LionChief Plus Traction Tires, Operating Track, and Jet Snow Blower Volume

Peter, I am having the same problem with my L&N GP7 (cat no. 84109) that I recently bought.  It will occasionally derail when taking the curve in the switch to the left or right.  Going straight through there is no problem. I've tested this on O31 tubular track, O31 Fastrack and O36 Fastrack.  When I first bought the engine and was inspecting it, it appeared, to me, that the flanges on the non-traction tire wheels weren't as tall as I've seen on other engines.  Anyway after some running over the switches, I re-inspected the flanges, specifically the wheels with traction tires.  The traction tires on my engine are not flush with the surrounding wheel area. They are taller and therefore are raising the wheel up enough, IMO, to cause the flange not to catch the curve part of the switch.  On engines older than this, the traction tire sits flush with the surrounding area and therefore, no problems.  How to fix the problem?  I don't know.  Again, and IMO, this is a design flaw (NO slight intended) with either the rubber traction tire being to thick or the recessed part of the wheel was not machined deep enough to let the traction sit flush with the surrounding area.  Other than this issue, I like the GP.

Regarding the Operating track.  Mine does not do what you describe your's as doing.

I don't have a Jet Snow Blower

Steve

On the snowblower.....there is a small "sunburst" round dial near the front truck .....underneath.

Rotate it for sound.

Thanks SOO LINE. Yes this is a post from over a year ago and I did find it. What is absolutely incredible is that three dealers in New York that are all 50+ years in business had no clue if it had a volume knob at all. That being bad enough, I bought this new and the owners manual does not say anything about this volume dial. But to really amaze, two calls to Lionel resulted in them not knowing anything about how to change the volume and the only suggestion was to send it in for repair! There are no UTube vids on this so as soon as I get chance just to help anyone I'll post a complete vid on the Jet Snowblower. Thank you again.

RideTheRails posted:

Peter, I am having the same problem with my L&N GP7 (cat no. 84109) that I recently bought.  It will occasionally derail when taking the curve in the switch to the left or right.  Going straight through there is no problem. I've tested this on O31 tubular track, O31 Fastrack and O36 Fastrack.  When I first bought the engine and was inspecting it, it appeared, to me, that the flanges on the non-traction tire wheels weren't as tall as I've seen on other engines.  Anyway after some running over the switches, I re-inspected the flanges, specifically the wheels with traction tires.  The traction tires on my engine are not flush with the surrounding wheel area. They are taller and therefore are raising the wheel up enough, IMO, to cause the flange not to catch the curve part of the switch.  On engines older than this, the traction tire sits flush with the surrounding area and therefore, no problems.  How to fix the problem?  I don't know.  Again, and IMO, this is a design flaw (NO slight intended) with either the rubber traction tire being to thick or the recessed part of the wheel was not machined deep enough to let the traction sit flush with the surrounding area.  Other than this issue, I like the GP.

Regarding the Operating track.  Mine does not do what you describe your's as doing.

I don't have a Jet Snow Blower

Steve

Steve, I had taken this loco to a dealer who had their man look and repair the engine. The saga has not stopped for a year. They never called me for days after it had already come back from repair. When I asked the problem, I was told in Feb last year that it was a " Ground Spring." I have never worked on any trains but I'm extremely mechanically inclined as I build race engines. I just don't have the time to work on these and really don't want to. Anyway I put it on the track and all was fine in forward and reverse. So was happy. Just after this past Xmas I made the final ( LOL final ) expansion to the layout with an 072 outer track with 060 switches leading in and out. 2 right 2 left. All the trains I have run fine except now the Burlington LC+ rear truck only de-rails in or out on only the right hand switches only. I went back to the store that worked on it and was told they don't fix modern stuff. When I took out the bill from a year ago and asked "then why did you bill me for work on one?" I got a blank stare. I left and will only go back to buy something there in an emergency. I took to another and when he opened it in from of me he said, only the front truck had a " Ground Spring" and showed me. So he added one on the back and said no charge. So I forced him to accept a tip. Nice person. Last night I looked online at the Exploded View of the LC+ GP7 and I saw the trucks don't have these "Ground Springs" at all?? WT heck. I just ran the train to test and the train runs in forward now fine through ALL my switches 036 and 060s left and right hand. But on the 036 switches that have curves leading into them WHEN I RUN THE TRAIN IN REVERSE it will de-rail, but only in reverse. Now, in reverse the trailing truck climbs the outer switch rail then drops and goes straight not following the curve as the leading truck.

Now somewhere I heard that the traction tires had an issue and I looked at the ones that Lionel sent to me a year ago as replacement tires, and they look like they are much thinner, and maybe that makes the wheel flange in effect taller. This is what you are saying I believe. I will look into this and post what I find. That just might be the whole issue that causes the train to de-rail. I thank you for replying to this post from a year ago.