Gears wearing fast and slipping in Hogwart's / Albert Hall engines! How are yours holding up???

Are you just hauling the three cars these locomotives came with? These models weren’t designed to pull long consists. Gear slippage generally means the mechanism is working too hard.

Also, the British class of Hall 4-6-0 locomotives aren’t called Albert Hall. Just Hall. No. 5972 was one such Hall-class locomotive, specifically the Olton Hall. Here is a full list of the Halls:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...00_Class_locomotives

There was an Albert Hall, as well, by the way. No. 4983.

Good info; I never considered the effect of too long of a consist.

I usually run my HWX train with a Williams SP FM.  Odd thing about those sets.  The engines need O36 curves but the cars will do O31 nicely.  Maybe you need to find a good PE runner in need ofca paint job and paint it red.

BTW my layouy only has O31.

Jim R. posted:

Are you just hauling the three cars these locomotives came with? These models weren’t designed to pull long consists. Gear slippage generally means the mechanism is working too hard....

By the mechanism working too hard, are you referring to the motor or the gearing? I'm asking because Gunrunnerjohn has frequently posted about the small motor in the engine of the HP rtr set and even had one of his engines retrofitted with a larger motor. I'm wondering if along with that larger motor new gearing was also put into that engine. Hopefully Grj will chime in on this post and clarify his experiences with both the original motor and larger replacement motor in this locomotive.

No real experience with the larger motor yet, I just got it back, and it's already packed for the move.  I've pulled 5-6 cars with the small motor locomotive for probably 15-20 hours, it didn't have any issues, but it also doesn't handle too many cars if there's any grades involved.  The one with the larger motor will be getting TMCC and my smoke upgrade when I get settled in my new place.

The larger motor won’t solve your gear-grinding problem. In fact, if you are running the Hogwarts Express with that small motor, I would think you would have noticed the motor struggling after about seven or so cars.

So how many cars are you putting behind that locomotive? And are they the very light Hogwarts cars or are you using the locomotive for other heavier consists?

Also, are you running the train on significant grades?

I can’t recall anyone else reporting this kind of gear problem with Lionel’s Hall model.

I don't have a gear grinding problem, the larger motor was so the locomotive could pull the eight cars I have for it.  The little motor does 4-5, but it can barely get 8 cars moving.  It's certainly heavy enough, and the pulling power of the re-motored one certainly seems fairly impressive, just have to get time to really test it.

Sorry, John, my comment wasn’t about your situation — it was about the original poster’s gear problem and followup replies. My questions above are specifically directed at the original poster, KJ356.

Personally, I think the size of the motor is immaterial to the stated problem. If the gears are shredding themselves, it points to the amount of work they have to do or an unusual lack of lubrication. But I think Kenn, in his reply, was wondering if the gears were also upgraded in your unit. I’m guessing no.

I sent it to Frank Timko, it appears that he just mounted the motor with the correct worm to engage the existing gear.  I did post a few pictures when I got it back.

Re-motoring the Hogwart's Express