Hey, I'll bump this back up.
Once again, in the general spirit of voiding warranties and focing square pegs into round holes.... Adding weight to the tender and the cab has done wonders for pickup, so far so good, but road testing it on the HV module has been, well, simply painful. After the 2-6-0 worked, and the Atlas shay worked, I was lulled into a false sense of security on the tiny 4-4-0.
Has anybody but me tried running this thing on curves tighter than 9 3/4? I really like it and it has excellent slow speed. But nasty things happen on tight curves, which isn't Atlas fault because I know I'm pushing it where I have no business doing that. the Hickory Valley module binds right down to 8" with vintage Trix R1 switches.
The pilot truck is the source of all evil now. I had to cut off the mudguards on the lead axle, and also cut a mild notch on the inside of the cylinder to clear the wheel flanges. The whole deal swings WAY to the inside. I also noticed the gauge on the wheelset is narrow, easily fixed.
But she still derails, and from what I can see, it is because the 'angle of attack' on that wheel flange is right up against the railhead; there's no fillet in there, the flange is grinding right along the railrhead on that radius. The tinest speck pushes the wheel up and over. I'm going to attempt to put a tiny lead weight on the lead truck over the lead axle and see if that does it...
I doubt that anyone but me has gone down this twisted path, but it you have, any tips or observations? Stop over to my table at Bedford and see if I actually got it to work, I'll have it there if I did.
