Gandy Dancer

[jonathan]

I bought one of those little Gandy Dancers about two years ago, thinking it would be a cute little device to run in and out of a mountain, on a small loop—a little novelty if you will.

I couldn't get the thing to run more than a few inches at a time.  I considered returning it many times—until the warranty ran out, then I was stuck with it.  I tried cleaning wheels.  I tried adding weight (not easy with such a little device).  Nothing worked. 

Finally, I considered it might be a lubrication problem.  The dancer is way too small for me to disassemble.  So I took my bottle of conducta-lube (needle applicator) and started adding drops of oil to anything that looked like a moving part:  the bolsters that hold the wheels, the tiny exposed gears underneath, the top bolster that hold the motor, the hinged rocker pieces that hold the people, etc. 

The thing was literally dripping with oil.  I then ran it on my test loop.  It took off like a house afire!  After a few minutes, I took it off the track, and rubbed off all the extra lube with an old t-shirt.  There was lots of black gunk that came off around the wheel bolsters. Then, I ran it again for about an hour in both directions.  It was typically smooth running as the rest of my Bachmann equipment.  I could even get it to run reasonably slow at around 25-30% power—otherwise those two little guys would have a heart attack pumping so fast. I was pleasantly surprised, and pleased that I was able to finally get this little guy running right.

Just thought I'd write this, in case anybody else had a Gandy Dancer and couldn't get it to run reliably.

Regards,

Jonathan

[Jhanecker2]

the only problem I have had with the gandy dancers is that have to be kept meticulously clean , being so small any small amount of foreign material can effect their performence. John II.

[sparkyjay31]

Totally agree guys.  I have one that is slated to become the power for my scratch galloping goose.  I've found it to be a good runner if kept perfectly clean and lubricated.

[jonathan]

Glad to know I'm not alone, and it wasn't just me doing something wrong.  I think all that conductalube freed up some goo that was preventing good current flow.  She runs like a top now.  By the way, what size decoder fits in there?

J

[Jhanecker2]

I believe it would take total mastery of some really non-Euclidian Geometery to install a decoder in a gandy dancer .  Not totally impossible  but not currently doable with the current state of nanotechnology . John II