wheel spin ?

[Big G]

I'm having a problem with a PF unit spinning its wheels and lacking traction, and wonder if anyone has any suggestions

This year I decided I'd put a train around the base of our Christmas Tree. I don't have the spare cash to throw at a Lego Christmas Train, so I dug out the old "Christmas Happy" from the Far East along with its accompanying car. Trying to figure out a way to easily get to the rechargeable battery pack made me decide not to try to put it in the car, so I built a simple coal car to put between them, nothing elaborate, just an open top box (I'm building it for a 5 year old who just wants a moving train and doesn't care how if it doesn't look realistic).

So here is the setup, firstly I replaced all the wheels and axles with genuine Lego because the other kind just don't roll well. There is an 8 channel RF receiver in the driver's compartment of the engine, linked to a set of lights at the front of the train and the supply cord goes to the coal car battery. In the front of the passenger car is another 8 channel IR receiver, with its supply cord again going to the battery in the coal car. Both receivers are set to the same channel so the lights will turn on and off when the train starts and stops. The receiver in the passenger car powers a PF motor at the rear of the passenger car, so the entire train is pushed from the rear. The entire rear half of the passenger car has been filled with black 2x8 blocks to add some weight over the motor.

For a track layout I have 2 x 8-section semi circles, joined together by 2 x 3-section straights. I'm using brown track because firstly, all my Lego grey track is in use and secondly Mrs Big G said we could only have a train around 'her' tree if we used a color that 'blended in with a tree'.

Well the train runs ok on the short straights, but when the rear of the train (ie the bit where the PF motor is) gets into the curve it slows down and after a few laps at a midpoint speed setting, the wheels slip so much that the train stops.

Has anyone any suggestions for tackling this (without attacking me for using "Ole Christmas Happy", this is a toy for a 5 year old after all)? I have some thoughts myself that maybe some of you can tell me they work or don't.

1 - change out the 2x8 blocks for flats instead, (possibly?) increasing the weight over the motor ?

or

2 - use a dremel to score notches across the curved track pieces in an attempt to increase traction (it's brown track, I don't care if it's 'vandalized') ?

or

3 - ???

thanks in advance, everyone

[dr_spock]

Are the tracks and traction tires clean?

Have you tried putting more weight over the drive wheels?

If that doesn't help, then try replacing the traction tires with rubber O-rings.

[Big G]

only way I've been able to "add weight" is by applying some downward force with my hand. When I do that the train moves properly again. I didn't know about the rubber o ring trick, so I'm thinking a quick trip to Lowes tomorrow is called for.

Thanks for the insight

[MGCJerry]

Danco #96749 rubber o-rings fit wonderfully. The Lowes in my tiny town had them so I got 2 packs for just over $5 for the pair.

My dual 60052 had lots of wheel slipping going up a slight incline and adding these rings helped a lot. Put them on the powered wheels and if possible, have the battery box over the drive wheels... That helps a lot too. You can try to modify your tender to be the actual 'engine' if the battery box wont fit in the loco.

[Big G]

I went through several steps trying to get this to work. I went to Lowes and got the o-rings, switched out the white traction rings on all of our motors and noticed an immediate improvement with our 60052 cargo train able to pull 7 cars at a fast speed, compared to before when it would only pull 5 before noticeably beginning to struggle.

The Christmas train, however, would still only manage 8 or 10 laps before stopping. I wiped down the track to make certain it was clean, removed the axles from the PF motor and cleared all the lint that was being picked up from the carpet and then increased the weight over the motor by building a retaining wall in the passenger car and putting 3 C cell batteries in there. By this point the motor had more than enough weight to prevent wheel spin, but the train would still only manage 10 laps or so before grinding to a halt.

I replaced the rechargeable battery pack thinking maybe I had a dud one, but the replacement failed to make any difference. However, it was while I was going through my bag of train spares that I realized I couldn't find any old Enlighten wheel/axle assemblies, just Lego branded ones. So I returned to the tree, and removed all the rolling gear from the train, only to find none of the studs had the word "Lego" on them. I thought I'd switched them out, obviously I hadn't, I must have been thinking of another train in our collection (the Hogwarts Express copy which has a diesel power plant inside its boiler!) which I converted to PF last year.

End result, now I've made all the previous adjustments and now switched the wheel assemblies to Lego brand, the train runs great around the tree until the battery runs out, then I switch the battery and recharge the dead one. However, now I'm thinking I'll use the extra battery pack to light the Gingerbread House, Santa's Workshop and the Toy Shop.

On the subject of putting the battery box over the motor, I've found the rechargeable battery is a lot lighter than the regular battery box and doesn't quite offer the same downforce, those o-rings mentioned earlier help counteract the loss of downforce with their increase in the friction coefficient.