Run 2 Beeps. Run a wire between the 2 and connect the hot and ground of 1 Beep to the hot and ground of the second Beep. Or use a car with a pick up wheel set. It will never stall on any switch

Jim D.

Have you tried adding extra weight to the engine?  I did this on an MTH trolley, and it worked well.  Automotive wheel weights work well, are painted black, have an adhesive backing, and can be mounted either under the engine or inside the body shell.  Just a thought.  I would not go the route of adding solder to the top of the track, as it will make everything else that passes over it look "wonky" -.

Since the only issue is with a "Beep" ( why anyone would have one in the first place is a puzzle 😁 ) those 2 suggestions seem better than using solder to raise the height of the rail, which might impact all your other stuff.

Mark in Oregon

I agree with the others suggesting fixing the BEEP rather than modifying the track.  How thick is the tire?  If it is a thick tire like Lionel tends to use, try replacing it with a thinner MTH tire.  Adding weight over the wheel that "floats" is also a good suggestion.

Other options include using thinner tires that don’t increase wheel diameter. I use undersize tires for this that get thinner when stretched out. Also solder jumpers to the switch points so all outside rails are connected. Use wire mesh at the hinge point.

Pete

"Woe to Ye who covets a BEEP, for it may descend Ye unto Madness!"

Thanks for all advice!  Additional ideas are welcome.

Mannyrock

Put a traction tire on the other side to lift the lower side up.

It is doable, but not easy. I have an excellent iron and use good solder (Kester). Depending on how thick you need it, it may need to be built up in layers.

It's hard to keep it even, so I  built it up slightly higher than what I actually needed and then did a good bit of grinding  and polishing to get it smooth and even.

How about just swapping the traction tire to the other side ?

@Richie C. posted:

How about just swapping the traction tire to the other side ?

Then it would fail going in the other direction!

Maybe shim the track just a little bit in the offending area. I think I would try that first.

How about a piece of copper foil as used by makers of stained glass artwork?

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Then it would fail going in the other direction!

Hah ! - not necessarily - the OP said that " just touch(ing) the engine towards the common rail side while it is stalled, the floating wheel makes contact and the loco zooms off", so the height differential appears to be miniscule. Allowing for minute tolerances in wheel diameters, rail heights, uneven wheel sets, etc., swapping sides might work.

We'll never know unless he tries it (and hopefully vindicates my suggestion) !

Manny you said "One solution would be to remove rubber tire from the front wheel of the common side.  This would level out the engine.  But, I use the BEEP as a road engine, to pull 5 cars or so, and I think that without a traction tire, it would not be able to do this."  Are you just assuming this would happen or have you actually removed the tire?  Personally I would not make any modifications to that section track but would try some of the engine modifications that have already been suggested.

I don't see why the initial proposed fix wouldn't work--just brush some flux across the offending area, load up your iron tip with solder and swipe it across the fluxed railhead. Just like tinning a joint. If it doesn't work you can remove it with the same iron plus some desoldering braid.

---PCJ

Maybe I have missed it, but why not just electrically connect both outside rails at the offending point?

One of the more valuable lessons I’ve learned over the years - unfortunately, the hard way - is to never make an adjustment to a switch to accommodate one engine if all your other engines pass through with no problem. There are several good suggestions above that don’t require tampering with the switch and those are the ones I’d suggest you focus on.

Curt

Take a single strand of copper wire from a length of stranded wire, such as a section of an extension cord, and lay it lengthwise along the top of the rail. Use solder and that piece of copper.  Use more strands until you get the correct height.

Use adhesive backed copper tape. Its adhesive on one side, conducting on both:

https://www.amazon.com/Conduct...unding/dp/B0741ZRP4W

Then after you realize that all those advising you to fix the Beep and not the switch are giving you sound advice, you can easily pull off the tape

Robert Buck of York can install a battery powered remote control unit in this piece and your troubles will be totally over.

I had a couple older steam engines which had less than ideal wheel base configurations which now with Battery R/C,  are the most dependable powered units on my roster.

Battery R/C is the future.

IMO, Leave the track alone if every thing else works fine.

If the rubber tire is causing a slight lean, how about sanding down the tire slightly until it is level and electrical contact is made.

