Hello Everyone-- I am sure it's not the first time anyone has dealt with this issue, so excuse my ignorance for past posts related to it. I have a few new Kato N-Scale NW2 switchers. All are noisy, which I find unacceptable and uncharacteristic of Kato. I sent Kato an email and will call the company too. In the meantime, has Kato responded to this issue yet? Has anyone been satisfied with Kato's response? What suggestions exist, outside of taking the critter apart, which I understand is a nightmare? Thanks, Steve
Hi Steve, I must say this is a bit of a shock to me. I have about a dozen of the NW-2's and they all run fine. They don't pull a lot, but they are smooth and quiet. If you could say more about the noise it would help to come up with the problem and generate a solution. Also, is there any problem with the way they perform? In most cases of recent Kato releases with the shock absorber trucks, is that the drive line is slightly out of whack. It may be a simple matter of re-seating the trucks. If you are hearing a zapping sound then there may be a problem with the motor brushes, and that would be a Kato warranty repair. Contacting Kato is a bit of a mess since their main repair guy retired about a year or so ago. I would suggest that you try calling them, you will get a better response than waiting on e-mail.
Mine have a bit of gear noise at high speeds but running slowly they seem ok. The real thing, on the Santa Fe at least, only had a top speed of 35mph so I don't run them too fast, I find them a good slow speed switcher.
These little guys have a carrier gear set under the motor and it is a whole new drive system from other Kato Locomotives . As I have seen these seem to all be a little noisier than the typical Kato for that very reason. The carrier gears are also reduction gears as well that also contributes to the increased noise. PS they are not that bad to take apart as well. Mike
I have three of the NW-2. They have a little bit of noise, however they are very good runners. The have very good low speed response.
Model railroad news reviewed the NW2 from kato, and they are very excellent engines. However they did state they are somewhat noisy. 35 to 40 mph is what the absolute top speed of most switchers, so don't run them faster. Another thing is to use a quality gear lube, (that by itself should tame the reduction gears noise. r
As I've been converting them into SW1's with resin shells, I've had about a dozen of them apart, chopped the frames, and successfully reassembled them. They are a 'different' mechanism but by no means a nightmare. They are well-enough designed to be taken apart and reassembled without breaking something or messing something up. 1) mark the trucks "front" and "Rear" by scratching marks in them so you know which one was which. 2) Take off the body shell by prying between the sill and the metal frame casting, there are lips to the front and rear to work with. Remove the fuel tank, and the pickup wipers. 3) Loosen the two end screws enough so that the trucks can be removed. Remove the truck driveshafts now, and keep the driveshafts with the trucks. Set aside. 4) Remove the two brass clips that hold the circuit board against the frame with tweezers. These are a little difficult, get a good grip, they can be bent back easily if distorted. 5) Unclip the cab area from the rear frame. Note that it also insulates the frame halves 6) Finish loosening the frame screws. Now everything just fits together - the motor and gearbox is an intregal unit and just lifts out. The circuit board lifts out, and also functions as an insulator to keep the frame halves aligned. Nothing 'falls apart' or scatters into little pieces here. The good news is that unlike the Kato critter, or even the Bachmann 44-tonner, it has a REAL MOTOR in there. The bad news is that in order to fit it, they had to use the spur gear reduction set to drop a transmission down to the fuel tank level. That spur gear reduction set at least has the potential to create noise. You can put wire leads on the motor after the motor/gearbox is removed to see if the noise is identifiable. I'll be honest though, I've never seen anything in assembly that would contribute to random racket, but hey, you never know. They are noisier than a typical Atlas, but I don't consider them noisy. I've seen old Atlas classics that could really put out a racket way worse than this. There's also a reduction set in the trucks, more gears than usual. Again, something 'could' be stuck in there or not correctly assembled. I just want to dispel the myth that these are chinese puzzles to work on, actually, no worse than any split frame, just a completely different design attack. If you throw some thicker teflon grease on those spur gears it might do a lot, also just checking to make sure everything is tight in there might do a lot as well.
