Hi Guys,
The engine doesn't slow down a little. It suddenly slows down to less than half speed and labors through the curve, then it jumps back up to full speed as soon as it hits the straight section.
I checked the measurements of the wheels on the front and rear driver sets (measuring each set in three places), and they are all very close in dimension. They are all within about 25/100ths of an inch.
I checked the back and forth "free play" of the axles/wheels in the front and back drivers, and found that the front set will slide back and forth about 1/16th of an inch, but the rear set only slides back and forth about half that amount, maybe 1/32nd of an inch. Could this be causing the "binding" as it tries to go through the curves?
The other thing I noticed is that the engine has had such little running time, that on the rims of the wheels, which sit on the rails, only a very thin strip of the rough pewter coating as been worn down to the bright silver color. I wonder if maybe as the engine goes through the curves, the rough pewter sections are contacting the tops of the rails, and creating less of a current than the bright silver sections. Would it hurt the engine if I gently sanded off all of the pewter color on the rims, so that all of the surface area on the rims is the bright silver color?
As mentioned in my original post, none of my other engines (postwar and modern) have any problem at all gliding through these curves at top speed. Only the Hudson has a problem. It runs great on my 042 curve and on the straights.
Thanks for any ideas or information.
As for what happened to my original post: Why would my question about the operation of a classic Three rail O Gauge Locomotive be moved by a moderator out of the Three rail O gauge forum???
Mannyrock
