Today I recieved my new O gauge Union Pacific Tinplate steam engine and passenger car set. I got a great pre-order deal from Sidetrack Hobbies and the set is stunning. The MTH website showed the color as more of a bright yellow color, but they are a beautiful UP Armour yellow.
The engine has traction tires and should do a good job pulling the 4 car set, but it gets part way around the track (using almost full throttle on my Lionel ZW 325 watt transformer and then the wheels just spin. The passenger cars just don't roll freely. I've cleaned the track and lubricated all the wheels so it's not that. I have 3 other tinplate passenger sets in green, blue, and red and all they roll beautifully. The difference I've noticed is the new UP cars have a black box between the wheels of each truck . Some sort of automatic uncoupler device. It slides between the wheel sets and impinges on the back of the wheels. If you lay the car on it's side, the top wheels spin freely, but the black box rests on the bottom wheels and they don't spin. This is my guess as to why the cars don't roll very well. Anybody seen this before ? That black box isn't on any of my other older passenger car sets. I'm wondering if there is a fix for it ? Would this be a warranty issue ? I've attached pics of the engine, passenger car, and truck.
Thanks,
Scott
