I just bought the Williams 2-6-4 Steam Girl's Set and was told that I could use my husbands MTH transformer & track (MTH RailKing RTR Penn Freight Train Set, w/ track & transformer).  When the Williams Engine & Tender are on the track with the cars & caboose that came with the set, it will pick up speed just fine, maintain speed for 2-3 laps around our Christmas tree (about a 5x5 foot circle) and then will start to slow down and eventually stop.  I don't change the speed on the controls (usually set to 1/2 to 3/4 speed).  Our MTH train can maintain speed on the track without modifying the controls, but the Williams will always slow down and eventually stop.

I connected the MTH train to the William's Girls cars & caboose (to rule out the engine/tender) and the MTH train pulls the cars just fine, so that tells me that there isn't a short in the cars.  The Williams Engine/Tender eventually slows down on the track when attached to the MTH cars/caboose, so it leads me to believe it is the engine.  The store that I bought the Set from doesn't see this problem on their test track when I take it into the store.  While debugging the problem at the store, we looked up the specs on the MTH transformer and called the store where we bought the MTH set/track/transformer, and everyone confirmed that the transformer shouldn't be the problem.

Does anyone else have this set (and what transformer/track are you using)?

Does anyone have a recommendation on how to fix this problem?  Or should I return it to the store for an exchange?

Regards,
Crystal