I have the Lionel 6-28070 SP 4-4-2 with Odyessy 1. Occasionally on startup, it'll first "jump" and then run normally. Also, on some switches it'll suddenly put on a burst of speed and then fall back to the programmed speed. It was first doing this on almost every switch, I discovered the wiper on the trailing truck was not touching the axle and thus only the driving wheels were providing track common. Obviously, passing over switches and the 90 degree crossover, that wasn't sufficient. Fixing that greatly improved the performance, but didn't provide a 100% cure.
The leading truck doesn't have a wiper or ground wire connection, is it possible that adding one there would help this issue?
I've seen other posts where folks threw up their hands and installed the ERR Cruise Commander M, is that the only real solution?