MTH M-1 Turbine PS1

The number you posted is for the N&W J.

Marty, right you are. I transposed two digits.

Fixed original post.

Uber, thanks for the info. This is what I was looking for.

Bill

Traction problems were improved by replacing the spring on the front pilot. Mechanically, this is little different than MTH Diesels. As for curves, the bigger the better. Bummer about the damaged shell. I would not regard that as a problem specific to this engine.

FWIW, I thought enough of mine to get it converted to PS-2. It easily pulls twelve 18" MTH passenger cars. 

The secret to making this engine work is to replace the springs on the front and rear trucks with conical springs. When going uphill, the factory springs will compress and actually lift the powered trucks off the track which of course ruins the traction. If you take the body off and run without it, the stamped frame will flex going up and down hills with no loss of traction. The conical springs allow greater upward movement of the trucks.

I Have the PS2 version that has an extra set of wheel with traction tires.

The overhang is another matter. On O81:

Ken

Thanks for the replies.

Nice video. But it does show significant overhang!

Any idea where I can find the correct conical springs?

 Thanks Again,

Bill

I have the PS1 version. The shell damage from that smoke unit now has me paranoid 

My layout is level and relatively small with 072 curves, so like my centipedes, there is much overhang. It threw tires so much I quit replacing them. It manages to still pull a 4 car passenger set. It spends a lot of time on the train room shelf, but it is the engine that guests seem to be fastenated with. Another oddity; not one of nine PS1’s has ever failed (hope I didn’t just jinx myself). I have BCR’s in all of them. My PS2’s are a different story 

Swanpondwv posted:

Any idea where I can find the correct conical springs?

 Thanks Again,

Bill

Another Forum member figured out the fix for this problem and I bought the springs from him. Unfortunately I don't remember his name.

Here are a couple of pictures of it. Uncompressed:

Partially compressed:

Whatever you use it has to be a pretty weak spring so it has just enough tension to keep the truck on the track and will compress easily. I think I've seen Lionel springs like this. You might do a search of their parts website.

Ken

Thank you all for your feedback.

When I get a chance to take a look at it I may have some more questions.

 Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Bill

Well, my M-1 runs great and it seems to have have the conical spring already installed.

 Thanks again to all of you for your feedback.

Bill