MTH Leland Monorail sounds like a rusty cement mixer!

Mine does the same thing. The problem is the small "traction" ridges on all the wheels which only need to be on the power car. I assume  MTH just went with those wheels probably to avoid tooling for smooth wheels. I put a small size traction tire on one wheel of each car which it helps a tiny bit. Obviously only one wheel so you still have conductivity for the lights and motor. 

Chris Lonero posted:

Mine does the same thing. The problem is the small "traction" ridges on all the wheels which only need to be on the power car. I assume  MTH just went with those wheels probably to avoid tooling for smooth wheels. I put a small size traction tire on one wheel of each car which it helps a tiny bit. Obviously only one wheel so you still have conductivity for the lights and motor. 

Thanks Chris, I wonder if polishing the ridges would reduce the noise and decrease the drag? 

Ok so grinding smooth and polishing the rollers had little effect on the sound but the monorail runs smoother now, so it's not a total loss.

samdjr74 posted:

Ok so grinding smooth and polishing the rollers had little effect on the sound but the monorail runs smoother now, so it's not a total loss.

So you ground down the ridges on the wheels?  Any pictures?  

Chris Lonero posted:

samdjr74 posted:

Ok so grinding smooth and polishing the rollers had little effect on the sound but the monorail runs smoother now, so it's not a total loss.

So you ground down the ridges on the wheels?  Any pictures?  

I ground them down a lot but not all the way. They are mostly smooth now, hard to see from the picture, bad camera that wouldn't focus

Is this issue limited to convential/traditional models or PS-2/PS-3 models? Thanks

rdg_fan posted:

Is this issue limited to convential/traditional models or PS-2/PS-3 models? Thanks

That I'm not sure of. I have the conventional PS-3 model and mine has/had the grooves. The issue with the sound is it's loud, like so loud it's the only thing you hear on the layout when running. But it doesn't seem to be a fault in the system, just part of the design. I did notice once I ground down the grooves, it had a mild adverse effect, the cars seem to sway back and forth now as if the grooves were designed to keep the cars upright. Ok, so that's not a horrible thing to deal with but it does seem that MTH may have purposely made the dummy cars with grooved wheels. Also as I've never seen an original Leland, I have no idea what the cars wheels look like, maybe they had grooves as well?

Can you put bullfrog snot or something like that on each roller (would act like a tire) and then add a wiper or two for current?  Maybe that would quiet it down?  I don't have one so really can't comment, but just trying to throw some ideas out there.  I'm guessing the ridges were for traction in the first place.

Dennis Holler posted:

Can you put bullfrog snot or something like that on each roller (would act like a tire) and then add a wiper or two for current?  Maybe that would quiet it down?  I don't have one so really can't comment, but just trying to throw some ideas out there.  I'm guessing the ridges were for traction in the first place.

It's not a bad idea and might be worth a shot. I was also thinking about putting on some rubber tires on all wheels and running a small power cable for the lights from the engine.