Legacy T-1(reading)., improving tractive effort. Help needed.

Add Lead Shot to the boiler. That's what I'm going to do.

Bullfrog Snot on the wheels

I don't have this engine. If I did, I'd look at a couple of things. As posted, there's the boiler weight or weight downward on the main drivers.

Also, the springs on the lead and trailing trucks. If they push too much, they'll take weight off of the main drivers.

Finally, the way the tires touch the rails. It can even be the brand of track used. If the rail is too round on top, not as much surface touches the rails.

Traction tires solves many issues. They can also be a source of their own. You may have to glue them on in some instances.

 Unless this involves an inclne.I see no one mentioning the drag of the passenger cars.

Are these Lionel new AFT cars? If you place one on the track does it roll freely? I.e.if you give it a shove will it coast for several feet on its own or does it grind to at shop in a couple of feet?

Lube the axle ends, and if the copper wipers have too much tension on the axle try bending them a bit to relieve some of the tension.

I have some older k line heavyweights that rolled very poorly out of the box because of the overly stiff axle wiper.

Bending the wiper away from the axle to rdeuce the drag has them rolling freely.

Having said that, the wipers are still making plenty of contact for good electrical connection.

Engineer-Joe posted:

Also, the springs on the lead and trailing trucks. If they push too much, they'll take weight off of the main drivers.

Joe has a good point here.  This Loco has Lionels new kinematic drawbar.

I recall an issue someone had with the kinematic drawbar on the MR S3.

It was not floating correctly and was supporting part of the weight meant for the drivers creating a traction issue.

I believe an adjustment of the drawbar solved the problem. Might try a search of the legacy  S3 drawbar.

Rick O posted "I recall an issue someone had with the kinematic drawbar on the MR S3." Here's one:

https://ogrforum.com/...oblematic-locomotive

"........

Similar but different: My new Lionel S-3 had almost no tractive effort when I first got it.  would hardly pull anything.  I checked for binding on the drivers, remembering the problem with the Weaver Hudson, but they were just fine.  Finally, I found that the trailing truck was not moving up and down properly, binding in the radius limiting slot.  Here, the weight which should have been on the rear driver was being supported by the trailing truck.  Repositioning the spacer cured the problem and now that engine can walk off with over 25 cars up my 2% grades with ease.

.....

Paul Fischer

 "

jeremy ferrell posted:

... you have to be a hell of a  legacy remote engineer/firemen to get the job done without stalling. It doesn't  need much help but it for sure needs something.  

 

 

When it stalls, are the drivers spinning? Is it doing anything?

I pull 15 cars plus an auxiliary tender with my T-1.  On the club layout, it only slipped when the track was uneven and sometimes over switches.  The cars are mixed MTH Streamline and Williams Heavyweights with some pickups removed on the Williams Cars.

Engineer-Joe posted:

jeremy ferrell posted:

... you have to be a hell of a  legacy remote engineer/firemen to get the job done without stalling. It doesn't  need much help but it for sure needs something.  

 

 

When it stalls, are the drivers spinning? Is it doing anything?

The drivers just spin.   As was posted above.  Tomorrow Im going to play around with the spring under the rear trailing truck I noticed today it is incredibly tight compared to others and we don't have the best track work on the club layout and I could very well see it it taking pressure of the drivers on some of the more un level sections.   It doesn't need much help at all just the smallest bit of pressure downward moves it right along 

I had the exact same problem with my Legacy Reading T1.  Sent it back to Lionel and they sent me a new one.  They said they didn't have parts to fix the problem.  My T1 works good now.  Here was my problem in a thread and there is a video of what went wrong.  Hope this helps. Good Luck.

https://ogrforum.com/...y-reading-t1-problem

laz1957 posted:

I had the exact same problem with my Legacy Reading T1.  Sent it back to Lionel and they sent me a new one.  They said they didn't have parts to fix the problem.  My T1 works good now.  Here was my problem in a thread and there is a video of what went wrong.  Hope this helps. Good Luck.

https://ogrforum.com/...y-reading-t1-problem

I actually tried to find your old thread I had remembered it from when I had gotten my chessie t1.   I think we're going to look into adding some weight to see how that works I'm also going to send Dave Olson an email to see if he has any suggestions.   Thanks for sharing