I see that M-T has been selling freight sets with a Model Power 4-4-0 as motive power. Now I have a couple of these 4-4-0s and, while I like their looks and how they run, they aren't good pullers because you can't put traction tires on the drivers since, with only two pairs of them, you would be compromising the electrical contact. Mine are nice, as I say, but they will pull no more than four cars, and up a grade with this load is out of the question. Did Micro-Trains figure out a way to improve the tractive effort of this loco while still maintaining good contact?
Not familiar with the M-T 4-4-0s Jay...do they have any electrical pickup via tender wheels? The first thought is "bullfrog snot"...I hear it really does wonders. But on a 4-4-0 and the compromise of electrical pickup? Perhaps on the flats of the drivers (2 of them) and non on the flanges (that they will still conduct electricty in their contact with rail? Hope you find a solution! Respectfully, Gary L Lake Dillensnyder
Jay, Please don't give mr any credit where it may not be due. You don't really think they did anything to MP locos ahead of time do you? I would think not. My MP 4-4-0 is my favorite loco for detail and overall looks in my stable. However, it pulls no more than 4 cars and less on a 2 degree grade. Jim
glakedylan---I'm not really dissatisfied with my own 4-4-0. I have one in Northern Pacific, and also a Roundhouse (now Athearn) 2-8-0 in NP. The 2-8-0 is a decent puller, and I have it at the head of a 10-12 car freight, while I got an NP old timey Roundhouse 4 car passenger set for the 4-4-0. It wouldn't pull all four cars---until the cars were fitted with smooth Micro-Trains trucks. I never route the passenger train over the mountain, of course! The freight, however, with the 2-8-0 can go anywhere it pleases. So, on old time "NP nights" everything works not quite great, but well enough. The 4-4-0 is what it is, and it looks cool with the nice Roundhouse passenger cars. Still, when I see the Micro-Trains set, it makes me wonder. From what I know, that 4-4-0 isn't a strong engine and if it were me, I'd hesitate to use it as the motive power for a "set"---unless I found a way to improve its pull, and that is the thing I'd like to know---is this 4-4-0 superior in performance? If so, what did they do to it?
Jay: I kinda doubt they did anything to it. I put a traction driver set from the Pacific on mine, and converted the tender to Kato trucks. With 8-wheel pick up on the tender it runs fine, and pulled over 2 dozen "loaded" hoppers when we tested it on "N-trak". JimR.
Good to know! I have a busted-arse 4-6-2 that would be a great donor to my 4-4-0, for the TT's. I can use the tender shell and cab elsewhere (already NP marked! yay!)
Micro-Trains didn't do anything to improve the poor pulling of the Model Power 4-4-0. I have 2 of the 4-4-0... one MT&SL directly from Model Power... and on one Santa Fe made by Model Power for Micro-Trains. No difference in performance between the two...but... they make equally handsome paperweights. ;~)
I've been buying up Bachmann cabeese on fleabay to us ethe trucks; all (8?) of my Model Power steamers will be converted!! That should help drastically.
Bachmann Cabeese??? They don't have any sort of pickup, why would you be buying them? The only caboose with pickup is the Kato.
Kiasutha, could you describe exactly how you upgraded to the Pacific trucks, or could you point to some sort of tutorial that describes how you improved the pulling power of this loco?
The short and simple answer to tuning up a 4-4-0..... Replace the Model Power trucks with trucks scavaged from Bachmanns parts department or a Spectrum tender. Solder fine flexible wire from the tender truck pickups to the respective red and black wires in the tender. (Red = Right rail if I remember correctly) Replace the rear most driver with the traction tire driver set from a Model Power 4-6-2. It will now run fine over any turnouts and pull twice as much as the real loco could.
Thanks for the info Skipgear. Are the Pacific traction tires still available for purchase from from Model Power, or do you need to canibalize one to obtain the tire?
I just checked and it looks like the TTs are available. Price around $8. What Skipgear said about how to improve the 4-4-0 is spot on. But!! What you get for the traction tires is actually an axle with the wheels that have the traction tires already on them. Here is a link to a page showing what you will be getting. This opens up a whole can of N scale worms. There are two ways to get this done. The first is fairly complicated and requires a good bit of dis-assembly of the engine and some delicate work with the electrical pickup that is very delicate. The easier way is to pop the wheels off the new set and do the same with what is on the engine and replace them with the ones with the traction tires. Someone here probably has the instructions on how to do the installation.
Sorry,not ignoring you-took advantage of the weather to get "out"yesterday... Tony really covered it in his post,but I just took a look at my loco anyway. Mine uses Kato caboose trucks;I had a bunch & like the looks better for this. I wanted to be able to drop the trucks easily,so I rigged screw terminals in the floor instead of soldering everything together. Those pick-up strips on the loco were a pain and very flimsy. I decided to risk scrapping them and depend on the tender only-it's worked fine so far. (I was also thinking of adding a second traction axle if needed to handle passenger cars on hills at home...) Hope that helps, JimR.
Thanks fellas. I'm going to try to upgrade to the traction tires on the rear loco axle, and install Kato or Bachmann tender wheels. If anyone knows of any pitfalls I might encounter, please let me know. I'm new to disassembling a steam loco, and don't want to screw up the gearing or quartering and render a nice loco useless. Any help would be much appreciated.
