Trackmobile stalls on switches

Usually, it's the spacing of the rollers.  I have certain locomotives that stall on some switches if I go over them slowly.

Not much room to space out the rollers on the Trackmobiles.  I've ran mine over several switches but have to get the speed up a bit.  No room for a flywheel on the motor to keep the momentum up.

 

 

I have a new Lionel PRR trackmobile that hasn't seen action on the layout yet. Now I will know to run it fast!

 

Bill

Lionel TMCC Erie, PRR and B&O

I find a number of locomotives have some issues with switches at slow speed.  On several steamers I've added a pickup on the tender and tied it through the tether to the track power in the locomotive, makes a big difference.  I use a PTC between them to avoid cooking wires.

Not much room on the trackmobile to add another roller.  Just to make sure I'm going to checkout the rollers and make sure both are working properly. If they are working correctly then I will just have to crank up the speed a bit, lol ...

I know what you mean.  I have a small yard (that's why I got the trackmobile in the first place) and if I fill the sidetracks with three cars there is just enough room for the trackmobile.  Also I have these MTH tankers and they are so heavy I can't pull even one of them!

Robert,

Did you have any further luck getting your trackmobile to work properly on those Fastack O36 switches? I have a small yard as well and was very keen to get a trackmobile but now I am not sure. I have several areas where there are multiple switches and have had problems with my Lionel C420 (TMCC version) stalling. I had to rig a wire to feed in from a car behind with a pickup roller to keep it going similar to what Gunrunner John mentioned above.

I think I will pass on the trackmobile if it will give me problems. I sure am thankful for this forum to check on items before I purchase. How has your been running?

Thanks,

 

Jay in Ottawa  

I can get over the O36 and O72 Fastrack switches with a little speed, but if I'm going really slow, the Trackmobile and a number of other engines may stall.  It seems worse on the O36 switches for some reason.

I run my Trackmobile on Real Trax. I have 031, 042, 054,072 and 072 Wye switches. I have been fortunate, it does not stall on my switches. 

Gentlemen,

   FasTrack switches have a lot of plastic in them, that causes the problems that

he is having, in reality this is why I had to engineer my FasTrack Layout with

the old 711 and early 072 Lionel tubular switches.  There are just some engines and Trackmobiles that the FasTrack switches will not accommodate.  The reality is FasTrack switches were engineered for modern trains, not Trackmobiles or Tin Plate Trains.  There are only 2 kinds of O Gauge switches that I know of that accommodate every different kind of O Gauge engine, along with Trackmobile and small independent Car & Truck type motorized equipment, when running at normal to slow speed.  The original low voltage, K-Line SuperSnap Switches, which are now the RMT SuperSnap switches, and the old 711/072 Lionel tubular. Down thru the years, I have tested and run just about every different companies O guage switches, some we bought and resold, others were borrowed.  It is not uncommon for FasTrack switches to stall TrackMobiles, it is simply the engineering design of the FasTrack switches. To much plastic and not enough metal for contacts.

PCRR/Dave

 

Lionel FasTrack & old 711/072 Switches

 

 

Thanks for that Dave. I will maybe look for a larger switcher that won't have the stall issue as I'm not prepared to redo the layout at this time.  Thanks.

 

Jay in Ottawa

This might seem like a dumb suggestion, but I have a track mobile and it went over all my fastrack switches no problem (O36) for quite a while and not at break neck speeds either (top speed for a track mobile isn't that fast anyway but it would crawl over them just fine too).  Then it started stalling on switches.  I was upset.  But realized my track and rollers were dirty as dirty could be....worth a look.

You need a double-header MU lash-up of Trackmobiles.

 

That's worth a try.  I will give it a shot when I get home.  I also have a speeder and maybe the pickup rollers are farther apart but I don't have an issue with it.  I did notice that if I use my boost on my cab-2 that it helps my trackmobile.

I have two Trackmobiles. I run them at a crawl through ATLAS 072 Switches all the time. The spacing is fairly good, BUT you need clean Track and Rollers!!

 

Fredstrains

Great picture Ace. Let them roll. I have a trackmobile and a speeder and think they are great to run. No issues yet on switches. David