My new MTH 2-8-0 PS 3 arrived.

Larry, in my limited experience the drawbar has to be pushed up with 2 thumbs until you hear a soft click otherwise what you are experiencing will happen! This of course assumes there is nothing else wrong! But for sure there are people more knowledgeable on here who may have a better answer.

I had the same problem with Christmas version of this engine that I just got last month and posted on the forum to ask for a fix. Also spoke with my dealer (Pat's Trains) and he gave me a fix that worked. Below is what I posted on another thread. By the way, I still haven't found a fix for the derailing as there is way too much play in the pilot truck, if that is what it is called. There is no tension screw so the amount of play allows the small wheels to ride up on the rail unless coming into a switch the track is perfectly level.

From a previous post:

The poor connection was in the engine drawbar not being fully seated in the connector plug.  I unscrewed the drawbar on the engine side, disconnected the pin and reconnected it. Now that the connection is solid the engine runs fine, but the front truck (is this called a pilot?) has too much play and the small wheels ride up on a switch I have on the curve side and eventually the train derails as it goes into the next turn because the wheels never make their way back onto the rails. Some of my Lionel engines have a screw that you can tighten down or loosen but this MTH doesn't appear to have any mechanism to mess with the resistance or play. Any suggestions with this issue? Runs fine on a straight away, around curves and even over the straight side of a switch, but doesn't want to glide over the turn in a switch or a wye.

Play trains.  Thanks I'll try that.

Moon.  I just got the drawbar tight and ran it around the layout.    It hates all my switches and derails the pilot truck too.

Larry, hope you get a satisfactory resolution.

Those wireless tethers can be quite frustrating at times.

Rod

Larry3railtrains posted:

Moon.  I just got the drawbar tight and ran it around the layout.    It hates all my switches and derails the pilot truck too.

If you figure anything out to prevent this, please post. I'm not much on fixing these things, so real disappointed in problems out of the box with the basics.

Larry, I am glad you got the drawbar fixed.  I just saw your post, but the same thing happened on one of my PS-3 steamers.  I actually picked it up at the dealer, and he put it on his layout for a test run, so he did the fix.

As to the pilot wheels jumping track; that reminds me of all my N-scale steam back in the '80s.  There wasn't enough weight or spring tension to hold them on the track.  I am wondering if the spring is askew somehow thus not providing enough tension pushing the wheels down onto the rails.  I don't know, but it is something you may want to check.

Larry,

I have gone to putting a black tie wrap around the draw bar and where it connects into the tender. I've had several draw bars that were problems. If it loosened more than once, I tie wrapped it and that pretty much took care of the problem.

Ed Kazarian

I would be curious to know how the Proto 3 Rugged Rails 2-8-0 engine runs. I thought the Proto 2 versions of that engine were among the best runners MTH ever made.  Even though they were nothing fancy, they consistently ran well and smoked like crazy.

Ed

Larry and Moon,

Check the gauge of the wheels of the pilot truck. They may need to be spread ever so slightly wider. production variances cause this.

Spreading the wheels on the axle is not so easy to do.

Is the truck mounted with spring pressure towards the track?

Some photos would help.

I would also send an email to MTH Tech support about the issue. You are still in the warranty period.

Larry3Rail,

   Just curious as to what Track you are using, my MTH 2-8-0 P2 has absolutely no problems with either my FasTrack or Conventional Lionel Tin Plate Switches.  In fact floats thru the switches perfectly.

PCRR/Dave

PCRR/DAVE   I'm using all K -line 0-31 Snap Track   and switches. All tubular like Old Lionel.

Moonman posted:

Larry and Moon,

Check the gauge of the wheels of the pilot truck. They may need to be spread ever so slightly wider. production variances cause this.

Spreading the wheels on the axle is not so easy to do.

Is the truck mounted with spring pressure towards the track?

Some photos would help.

I would also send an email to MTH Tech support about the issue. You are still in the warranty period.

Thanks for the tips. I'll look this weekend at the pilot wheels. I've not measured this before but I've seen post on how to do this, so I'll look that up. I'm going to the Amherst Show on Saturday so I'll also stop by the MTH booth to see what they say.

I have a Fastrack layout with the smallest radius switch being O-36. The pilot wheels ride up on the rails when going through the turn of the switch and bridge the rails casuing a short. The engine does run fine otherwise and, as others have said, smokes like a chimney. Since re-seating the pins for the drawbar I have had no connection issues.

Photos of the pilot truck are attached. 

Moon posted:

Moonman posted:

Larry and Moon,

Check the gauge of the wheels of the pilot truck. They may need to be spread ever so slightly wider. production variances cause this.

Spreading the wheels on the axle is not so easy to do.

Is the truck mounted with spring pressure towards the track?

Some photos would help.

I would also send an email to MTH Tech support about the issue. You are still in the warranty period.

Thanks for the tips. I'll look this weekend at the pilot wheels. I've not measured this before but I've seen post on how to do this, so I'll look that up. I'm going to the Amherst Show on Saturday so I'll also stop by the MTH booth to see what they say.

