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I recently picked up a six car set of Milwaukee Road 18" heavweight passenger cars by K-Line, and one or two cars for sure are acting up on the layout. They are shorting out, I see "sparks" coming off the wheels for one thing. There also seems to be more flickering of the lights on some, but not all, so it is not dirty track. What do I look for to repair this myself? I actually have a K-Line Milwaukee caboose that does the same thing, but not always. Hope you guys can help me out once again. 

 

Jeff

 

 

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Some of these cars were assembled with insufficient length of wire going to the pickup roller which inhibited free  truck swivel on curves. The thin metal floor of the car would then cut into the wire, causing your symptom. This could be fixed on some by a little re-routing of the wire inside the car, but would require a longer wire on others. If this is the case with your cars, I’d fix them sooner than later as I have seen several cars that went from intermittent to dead short. The latter will melt some or all of the wire inside the car, and produce  some copious and odorous smoke! It’s a spectacular and realistic onetime event, however, if the car happens to be a diner.  

The sparking could be caused by dirty wheels and rollers, as others are suggesting, but if there is an actual intermittent short you need to find it NOW before running the cars again. The procedure is simple enough, examine every inch of wiring for contact with a metal surface, a break in the insulation, or a loose connection. Also check that the couplers aren't sagging. The mushroom on a droopy coupler can contact the center rail, causing a shower of sparks and a potential short that would trip the circuit breaker on the transformer. 

 

K-Line cars are notorious for flickering lights. The internal connections on the rollers aren't very good. I've given up on my cabooses - I just let them flicker away. I could splice a capacitor into each one to buffer out the erratic contact, but that's a fair amount of work for all the K-Line cars I have. 

Last edited by Southwest Hiawatha
Maybe this will be the problem. I noted that on my sharpest curves of 072 I can get a short, while nothing, apparently, on my 96 stuff. I'll  be checking this out when I can do some shop time in the basement. Thanks for your reply.

Jeff
 
Originally Posted by OddIsHeRU:

Some of these cars were assembled with insufficient length of wire going to the pickup roller which inhibited free  truck swivel on curves. The thin metal floor of the car would then cut into the wire, causing your symptom. This could be fixed on some by a little re-routing of the wire inside the car, but would require a longer wire on others. If this is the case with your cars, I’d fix them sooner than later as I have seen several cars that went from intermittent to dead short. The latter will melt some or all of the wire inside the car, and produce  some copious and odorous smoke! It’s a spectacular and realistic onetime event, however, if the car happens to be a diner.  

 

Thanks. I'll be checking out stuff soon. I have looked at the button/disc for the uncoupling aspect, but they seem to be OK. I will look at them again just to make sure. Thanks,
 
Jeff
 
 
 
Originally Posted by Southwest Hiawatha:

The sparking could be caused by dirty wheels and rollers, as others are suggesting, but if there is an actual intermittent short you need to find it NOW before running the cars again. The procedure is simple enough, examine every inch of wiring for contact with a metal surface, a break in the insertion, or a loose connection. Also check that the couplers aren't sagging. The mushroom on a droopy coupler can contact the center rail, causing a shower of sparks and a potential short that would trip the circuit breaker on the transformer. 

 

K-Line cars are notorious for flickering lights. The internal connections on the rollers aren't very good. I've given up on my cabooses - I just let them flicker away. I could splice a capacitor into each one to buffer out the erratic contact, but that's a fair amount of work for all the K-Line cars I have. 

 

I own the same set and had the same problems.  As described previously, the red wire going to the roller through the metal floor of the car does not have enough slop, and over time cuts the insulation shorting on the frame.  It seemed to only be an issue on one end of each  car.

I ended up drilling the hole bigger through the frame and putting a rubber grommet in the frame, after replacing the wire.  Worked great. 

I bought these cars 2 years ago on a whim to put behind my 261, what a sleeper set.  They look fabulous and prefer their black roofs to grey roofs of lionel. Those looking for a passenger set for behind your 261, should really check them out.

Mike
Originally Posted by leavingtracks:

This was a known problem with the K-line heavyweights...especially the early runs.  Richard is probably spot on with his assessment above....

 

Alan

One other issue was very weak springs on the trucks that failed when being operated in a command environment. When K-Line was in business they were replacing the trucks under warranty.

 

Some of the cars actually caught fire due to the weakened springs. 

I do not see your other post right here in the Forum, however I did receive it in my e-mail. Now for the silly question. I have never been able to figure out how to really use my multimeter. Can you or someone explain how I set the settings on mine to do the checking you suggest? It is not digital, but analog?, i.e. it has a mutiple readings on the dial, and a needle for measurement. Thanks.
 
Jeff
 
Originally Posted by milwrd:

Do'h, my above post is in error. with my observation car the wires for the pickup and ground (wheels) where reversed. That explains why the couplers are sparking when it was connected to another car.

 

Milwrd

 

Originally Posted by Hump Yard Mike:
I bought these cars 2 years ago on a whim to put behind my 261, what a sleeper set.  They look fabulous and prefer their black roofs to grey roofs of lionel. 
Mike

Just a note -  the Lionel Milw. Rd. scale passenger cars (cataloged with the 261) have black roofs as well.

It was the earlier set of cars marketed with the Milwaukee Hiawatha steam engine that had the grey roofs (which of course looked great matching the grey-topped steam engine and tender).

Last edited by breezinup
And I thought the  gray roofed heavyweights were for the Bi-Polar with the gray.  Originally Posted by breezinup:
Originally Posted by Hump Yard Mike:
I bought these cars 2 years ago on a whim to put behind my 261, what a sleeper set.  They look fabulous and prefer their black roofs to grey roofs of lionel. 
Mike

Just a note -  the Lionel Milw. Rd. scale passenger cars (cataloged with the 261) have black roofs as well.

It was the earlier set of cars marketed with the Milwaukee Hiawatha steam engine that had the grey roofs (which of course looked great matching the grey-topped steam engine and tender).

 

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