05-22-2017, 10:47 PM
Thanks, Pete! It's great to see you back here. 
I've been working to get this locomotive performing better, but it has several problems. F'rinstance, almost every time it backs up, the trailing truck derails, which often derails the rear engine, too...the modified (shortened) trailing truck is attached to the rear of the rear engine. I removed a sight-block from the underframe, which helped somewhat, and a spring between the mounting boss of the trailing truck and the mounting point has pretty-well cleared up that issue.
I also found that on some curves, the vestibule extension on the front of the main tender strikes its counterpart on the rear of the cab. The result is that the front end of the tender is lifted off the rails, and the tender begins to roll over - not good when the bunker is filled with loose "coal" (actually coke breeze - very fine steelmaking coke, which is probably as dirty as real coal and probably even more abrasive).
I've cut down the height of the vestibule on the tender, and temporarily removed a rubber diaphragm which was used to visually close the gap between loco and tender, but it looks like I'm going to have to make a new, and slightly longer drawbar. This will increase that unprototypical gap, and I'll have to see what will serve best to overcome that.
I also tested the locomotive without the auxilliary tender, and its pulling ability was marginally improved. I then re-adjusted the pressure of the wheel wipers installed on all tender wheels, but it's difficult to get consistent light pressure without losing contact completely.
I also tested the locomotive without any tender, and got a measured drawbar pull of 4.7oz. This isn't great, but much better than it has when both tenders are coupled on. My modified Bachmann Consolidations put out approximately 2.9oz., so the 4.7 is pretty-much in line with what I would expect. It just now occurred to me that if I were to make the 5303 into a tank engine, I could get a lot more weight on the drivers and lose the additional drag created by those two tenders.
I'll continue to tweak this thing, but it looks more and more like it's heading for a career in static display. I've enjoyed the build, more or less, but regret the money spent for a locomotive that doesn't perform up to needed standards, and doesn't really fit the theme of the rest of the motive power roster, either.
Wayne
I've been working to get this locomotive performing better, but it has several problems. F'rinstance, almost every time it backs up, the trailing truck derails, which often derails the rear engine, too...the modified (shortened) trailing truck is attached to the rear of the rear engine. I removed a sight-block from the underframe, which helped somewhat, and a spring between the mounting boss of the trailing truck and the mounting point has pretty-well cleared up that issue.
I also found that on some curves, the vestibule extension on the front of the main tender strikes its counterpart on the rear of the cab. The result is that the front end of the tender is lifted off the rails, and the tender begins to roll over - not good when the bunker is filled with loose "coal" (actually coke breeze - very fine steelmaking coke, which is probably as dirty as real coal and probably even more abrasive).
I've cut down the height of the vestibule on the tender, and temporarily removed a rubber diaphragm which was used to visually close the gap between loco and tender, but it looks like I'm going to have to make a new, and slightly longer drawbar. This will increase that unprototypical gap, and I'll have to see what will serve best to overcome that.
I also tested the locomotive without the auxilliary tender, and its pulling ability was marginally improved. I then re-adjusted the pressure of the wheel wipers installed on all tender wheels, but it's difficult to get consistent light pressure without losing contact completely.
I also tested the locomotive without any tender, and got a measured drawbar pull of 4.7oz. This isn't great, but much better than it has when both tenders are coupled on. My modified Bachmann Consolidations put out approximately 2.9oz., so the 4.7 is pretty-much in line with what I would expect. It just now occurred to me that if I were to make the 5303 into a tank engine, I could get a lot more weight on the drivers and lose the additional drag created by those two tenders.
I'll continue to tweak this thing, but it looks more and more like it's heading for a career in static display. I've enjoyed the build, more or less, but regret the money spent for a locomotive that doesn't perform up to needed standards, and doesn't really fit the theme of the rest of the motive power roster, either.
Wayne