I have a Fastrack layout with the smallest radius switch being O-36. The pilot wheels ride up on the rails when going through the turn of the switch and bridge the rails casuing a short. The engine does run fine otherwise and, as others have said, smokes like a chimney. Since re-seating the pins for the drawbar I have had no connection issues.

Photos of the pilot truck are attached. 

Moon,

Thanks for the photos. I can see that the pilot is not sprung. Adding one could be a solution.

You can quickly check the gauging by holding something straight against the driver flange and matching one truck wheel to it. Then, take another straight edge and do the same for the other wheel.

The side play needs to be there for the small radius curves. But, when entering into the switch from a curve, they maintain that set and can miss the guide rail or pick the point if they are too narrow.

It's only a matter of thousandth's, but it's a pain without a wheel puller to gently move it. I try to match them to driver flange to flange average.

Larry3railtrains posted:

Moon.  I just got the drawbar tight and ran it around the layout.    It hates all my switches and derails the pilot truck too.

Larry I got a mth santa fe northern with this kind of draw bar.And the locomotive would run for a bit then it stopped.It would make sounds but would not move.I had to send it back to mth.Good thing it was a factory defect.I did not have to have to pay anything this time.Got it back and it been running good ever since.But I thought to my self."Mike you do not need to do every thing lionel does.I did not mind the cable between then locomotive and tender.

to Carl.  Mine DOES have a spring under the axle and plate it is mounted on.  Jan 25/18.   This is my only problem with this engine now that the drawbar is seated properly.  

Now regarding running this engine with my MTH 5033 Remote Commander.  If I power the 50-1033 directly with my Z1000 the engine does work.  But it won't run under DCS control if the remote commander is in a passive mode.  i.e.  hooked up only to the track.

Is this correct?  or should it work DCS thru the passive mode?

Any HELP would be appreciated.

Larry,

Is this correct?  or should it work DCS thru the passive mode?

It should work either way.

Are you sure that the DCS Remote Commander is connected to all the same track blocks as is the Z1000? The best way to connect the DCS Remote Commander in passive mode is to connect it to either the output of the Z1000 or the input of the terminal block to which the Z1000 is connected.

Barry I have no blocks etc.  1 power from the Z1000.  But I do have a K Line builtin connector so I plugged the 50-1033 into it.  as per this pic

Larry3railtrains posted:

to Carl.  Mine DOES have a spring under the axle and plate it is mounted on.  Jan 25/18.   This is my only problem with this engine now that the drawbar is seated properly.  

Ok, that's good. Try this, with the engine on the track slide the pilot axle side to side and feel the play or movement a from hitting the rail flange to flange.

Then do the same with any other axle - like the tender or a driver set.

Is there noticeably more movement of the pilot axle?

If yes, it should be matched to one of the other axles' gauge.

Larry, I have a wheel spreader and we can check and fix the pilot truck gauge when I get home. Only trouble is that won't be until early April! 

Rod

Rod.  Sounds good to me.  I can wait.  Enjoy your time there. Going to be winter here and quite cold next 2 weeks. 

Carl.  I'll check out what you say and let you know.

Thanks to you all for helping me.

Larry,

Glad to see you got another train running on your layout.

I had a similar problem with the pilot truck on a K-Line Big Boy and was able to make it track better by replacing the spring with a stiffer one I had laying around. You could probably find one of the correct size at a local HS or hardware store or on-line.

You could also try installing a spacer, like a small washer, with the existing spring to make it stiffer and see if that helps.

Larry, I'll second Richie's suggestion about the spring. You might want to disassemble the pilot and GENTLY stretch the spring so its about 50% longer than it was. This may give you enough down force to correct the problem. I have had some success with this in the past. If that doesn't work a complete cure of course is to remove the pilot truck for now. At least then you can run trains without the hassle of constant derailments! 

Rod

Hi Larry     Run the engine as slow as it will go and get your eye ball close as possible and find out what is actually happening.. Where does it derail?  Maybe even push it but that can be a problem with traction tire. 

Is the front pony truck riding up over the frog, is it hitting a guard rail,,,?

 Maybe even compare the gauge with another piece of rolling stock.

.

I'll do all the above suggestions posted above on the weekend.  In the meantime it runs around the loop okay.   It runs fine with the remote commander plugged into the receiver, but will not run when the remote commander is in a passive mode.   It also runs fine in conventional.

Answer for  Rod - can't disassemble the pilot as  it  swings on a rivet, not a screw.

Larry3railtrains posted:

 

Answer for  Rod - can't disassemble the pilot as  it  swings on a rivet, not a screw.

Oh, isn't that just grand. Don't you just love "progress"? 

If it continues to have issues we can drill the rivet out, gauge the wheels, then tap the hole and use a #6-32 machine screw (or whatever size is needed) to put it all back together, come April.

Rod

Thanks Rod.  Look forward to seeing you both in April.   Have a great vacation.