my new mth gs 4 premier line has been pulling a heavy 12 car passenger train fine until all of a sudden it stoped and just started slipping the drivers. what would cause this.
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Pulling a heavy train or heavy grades will eat up traction tires. With diesels you can add another powered unit, but with with...swap out the tires for new ones and start again. You could always remove a car or two if it happens again rather quickly. Make sure all those cars are rolling freely.
After checking the traction tires, you may need to clean the locomotive wheels and track with naphtha.
Larry
I had a number of traction tires left from some lionel legacy northerns with 80 in drivers so I put on two of those on the mth gs4. They are the same diamerter as mth but about twice as thick and when they go on (which is good and tight) they stick up slighty higher than the metal rim of the wheel and almost doubled the pull of the engine. The mth tires were very thin, even the replacement ones. It looks like the mth tire and steel rim hit the rail at the same time so I suppose some slip is from the steel rim on the rail. Engine still runs very smooth at 1 scale mph.
Oddly, I typically go the other way. I've found the Lionel tires to be too thick, even on many Lionel products, so I use the MTH tires.
Try the next smaller diameter lionel tire and stretch it a little more and get some meat on that driver.
I don't like those thick tires either. Much prefer the thinner ones.
I've never had an issue using the MTH tires, so I don't feel the need to try to make the Lionel ones work. There have been a few locomotives that I still use Lionel tires on if I can't find a suitable MTH replacement.
Oddly enough, my Weaver (upgraded to PS-2) locos from 1990-1993 still have original traction tires, but my later locos from other brands have required occasional replacement.
John, I am with you on the MTH tires. They are the way to go. The Lionel tires then and today are thicker than they should be.
The weaver early brass engines were made by samhongsa and where some of the best made brass engine from durability. My fef, berkshire, and williams brass big boy, challenger, and J still have the original tires and still pull like crazy. also the seuthe smoke units still work fine long after the TA smoke units gave up on smoking.
