@Norm Charbonneau posted:Those older JLCs were interesting in that they built with a combination of sprung and fixed axles and floated and fixed gearboxes. The front gearbox being unrestrained (maybe a better term than 'floated') will tend to wind up under load as the worm engages the axle gear. Being that the front universal is a slip coupling, you can imagine the front gearbox is very free about the axle. You may want to look closely at which axles were actually sprung vs. fixed, you may find it interesting. I think the rear gearbox is fixed much like a traditional diecast engine.
For comparison, the new Class A has fixed gearboxes front and rear and all axles are fixed. Not sure what changes Lionel did to the Allegheny when they made the Legacy version of the JLC. I will get another Allegheny when Lionel offers it again since I miss my JLC and I've acquired a couple proper cabooses in C&O.
Looking at it last night I found it quite a bit interesting. As you say, the rear is fixed and the front floats quite freely. One experiment will probably be a tiny piece of foam to act as a spring pack on a real loco to take some of that movement away. The more I look at it though the more I agree with you that there is nothing “wrong”.
