Lionel 2026 operation and Traction Issue

No traction tires and no MagneTraction.  You may want to remove the pilot and trailing trucks temporarily and use a piece of wire as a drawbar to see if that makes a difference. Sometimes the way the trucks are mounted take weight off of the driving wheels, reducing adherence.  Those trucks are mostly for show, and really should not be exerting any downforce on the rails, but should be floating nicely(their weight only) guided by their mountings.

• Make sure your track is good and clean. Sometimes well intentioned lubrication of locomotives and rolling stock can find its way to the rails, or some witches brew of track cleaner has left a residue of sorts.
• Lubricate your rolling stock. A little bit of CRC 2-26 on any pickup rollers will help clean them and have them rolling freely. A drop light oil on the wheels/axles goes a long ways too! You can use something purpose marketed like Labelle #107 or get a lifetime supply of Mobile 1 5W-30 Synthetic Oil from the auto parts store. Be sure there are no carpet strands, hair, or other debris wound up.
• Have Reasonable Expectations. Tight curves will decrease pulling power, especially O-27 - S shaped curves even more so! Share your track plan and solicit suggestions for improvements.

Of note, your 2026 predates traction tires or Magnetraction and has neither of these traction enhancing features (and just to be clear, I'm not recommending modifications to accept such).

Once again, thanks to moran4 and ADCX Rob for sending along some ideas. We will try all suggestions to see if that helps!

One more suggestion, try cleaning the driver rims with 100 grit sand paper. I had an old 2026 with the nickle rim drivers and the rims were worn to glass like polish. It slipped like crazy. One good wheel scuffing and I had it pulling 8 cars. The wheels did slip on initial start up but as the consist gained momentum the slippage was dramatically reduced to nothing on the straights and some on the curves. Also, one thing I found that really impacts pulling performance is the motor brushes. Higher pressure from new brushes or spring will increase motor load and input voltage. Good Luck

Thanks for add in your suggestion, Mill69! You all ar a great resource. Happy holidays and fun with trains!!

I have the lionel 2125ws set with the 671 turbine with the nickel rimmed drivers (no magnetraction) I don't run it that often but when I do the engine won't pull the cars unless I lube the car wheels. Postwar cars require some pulling power.

Another good suggestion, thanks!

The above ideas should help you get the pulling power of your 2026 engine up.  I like the roughing up of the wheels, a good idea.

I used to use mostly the plastic bodied Lionel 248 type 2-4-2 and they would pull 4-5 light weight cars with ease on 027 track.  I found the 2026 to be a up grade to the 248 and it pulled even better.  For real pulling of a 6 car train with heavy operating cars I have settled on Lionel 2035s, very heavy and with magma-traction.

One more idea is to add weight to the engine in the form of lead weights.  The below link summarizes factors that effect the pulling  power of engines including adding weight.  Getting a copy of the CTT article is even better if you can find one.

https://ogrforum.com/...pes-of-track-article

Here is quote from that post that I made.

"He also showed that locomotive weight increased traction.  I have noticed this for sure on my 027 tubular Marx and Lionel track as I have had to go from 2.0-2.4 pound plastic body 2-4-2 Lionel 248 type;  to the3.5 pound metal body Lionel 2016, 2026 2-6-2 type;  then to 4.5 pound metal body Lionel 2025, 2035 2-6-4 type locomotives to pull heavier and heavier trains with 4 to 6 heavy operating cars like milk, cattle and barrel  cars.  I had fun weighing many of my locos."

Charlie

Also, thank you to Charlie!

All this talk of the 2026 sent me to the basement to run mine and see what I could pull.  I didn't max it out but got mine to pull a bunch of postwar rolling stock, 6 cars and a caboose.  I recently had this engine serviced at my local train store so it has been running great and had no issues pulling the load I threw at it.  This is my father's first engine he passed down to me, amazing how this 71 year old engine still runs this great!