is staying the same when the loco is slowing down.

2. Could be your motor's magnets are starting to fade. I don't think the motor is hard to change in these old Pacifics.

 

[NedsTJ]

Thanks for the advice. I'll check the voltage this evening (or some night this week) and see if that's whats going on. The track has feeders every 20-30 feet, but that doesn't mean that one of them doesn't have a good connection.

I'm using an Aristo 10amp supply, and running DCC. The power supply hasn't changed. I did run my RS3 which pulled all 6 cars no problem (but it also slowed down a bit on the uphill as well, but kept going...)


Hmmm...maybe it's time for the ol' Bushkill and Northern to upgrade to one of them there newer 2-8-8-2 Mallets we're hearing 'bout and relagate the 4-6-2 to role of helper.../DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/laugh.gif" border=0>

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Be sure to measure the voltage WHILE under load, not open circuit.

See if the side play on the drivers is pretty friction free... also, never underestimate a bad power pickup that exhibits itself only under certain circumstances. You might want to read my page on the aristo prime mover gearbox, under TRAINS...MOTIVE POWER....ARISTO... on my web site.

Regards, Greg