Hi,
We bought a "Home for the Holidays" Spectrum On30 set for running under the Christmas tree, mixed in with my wife's ceramic houses. It's running on the oval EZ Track from the set, plus another loop added using 44561/44562 turnouts. The track is on a sheet of plywood (covered with felt) and as far as I can tell is perfect - no noise when the engine runs over any of the joints.
The problem is the cars won't stay coupled to the tender, or to the front of the engine, or (rarely) to one another. I've tried the passenger cars individually and in sets, on the back of the tender and front of the locomotive - and they'll run for about one loop, and then the cars come off. It's not always in the same place, just random.
When I put the tender and the cars on a "test track" on a counter, it seems that the tender coupler is higher than the car couplers. In the worst pairing the two have about 50% "overlap" - about 25% of the car coupler is hangin' out low, then 50% engagement, then 25% of the tender coupler stickin' up high. Other pairings are better, with perhaps 75% overlap. The car couplers are pretty close in height to one another - and in fact the usual failure point is between the tender and the first car.
Is there an adjustment I need to make, or anything I can do? This all looks like plastic or as if it's contained within plastic, so I don't see what I can bend.
(In case it's not obvious, this is my first train in anything other than "O".)
Thank you,
Tim
We bought a "Home for the Holidays" Spectrum On30 set for running under the Christmas tree, mixed in with my wife's ceramic houses. It's running on the oval EZ Track from the set, plus another loop added using 44561/44562 turnouts. The track is on a sheet of plywood (covered with felt) and as far as I can tell is perfect - no noise when the engine runs over any of the joints.
The problem is the cars won't stay coupled to the tender, or to the front of the engine, or (rarely) to one another. I've tried the passenger cars individually and in sets, on the back of the tender and front of the locomotive - and they'll run for about one loop, and then the cars come off. It's not always in the same place, just random.
When I put the tender and the cars on a "test track" on a counter, it seems that the tender coupler is higher than the car couplers. In the worst pairing the two have about 50% "overlap" - about 25% of the car coupler is hangin' out low, then 50% engagement, then 25% of the tender coupler stickin' up high. Other pairings are better, with perhaps 75% overlap. The car couplers are pretty close in height to one another - and in fact the usual failure point is between the tender and the first car.
Is there an adjustment I need to make, or anything I can do? This all looks like plastic or as if it's contained within plastic, so I don't see what I can bend.
(In case it's not obvious, this is my first train in anything other than "O".)
Thank you,
Tim