solved.
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Lionel says the minimum radius for that dummy is 036.
Oh, sorry. So r20 is 040 I take it. There is 054 I guess in the S gauge tin track.
http://www.lionel.com/Products...ineID=&CatalogId=
But that doesn't answer the question either. In O gauge we often find that engines and cars will pull a car off the curve and just figure out what car will work behind an engine. One of the guys made a double coupler about an inch long to insert when required. A longer coupler on the dummy might be an answer.
That is a real good tip. I have the same problem. Found the right car for forward motion but when I back up on curves or switches I'm off the track I am using all original flyer track and switches and engine and dummy run just fine in forward I will make a longer coupler or coupler bar like on the old flyer PA,s thanks !
Clip off the four tiny nibs that restrict the lateral travel of the coupler on the SHS reefer.
Originally Posted by banjoflyer:
Originally Posted by cjack:
A longer coupler on the dummy might be an answer.
Yeah, that's exactly what I did by taking an S-Helper-Service coupler, drilling a hole in the shank for the screw further away from the coupler.
It took two tries as the first was way too long and looked silly.
The second attempt worked fine but it is really frustrating to have to make such fixes on expensive equipment.
One other solution would be to run the dummy first but then there would be no headlight or flashing ditch lights.
I'm thinking of transferring the rear electrocoupler from the power unit to the nose of the dummy. I'd have to add a tether wire between the units but it would work.
Lionel needs to do more real world testing on these products prior to release.
Thanks for your input.
Mark
I would do the electrocoupler on the dummy. We have investigated putting some tmcc into the unpowered engines but by the time you fit the trucks with pickups, etc, you might as well buy a powered unit. An alternative would be a tether. Probably much more reasonable cost. I think I have resisted unpowered engines because of that, and Lionel may be hurting that part of the product line by not fitting them with pickups and maybe a light or whatever. Generally we see the unpowered engines in blow out sales.
Mark
i have had the same issue with the UP dummy SD70ACe that I have. I have to be particular about what car I have behind it otherwise it will derail the car on curves (s fastracks).
Ben
The SD70 dummy problem does not happen with Gilbert and Flyonel cars on my Gilbert track. Are you guys having problems with SHS and American Models cars?
I have occasionally experienced this problem with the ES44AC, particularly when running a train in reverse on Gilbert curves. My simple 'fix' is to select a heavy car to be the first in the train ... a Gilbert No. 936 or a boxcar with some lead sinkers placed inside. Running my non-powered unit (a SD70ACe) facing forward works in my situation, as well. This sort of thing proves yet again that the folks in product development at Lionel do not actually run and 'play' with the stuff on a test layout with sufficient Gilbert characteristics (eccentricities? 
) in order to reveal little problems such as these.
Bob
I took out limit bracket on my SD70ACe non-powered unit to fix derailing Flyonel rolling stock.
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