i ran it last night with 10 cars behind it for about 5-10 minutes & they just got warm. reverse works fine.

i put in four pairs of the diodes that you suggested. it starts & stops great now with my zw transformer.

i also ran the smoke unit from the center rail hot wire & a frame ground & it smokes like crazy. if i hadn't redused the voltage to the motor with the diodes it wouldn't have helped much if any.

thanks Joe for your help.

would the ones in the link be safe to use & would they reduce more power than the ones you suggested, or should i just use what you showed me? also, would this setup work on a/c motors as well?

Joe, thanks you very much for helping me.

so the diodes i posted a link to are smaller than the ones you showed in the posted link? that shows what i know. lol

how can you tell what voltage drop a given diode will give? i really need to learn this stuff.

Joe, is there a bigger diode that could be used so it wouldn't take as many?

i was looking at these.

http://cgi.ebay.com/10-x-R-6-1000V-10A-Axial-Rectifier-Diode-R6-1KV-/190484105834?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c59bcca6a

Joe, i'm going to be honest. i seen where you showed how to wire the diodes inside the engine, but i have no idea of what that meant. i can wire & solder, & i'm very comfortable doing it. it just i'm not able to figure out what i'm looking at in a diagram. how many diodes are needed all together? do you know a part number i could get at radio shack? i would rather put it in the engine so i can run it on any line without having to move the diodes around.

thanks for your help & patients.

hey Joe, I'm not sure what you was trying to show me? do you care to elaborate? with this being a steam engine with one motor, I'm not sure what the connection would be to the link you posted.

i tried running it with a mth z750 & it seemed to slow down the longer it ran. not sure why, but with the lionel zw it trucks right along.

i have a Williams 2-6-4 pink girls train set. it looks awesome & runs great but i have a couple issues with the engine. first off is the flywheel action. you would think with the big flywheel on the motor, it would have some flywheel action, but it doesn't. when the power is cut off, the engine stops. it's bad enough that it will derail cars.

the second issue is the smoke unit. i mean why even bother putting those smoke units in them? they don't produce any smoke. I've got an old tyco that will out smoke it. is there any upgrade smoke unit that will work?

i use an old Lionel zw275 R transformer. it runs great with this transformer, but it starts pulling just as soon as it gets power. the transformer doesn't start out at a low enough voltage & the engine will take off. the same about stopping it. the voltage is to high for it to make a nice stop. it acts like it slamming on the breaks because of the lack of flywheel action. is there anything i could do about this like maybe adding a resister on the motor to take some of the power?

it might sound like I'm not happy with it, but believe  me i love this little engine. it just has a couple issues.

you know, now that i've thought about it, i've never lubed it. i've never ran it much until lately. i never had the room until i built one.

what do you guys oil on your postwar lionel steam? what kind of oil do you use? what kind of grease for the gears?

i'm sure this would help a bunch. duh 

the tender is quiet, but the engine is noisy. even with the e unit turned off with the engine in forward. i don't think it makes any noise with it's locked in neutral, & powered up. if we can make it quiet that would be awesome. i just figured that is the way the old post war stuff was. my 2056 is a lot louder than my 1666E or my 2018. it's a lot louder than my mpc era Hudson's as well.

thanks, that's the only picture I've found of it. i would like to see it, not just a drawing of it. i hate when they do that. going by the picture,  it looks like the same boiler as the girls pink steam engine only with a 4-6-4 setup, & the tender looks to be a 2671 style tender.

i have a post war Lionel 2056 & 2224 tender. they look & run great, but the 2056 is noisy, & I'm getting to were i like a quite running engine. not hearing a e unit buzzing & the noise of the pullmor motor. i guess I'm getting old. lol

it doesn't show the 2056 40299 hudson.

I'm thinking of buying a couple Hudson's, but I can't find any pictures other than the drawing type picture. I'm wanting to see what the 2056 (40299), & 40199 looks like. if anyone has any pictures of their Hudson's please post them. I love Hudson's, but I don't buy anything I can't see. I learned my lesson with that on the mth railking blue comet set. the catalog showed a lice looking engine, but what I got was a little stumpy looking dwarf.

just the engine & cars, no track or transformer is included.