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Hi David
You said/re the fowler tank.
response:
my own fowler ran well out of the box - its a nice mechanism really... but I did work on a couple for a friend that didn't run so well. They were from differing batches - mine was LMS, his BR....
I found two things that helped the running quite a lot...
Disassemble and remove the pickups, bend them about another ten degrees towards the wheels - not too much & reassemble.
then...
get a finbreglass brush or something similar (perhaps about 800 grit wet and dry stuck to a plasticard or wood strip) and with the loco upside down & running at a good speed polish/remove the blackening from the back of the wheels.
On the two I worked on this was a bit heavy, and as it is actually not very conductive compared to bare metal, really affected pickup quality.
There is also a really nice contact enhancer called "De-ox it Gold" that really works well - in UK its probably sold in the hi-fi area in most electronic stores as its marketed mainly to audiophiles. Its original purpose is for connectors on hi-fi, but use it exactly as per instructions on wheel treads and wheel backs, and it does help pickup. My last use was on a really lovely ROCO loco that ran well except for an occasional hiccup - this tuff made a huge difference when paces on all contact areas and the problem disappeared 100%. My guess as to UK price is probably about a tenner per pack.
Kind Regards
Richard
You said/re the fowler tank.
response:
my own fowler ran well out of the box - its a nice mechanism really... but I did work on a couple for a friend that didn't run so well. They were from differing batches - mine was LMS, his BR....
I found two things that helped the running quite a lot...
Disassemble and remove the pickups, bend them about another ten degrees towards the wheels - not too much & reassemble.
then...
get a finbreglass brush or something similar (perhaps about 800 grit wet and dry stuck to a plasticard or wood strip) and with the loco upside down & running at a good speed polish/remove the blackening from the back of the wheels.
On the two I worked on this was a bit heavy, and as it is actually not very conductive compared to bare metal, really affected pickup quality.
There is also a really nice contact enhancer called "De-ox it Gold" that really works well - in UK its probably sold in the hi-fi area in most electronic stores as its marketed mainly to audiophiles. Its original purpose is for connectors on hi-fi, but use it exactly as per instructions on wheel treads and wheel backs, and it does help pickup. My last use was on a really lovely ROCO loco that ran well except for an occasional hiccup - this tuff made a huge difference when paces on all contact areas and the problem disappeared 100%. My guess as to UK price is probably about a tenner per pack.
Kind Regards
Richard