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Try black sand from the craft store. It adds a nice glisten to the pieces of coal- just like the real thingDFF
There is also a sand-like black material road crews sprinkle over the sticky crack sealer after the seal the cracks in asphalt. That stuff looks just like scaled-down coal (it also glistens). I was told it was called "black beauty", but I'm not sure if that is the real name. I wonder if the black sand from craft stores is the same stuff?
It's been a while since I have been able to do anything that is worth showing off, With my work schedule, and life in general, Pretty much all my hobbies have been basically cut back to only a few hours every once in a while. I am still here, and I am still lurking in the shadows, Just not really active. I feel really bad about the whole thing, because Not only have I had to kinda take a back seat here, where I felt that I was very active. . . .I think I have established why my Athearn Challenger has such poor pulling power. To me, it looks like the traction tires are too narrow to make good contact with the rails, and are too thin, which is not letting enough of the weight ride on the traction tire drivers. I have a plan to cut the groove for the traction tires wider, and find thicker tires. This will give me more of a traction patch, I look at it the same way as if you have a car that you added a bunch of power to, More power = more tire on the ground. I am hesitant to start the work, because Athearn has said that their is no replacement drivers for the NP challengers available, and I don't want to accidentally destroy the originals, and render the loco useless.
Don't feel bad Mike - life often takes priority over hobbies. ...Getting to the Challenger, it has 4 factory-installed traction tires. You feel that they are too narrow? You mean the factory turned groove and the tire is too narrow? ...Or maybe the traction tires are too loose, and are simply slipping inside the groove, instead of providing traction? I don't know how many workarounds have you tried, but would make sense to exhaust all the other options before cutting new grooves in the irreplaceable drivers.
The house is on three levels, each separated by a flight of stairs. It's also fairly small, with ~850 sq. ft. of living space.
850 sq ft? Where does the big layout fit?
This has been my issue with them, and I have several. The tire stretches way out and slips. Frustrating that a locomotive that large (and that pricey) get outpulled by a Mikado...Replacing the tires is a pain, requires valve gear disassembly, and the (expensive) Athearn replacement tires have the same problem. I ended up cutting about 3/32’s of an inch out and gluing the remainder in using Goo. It’s a fix, but I don’t know how permanent it is...time will tell.Otto K.