How about just using an MTH tire, they're thinner than most tires.

And one more thought:  Have you taken a level and placed it across the track to make sure it is in fact level....side to side?  It would be easy to shim, as someone else suggested. 

I agree with AMF and would try adding some weight to the engine first.

Let us know how this works out

Look Ma, no traction tires!

I replaced the wheel-set with the traction tire on this engine with a wheelset without traction tires, all four wheels can pickup track power.  This is important as you don't want a grooved wheel without a traction tire, a four-cornered engine will wobble badly and for sure at least one of the corners won't be touching the rail!

This engine is my fully command upgraded model, and it also has about 7 ounces of added weight, important to increase the pulling power.  Long ago with the BEEP's, I realized that the traction tire had to go unless you were running them in an MU configuration so you have more wheels on the track!

@EscapeRocks posted:

Maybe I have missed it, but why not just electrically connect both outside rails at the offending point?

The one wheel needed to make contact at that point is floating above the railhead owing to the traction tire at the other end of the loco, thus the proposal to add a half-inch long bump made of solder to level the 'fault'.

---PCJ

I still like the remove the traction tire option.

Working through some of the possible remedies:

1.  Tethering:  I do have two BEEPs, each with tethers, but they were made by different manufacturers and have different circuit boards.  One runs very fast, and one runs only at medium speed.  So, I don't think tethering would work.  Also, the attraction of the BEEPs is how short, low and compact they are.  Running two of them tethered would detract from that I think.

2.  Adding weight. Partly successful, but not possible.  I had to add an entire half-crescent lead wheel weight, on the walkway above the floating wheel, and hanging out an inch from the engine to create enough weight shift to get the wheel to touch.   These BEEPs are heavy for size, low to the ground and compact, so it takes lots of overhanging weight to shift them.   There is zero room under the frame to add weight, and there is zero room under the shell to add weight.  The electronics are already so jam-packed under the shell that three of the tall components are already crushed a little to one side from the shell being compressed on top.  (Gunnrunner, I am not really sure how you added 7 ounces of weight to your BEEP to increase the pulling power.)

3.  Putting a shim under the track.  Can't do it. The rail in question is part of the switch, and is permanently affixed down onto the plastic base with plastic tabs, with no room under the rail.

4.  Removing the traction tire altogether.  I am open to that, but I have a really heavy Scout 1110, with no traction tires.  It runs really well and fast,  but it can't pull even 8 plastic cars. The engine wheels just spin on the track.  So, I really don't understand how a BEEP with no traction tires is going to even pull 6 cars.    I guess if I knew how and where to add the extra weight, I might try removing the tire.  But as Gunrunner pointed out, you can't just pull the tire itself, because the underlying wheel apparently has a groove in it, which means that I would have to replace the  entire wheel set.   I have a feeling that this is beyond my mechanical abilities.

5.  Replacing the tire with an MTH tire.  Perhaps the easiest, but how do I know what size tire I need from MTH?  Please let me know where I might look to find this and order it.

6.  Raising the top of rail.     If the MTH tire replacement doesn't work, I am considering taking a dremel tool with a cut-off wheel, and using it to cut off the rear end off an empty .22 LR shell off.  This would leave me with a small, short,  thin-walled brass tube.  I could then use the wheel to cut the tube in half, lengthwise.     This would leave me with a small, thin, short,  half-cylinder,  piece of brass that could fit right over the top of the rail at the low spot.  I think that I could then take a piece of rosen core tin solder, flatten it with a hammer, sit it on top of the rail, place the piece of brass over top of it, and heat the top of the piece of brass with a solder gun until the strip of solder underneath melts.  Hopefully, this would affix the brass piece to the top of the rail.  I might be left with a slightly rough edge of solder inside of the rail, but I think I could heat that inside rough spot, and scrape off that little bit of solder.  Or, use a grinding stone in my dremel tool to just grind it smooth.    Also, if I carefully paint some thin grease on the places on the inside of the rail where I don't want any dripping solder to stick, the molten solder won't stick to it.     I guess that worst case is that I ruin the underlying track section of the 022 switch, and have to buy a replacement.     I have two switch motors that work.

