Two weeks ago I picked up a command control tinplate set that I've desired for years-- a 250e Hiawatha streamliner set with MTH's 3V Protosounds 2.0 onboard. I finally had some time to tune up the locomotive and cars this weekend. It was a bigger project than I anticipated!
Opening the tender up was pretty easy-- 4 screws, one in each corner, and two little tabs on the tender body. Inside I discovered the usual Protosounds 2.0 3V board in very good condition.
The original blue-wrapped 3V battery was still holding a respectable charge, but considering that it's something like 12 years old, I replaced it with a BCR. The BCR plugged right in to the battery's Molex connector and I closed up the tender again with little difficulty.
Unfortunately, after reassembling, lubricating and putting the engine and tender onto the layout for a test run, I discovered a new problem. My layout is a bit hilly and the front truck on the 250e was jumping up and derailing on every slight grade. After some experimentation and slow-speed running, I was able to determine a pattern. The locomotive's massive body was teeter-tottering up and over the grades on my layout, lifting the front truck right off the track. The front truck would then slam back down as the drivers crested the hill, causing an ugly derailment if the flanges picked a switch or jumped over an O72 curve. It seemed like the front truck couldn't drop DOWN far enough to follow the back side of the hill.
I took the entire front truck assembly out and inspected it for defects. I noticed that the slot for the front truck's post had some rough burrs on it, so I polished the slot with a very fine file. Other than this, I didn't see any serious defects with the front truck assembly, everything looked stock and unaltered.
I looked around my train collection and found a scale engine that also had long front trucks and a rigid frame. I noticed that the scale engine's front trucks had a lot more vertical travel than the 250e's did-- the pilots could swing down quite low to guide the engine down grades, giving vastly better performance on uneven track. Inspired by this, I decided to modify the front truck on my 250e to improve the vertical travel. I drilled out the original post and replaced it with a 4-40 machine screw that was a full 1/2" longer. I tapped the screw into the truck frame and torqued a nylon locknut on the other side to hold it securely in place.
I rearranged the washers, replaced the horseshoe clip holding the bracket and swapped the original spring out for a slightly larger one. After reassembling the locomotive, I could immediately tell that the front truck was sitting quite a bit lower. I estimated that the vertical travel had increased from the original 1/16" to 1/4", similar to what my scale engines have.
The 250e is now a very solid runner! With the improved front truck, this long streamlined engine climbs up and down all the "hills" while staying firmly on the rails. The Hiawatha's articulated coaches are extremely heavy but the engine has a big can motor and traction tires so it pulls them quite nicely.
Check it out running on the layout!
