Thank you all very much for the responses, and I apologize for taking too long to get back to you guys. My locomotive had the flanged drive wheels off for a couple of months, so I could examine the wheels themselves. I will try to get some videos up by the end of the week, and in the meantime let me answer some of the questions you guys recently asked.
@romiller49 - I bought the locomotive on eBay last year, and IIRC the seller said that he never really used it, but he had it recently serviced, so I'm sure at the very least the top was taken off. I just tried to look at the original listing, but it's giving me a hard time right now.
@Ted S - I'll try to get those videos by the end of the week. The track should be perfectly fine, nothing sticking out or not being set the way it's supposed to. And my only other Hudson that I have is MTH's first one made for the Premier line in 1997. That was given a minimum curve rating of O42, and it has no problem on my track. And I run it slow too, lol.
@harmonyards - Thank you for doing that gauge test; you definitely didn't have to, but that's really thoughtful of you. Ironically there was a little bit of play between the wheels and the frame, at least before I took the drive wheels off, and this was even when it was going around the turns. After making sure it wasn't other parts doing anything to the locomotive, eventually I did take the wheels off, and the axles moved smoothly on their own. It's pretty mystifying, lol.
