Aristo 0-4-0 adhesion

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Glengrant

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During this winter spell I am, as you ought to know if you have been paying attention, running a few trains on my indoors layout. The Aristo 0-4-0 Slopeback tender loco is having trouble keeping its feet. There are some slight gradients on the track, not very demanding. The curves are all LGB R1, except for one Peco G-45 point (switch). Now I have been a bit lazy in that this track has been dormant for some considerable time, collecting dust etc, and to expedite the running I regret that I did use a little light oil. (I know, I know)
So this is an adhesion problem. How do any of you guys deal with this, or do you have to? The load incidentally is very modest, just a pair of ART 3110X bogie passenger cars

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Do you think that the oil has got onto the railhead?

If so, you need to wipe it all over with a cloth/absorbent paper lightly wetted with a spirit of some sort and change the part of the cloth etc that you are applying frequently, as you proceed.

That sadly is not all, because you then need to clean ALL the wheels of ANY rolling stock that has been run on the track since that contamination happened, or you will just re-contaminate the track as soon as you run it again.

As an alternative, if it is not oil on the rails, have you thought about replacing the traction tyre? Not sure if this type of loco has one, but in my own experience, a perished or worn tyre can cause a massive loss of traction on a small loco (LGB 0-4-0s and Playmobil in my case).

Good luck
James
 
Your 0-4-0 is dragging 2 coaches as per the photo? It really shouldn't have any problem at all with those, even if a smidgeon of oil has crept onto the track. I find mine to be a good reliable hauler. Suggest you check the entire train for any stiff wheelsets?
 
What you need is extra wieght ib the boiler, it works wonders for adhesion
 
Agree with Neil, and also check the back to back on all the wheels. Anything over gauge will probably add to the braking effect of the R1 curves.

Seeing the picture though made me think, wonder if I'd be allowed and over head in our lounge, hmm the though didn't last long, I know what SWMBO would say :laugh:
 
They are a smashing little loco, but really do not like dirty or damp track
and they do benefit from the addition of a little weight.
I had the feeling it's the set up of the aristo motor block, helps it to travel on uneven track, but leaves a lightly weighted wheel when towing loads around curves.

Also found that the Slope back tender adds a lot of resistence, they can pull half as much weight again with out the tender.

Pictures show the max load they would pull on damp track (R2 curves), load on the unit without the tender was almost 60% more weight wise, but with 6 less axles.

Have added (approx) an extra 100g (from memory - would have to check) and they all pull at least double the load now, still need very clean track mind.
and definately no oil made that mistake once when i over oiled the slider on a set of points, took weeks to get it of the Track and all the wheels.

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If your using R1 or R2 curves, switching out the wheels on the tender and rolling stock to ball-bearing wheels will also work wonders by significantly reducing the rolling resistance of the cars particularly going thru those tight curves, I have BB equipped stock that now rolls almost effortlessly thru 32" and 21" diameter curves
 
Righton, listening to all of this, I accept what you say about oilontrack, not a good thing, I also think that the passenger car axles could be looked at. One of the snags I think is that the little four coupled wheelbase rocks a bit on uneven track and not all the wheels are contacting with the rail all of the time, especially on curves. Seems like I have to do several things here but a bit of weight in the boiler should be one of the things. The hanging railway is basically two separate loops (joined with a crossover) and the 0-4-0 behaves the same on either track. The other train is hauled by a pair of rather travel worn Stainzes, and it runs absolutely perfectly on either track, practically no speed variation, smooth running, well, lots of power pickups, and, well, that's Stainzes for you.
Thanks for all your input chaps, time for java I think
As for hanging it from the dining room, well, no I wouldn't get to do this, but I am lucky, I inherited this large sort of playroom when the kids all left home, and the wifie almost refuses to climb the stairs to see what's going on. She keeps suggesting we now downsize, I'm pretty short as it is, house is far too big for just the two of us, but I am resisting such a move.
 
I see you are hauling 2 x ART 3110X bogie passenger cars.
The open curtains would seem to say that they are fitted with lights & smoke! So a quick question, what style of electrical pick up? Originally these vehicles had a carbon drag style between the axles, which by their very nature causes problems and are best replaced by ball-bearing wheel sets. Strange thing at the 2011 Llanfair Show I picked up a set of three vehicles, someone had replaced the wheel sets with ball-bearing ones and then refitted the drag pick ups!
 
One other thing to check, if its even a few years old, the tender wouldn't contribute to power pickup, so you only have the four wheels for power pickup. ANY power failure will result in a pulsing for the gearing, resulting in the same issues real steam engines had, uneven torque. The "blasts" of torque could result in the wheels breaking free, even momentarily, causing a mathmatically calculable reduction in the overall available adhesion.

Outfit even a single truck with power-pickup ball-bearing wheels on the tender and create a power bus to feed the engine, add a plastic bag full of fishing sinkers to the boiler and you will find an incredibly powerful puller... at least until the gears strip, lol.

Overall its a nice counterpart to the LGB stainz, but suffers from the short wheel base of any small engine, increased by the lack of skates (though, I admit, I removed from the stainz and tender and bussed them together).
 
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