Well I have liked this engine's looks since Eric's trains did a review on the Lionel engine. but with that said we all know the price of the Lionel one and to be honest there is no way I can justify spending that much for an engine. so vision line big boys are also out of the thoughts also. My layout is how can we say it radius challenged so rail king and lion master seem to be the 2 train lines I pickup because of the radius challenged layout plan. so with all of that said I picked up my first MTH diesel Engine yesterday it showed up. Me being very excited about my purchase took right up to the layout and put it on. added it to the DCS remote and it was off and running pulling about 12 cars on the main level of the layout. I like to pull slow trains A quieter and B it lets me work on the layout in between the train showing up in my construction area every few seconds. I have an area that has 2 4 way 90 degree sections side by side my layout is fastrack. none of my other engines stop on this area weather it be MTh or Lionel the evo does if going slow at speed it's fine. now mind you this is my first MTH ps3 diesel but not my first MTh PS 3 engine. my other PS 3.0 engine steam engine from the broadway limited set. slow over the 2 90's no problem 2 lion master sd90's no problem, sd45t2 lion master no problem, lion master challenger no problem, ps2 f3's 2 sets no problem. I guess your getting the picture. only this engine is having an issue. as it's cruising around it is probably the smoothest train I own. the lights are cool. so as it is cruising at a more brisk pace so it doesn't stop on the 90's I take a glance at it evey now and then as I am working on the layout or as it comes by the area I was working on and the lights are off. hey I didn't turn them off why are they not on ? I stop the engine do the shut down then start it back up all is fine again and it is running around again no issues with lights. it did that a total of about 3 times last night. weird I thought but ok. so while I was waiting for some paint to dry I figured I would traverse the 2 levels having it pull my center flow hopper cars same ones my sd90 pulls around the layout all day long without an issue total of 10 cars. nope on the climb back up to the upper level I get wheel spin and it jumps the track on the leading truck. so I put it back on and it continues to climb the incline with no more issues. next time around it does the same thing place front truck on and it finishes up the incline 3rd time around I was going to watch it and see what is happening. well it hops when the wheels start to spin the front truck hops and when it does so since eh blind wheel set is in the rear not in the middle like the lion masters the front wheel jumps up and hops over the rail since the blind wheel in the rear of the truck rides just high enough to allow the front wheel set to jump /hop the rails yes I can fix that area of the layout. its the incline with a 036 curve where it jumps but here's the question. on most of the engines I have now the blind wheel is in the middle on the trucks is there a reason MTH didn't do that seems like it would have worked better and also when going around tighter curves the rear of the truck wouldn't hang over like it does now. Now with all of that said I know from seeing other posts. it usually becomes a MTH / Lionel who is better type of answers. that's not what I am looking for I like both just last night after my new purchase showed up. I went to bed thinking I'm not impressed. park it on a siding to look at and go back to your sd90's they will run all day with no issue. honestly Saturday I turned them on started working on the layout. had it doing the same route as the evo did last night and it ran all day about 10 hrs with no issues. but the evo couldn't do one lap. so like I said I went to bed last night saying to myself I'm not impressed.
here's the corner it hops off on.
just to the right of the black post in the pic above.
