Calling all Lionel FA experts- LCCA NH 209 pulling problem

A SUGGESTION WAS MADE TO RUN IT IN REVERSE. PUT THE DUMMY IN FRONT AND RUN THE POWERED IN REVERSE.

GG1GUYY

Thank you for that suggestion, but as the dummy doesn't have a headlight I would prefer to avoid that.

As weight is the actual problem, I would approach that issue first, rather than going around it. I don't know how much room you have, but start small. adding a little at a time until if/when you are happy.

Sorry to sound like Captain Obvious here, but I'd just set some weights - large washers? - on the loco body until things get better before trying to figure out what to put securely on the inside.

i sold the loco and bought the williams ,these were/are junk

@YGBSM posted:

Traction is the problem, it has plenty of power.

With MagneTraction and tires?  There has to be something else going on.

I never run mine for that problem......when the LionChief Plus New Haven Alcos with can motors came out.....I bought them and now can run the set without an issue.........my other choice would have been the Williams NH Alcos.

Peter

@ADCX Rob posted:

With MagneTraction and tires?  There has to be something else going on.

Nope.....light and underpowered.....I'll speculate that the AC motor in the 1958 set was better (but that is just a speculation).......I also bought the add on cars. What a joke! The engine could barely pull the Dummy A and the original 4 cars.....much less an additional B Unit, a baggage car and a combine.....

Peter

@Putnam Division posted:

I never run mine for that problem......when the LionChief Plus New Haven Alcos with can motors came out.....I bought them and now can run the set without an issue.........my other choice would have been the Williams NH Alcos.

Peter

i opted for williams for both the santa fe and the nh,,,,,they can pull stumps and look dead ringer for the l's

The new NH 209's used the rear truck for power, after those they were redesigned so the motor is the front truck. the re-issue 209's can't pull the original consist, much less the add-on set. The problem is weak Chinese magnets for magne-traction. There is very little room to add weight to make any real difference. The only real solution how I fixed mine is replace the motor truck with an original Alco motor. You can find them on Ebay. It is basically a drop in replacement. Then the engine will pull the whole set. Be sure to get a 2 magnet truck, from a common Santa Fe 218, or 220. 205 Missouri Pacific, 210 Texas special, or 217 Boston and Maine.

Just curious - I wonder if the subject engine has the same/similar chrome plated, hollow brass axles that were used on Thomas and Percy? I had one of those axles open and discovered they use two little magnets inside each axle - they look like the familiar button batteries, and there's only two in each axle, and they quite naturally both slide to one end of the axle, effectively giving "single-wheel" magnetraction!! They don't fill even a quarter of the axle! And no, they can't hold a piece of O gauge tubular track in the air, heck, they can't even pick up one end of a tubular track!! Not sure what Lionel was thinking on those??? My original axle was literally broken open, so that's how I discovered there were only two magnets - when I ordered a replacement axle from Lionel, it felt like the  same weight as the original, so I weighed them, and they weighed the same and performed the same!!

I thought I was home free when I bought some much stronger neodymium magnets from Home Depot, but they turned out to be fractionally too big to fit inside the hollow brass tube.

George