Thanks,

Mannyrock

       I also kinda like the idea of sticking on some copper "tape".  But I wonder just how conductive the adhesive would be, as it sits between the copper and the rail, and how well it would stick after I cleaned the track a few time with harsh chemicals.

Manny--1) Those crescent shaped wheel weights are not the preferred type. Use the stick on ones like Tape-a-Weight available at NAPA and other auto parts stores and on Amazon. This has been discussed extensively here before.          2) As to MTH tire sizes this too has been discussed here, and the info (part number & size) is on the MTH website. A simple ruler can be used to measure wheel diameter.

Most of this info can be found by using the search function in the very top header.

@Mannyrock posted:

(Gunnrunner, I am not really sure how you added 7 ounces of weight to your BEEP to increase the pulling power.)

Here's four of the ounces, I didn't feel like pulling it apart to show the rest.  It's actually 6oz, the stock BEEP weighs 1# 7.3oz, and my BEEP shown here weighs 1# 13.2oz.  There are a few smaller weights where I could fit them inside.

@Mannyrock posted:

4.  Removing the traction tire altogether.  I am open to that, but I have a really heavy Scout 1110, with no traction tires.  It runs really well and fast,  but it can't pull even 8 plastic cars. The engine wheels just spin on the track.  So, I really don't understand how a BEEP with no traction tires is going to even pull 6 cars.    I guess if I knew how and where to add the extra weight, I might try removing the tire.  But as Gunrunner pointed out, you can't just pull the tire itself, because the underlying wheel apparently has a groove in it, which means that I would have to replace the  entire wheel set.   I have a feeling that this is beyond my mechanical abilities.

Actually, it's VERY easy to swap wheelsets on the BEEP.  Just take those four screws off and slide the wheelset out and drop the new one in.  The trick is finding the wheelset to swap!

You did see I had zero issues pulling five cars, including the grade, right?  I probably could have added another one.

could you improve the electrical connection between the engine and tender, polish up the wheels on the tender, and let it do the temporary job of grounding out the engine on the difficult spot?

Gunrunner, thanks very much for those photos.

CPF3-  No tender here. Just a short heavy little diesel switcher.

Mannyrock

I think trying to adjust the track to suit an engine is going to cause more problems than it solves.  If the track is otherwise proper then fix the problem engine.  Well installed track should be left alone.

I have to agree with Terry and the others with similar comments.  If the track is level, solving this one issue by screwing with the track is probably the wrong approach.

Have to agree with the above two as well as other posts.  Look at it logically: If engines #1, #2, & #4 all go through switch A smoothly, but engine #3 does not, is the problem most likely in engine #3 or in switch A? Why try complex solutions to a problem that only have a good chance of making the problem worse than it already is instead of looking at engine #3 first?

Being not familiar with the engine or the cars you are describing, is there any way to get an electrical connection from the frame of the engine to the first car of the train so that it would flow that way?  kinda like the tender suggestion above.

Yes guys.  Thanks for that advice.  I'll try the new MTH rubber tire plus maybe the underside wheel weight (on one side of the engine) first.  I think I am too quick to start banging on and bending track to fix an annoying problem than I should be.

What I have learned over the past year is that having model trains is like having horses. You spend 20 hours working on them for every 1 hour of "running" them.

Thanks very much for helping me puzzle through all of this. I will let you know how it turns out.

Mannyrock

@Mannyrock posted:

What I have learned over the past year is that having model trains is like having horses. You spend 20 hours working on them for every 1 hour of "running" them.

Well, you really need to build up a good quantity of trains, that way you can just set aside the problem locomotives and run the ones that work.   I have high shelves for the ones that need work, someday I'll get to them...

Somewhat analogous to what John just said; if I have an engine that will run properly over only a portion of my layout that’s where it gets run.

I’ve got an MTH Premiere GP9 that successfully navigates two thirds of my layout but, decided early on it didn’t like one switch on the remaining third. I’ve avoided aggravation by restricting it to the two thirds of my layout on which it runs just fine.

Curt

I tried the add a car with pick-up wheels solution....Unfortunately when I soldered the wire to the board, I burned out the board...PS there are  no replacement boards...PPS I had to buy an new Beep! GOOD LUCK