I removed the LionDrive couplings, but ran into an unexpected problem. The engine does not "free roll" very well. I used my trigger gauge to measure the force needed to roll just the now non-powered engine and it was about 12 oz of force on straight track (Atlas) and over 2 pounds on O72 curves. The entire 16 ft autorack train only requires 8.5 oz of force to roll. Running the engine as non-powered is worse than if I keep it powered even though it runs slower. These ES44s have all 6 axes geared instead of the usual 4, so maybe the gear friction is too much to allow the non-powered engine to roll easily, especially on curves. These engines have a minimum curve of O54. The wheel gauge measures the same for all wheels: 1.070" +/- 0.002 measured back of flange to back of flange. This dimension appears to be the same on other Lionel engines I measured. Anyway, removing the LionDrive coupling was a good idea, it just didn't work out for this particular engine.
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