Paul:
I must thank you profusely. Twenty-four hours ago, I had never heard of a reed switch. Even wondered if that was a typo for "read."
Of course it is not.
The problem with the Sunset/3rd Rail was with the rear truck. The axle holding the wheel with the magnet had actually detached from the truck. Why I am unsure. I just popped it back in and the chuffing is back! Thank you so much!
I have a further question on the same unit. The front truck on the tender has this mysterious four armed copper bridge, as in the picture. What is it for?
The Weaver locomotive seems a different matter. It is behaving very eratically. It lurches into motion and slams to a car derailing halt. Very hard to control for a smooth start and absolutely impossible to come to a graceful halt. Again, all is conventional operation. No TMCC yet. Any advice as to what I might do for that? I have oiled it and greased the gear box as well to no improvement. Might it perform better under TMCC?
Again, thanks for telling me about the reed switch.
Terry Danks
