Lionmaster Legacy Challenger not pulling well on flat or grade

I have a lionmaster class a and will offer what i can. The fact it needs a nudge to get going indicates a problem maybe with a motor. You can try running it with the drive wheels suspended on your bench or layout just make sure the center rail rollers still make contact. It sounds like one motor may be weak or binding. How does it run with no cars in tow on the grade? It should keep steady speed up and down the grade with speed control enabled.

Are you certain that both of the two independent motors are getting voltage?  If you run the loco upside-down do both sets of wheels turn?  I agree that at least one of your motors is weak and probably needs to be replaced.  That's not an expensive or difficult repair, as long as the part is still available from Lionel.  Good luck!

Sounds like the cruise is turned off

Rod is correct, that sure sounds like the cruise is disabled.

Make sure this switch is forward in the ON position.  If that doesn't do it, there could be a broken wire to that switch.

In addition to what all posted above you might want to reset the engine's "momentum" settings.

You also might want to do a factory reset too after you turn odyssey back on. 

Keystone posted:

In addition to what all posted above you might want to reset the engine's "momentum" settings.

And make sure the brake slider is all the way up … hey, Adam.

So I checked to make sure the speed control was on.  It is.  I test ran it with both speed control off and on.  Same difficulty in getting initial momentum.  The engine ran a bit faster, but that's it.  Still won't pull itself (no cars attached) from a start.  It won't even pull away from a stop, even when i have the dial all the way up.  Once I hit boost and it's moving, it pulls its own engine and tender up the grade with speed control on and off.   The engine is a 4-6-6-4.  When I lift the front of the engine just slightly off the track, I notice the front 6 drive wheels rotate quickly and without any "drag"  When I lift the rear of engine slightly off the track, I notice the rear 6 drive wheels take more dial input to get moving and don't turn as quickly as the front with the same throttle input.  

My assumption is that one motor operates the front drive wheels and one motor operates the rear drive wheels.  I am thinking now that I have a bad motor, or something is impeding it's ability to get power to the rear drivers.  Everything appears to be properly lubricated on the side rods, so i don't think there is any resistance or binding there.  

I also think that would explain why it runs with ease and power when I hit the boost dial.  The good motor up front is more than compensating for the weak power to the rear drivers.  

Any input based on these observations would be appreciated.  

Hey Rich.  Just noticed that was you posting about the train brake slider.  HAHAH!  I wish that were the problem.  All kidding aside, that one has stymied me before.  Only for a minute or so, but it's happened.  Hope you are doing well.

I'll shoot you an e-mail now and let others chime in with any suggestions.

On a dual motor Legacy engine is there a part of a board that directs the voltage to each motor and is it always constant, i.e., 50-50 between each motor ?

Adam's O gauge posted:

  The engine is a 4-6-6-4.  When I lift the front of the engine just slightly off the track, I notice the front 6 drive wheels rotate quickly and without any "drag"  When I lift the rear of engine slightly off the track, I notice the rear 6 drive wheels take more dial input to get moving and don't turn as quickly as the front with the same throttle input.  

My assumption is that one motor operates the front drive wheels and one motor operates the rear drive wheels.  I am thinking now that I have a bad motor, or something is impeding it's ability to get power to the rear drivers.  Everything appears to be properly lubricated on the side rods, so i don't think there is any resistance or binding there.  

I also think that would explain why it runs with ease and power when I hit the boost dial.  The good motor up front is more than compensating for the weak power to the rear drivers.  

Any input based on these observations would be appreciated.  

 

 

Thats normal operation on these 2 motored locos. Diesels operate the same way. Its how the speed control syncs the two motors based on load.

I think if you try the same thing in reverse the opposite will occur.

It sounds like the motors aren't receiving enough voltage. Maybe the control board is bad?  My dad had a Lionmaster bigboy where the control board failed and it did the opposite. It started erratically rocketing around the layout until one of the gearboxes got bound up.

RickO posted:

Adam's O gauge posted:

  The engine is a 4-6-6-4.  When I lift the front of the engine just slightly off the track, I notice the front 6 drive wheels rotate quickly and without any "drag"  When I lift the rear of engine slightly off the track, I notice the rear 6 drive wheels take more dial input to get moving and don't turn as quickly as the front with the same throttle input.  

My assumption is that one motor operates the front drive wheels and one motor operates the rear drive wheels.  I am thinking now that I have a bad motor, or something is impeding it's ability to get power to the rear drivers.  Everything appears to be properly lubricated on the side rods, so i don't think there is any resistance or binding there.  

I also think that would explain why it runs with ease and power when I hit the boost dial.  The good motor up front is more than compensating for the weak power to the rear drivers.  

Any input based on these observations would be appreciated.  

 

 

Thats normal operation on these 2 motored locos. Diesels operate the same way. Its how the speed control syncs the two motors based on load.

I think if you try the same thing in reverse the opposite will occur.

It sounds like the motors aren't receiving enough voltage. Maybe the control board is bad?  My dad had a Lionmaster bigboy where the control board failed and it did the opposite. It started erratically rocketing around the layout until one of the gearboxes got bound up.

 

Hey Rick - do you know if this uses the RCMC board ?

I would try swapping motor leads and see if the pattern reverses.

This has all of us stumped. Please keep us posted as you search a solution. Good luck.