Thanks for the ideas - I sincerely appreciate it.  I checked and none of the wheels are touching the car body.  I did remove a very small amount of plastic from the piece that connects the two wheels together (the axle for lack of a better word) on one wheel set that seemed too close to the inside edges of the truck.  What worked the best was removing each wheel set and gently filing material from the plastic that surrounds the axle where it touches the truck.  I took care not to remove any plastic that serves to keep the axle in place on the truck.  That helped - as the proof was the HHP-8 finally able to pull three Amfleet cars at a slower speed without too much slippage.  You can still tell the engine struggles to pull the three cars, as evidence by the slippage, but it is able to move them. 

I'm now wondering if adding a very small amount of graphite where the truck and axle touch might further reduce the friction of the assembly.  These cars weighs 1 5/8 oz according to my home scale, which is heavier than my Kato and Concor passenger cars, so there's a fair amount of weight resting on the axle assembly.  Add to that weight the friction caused by the metal strip pressing against the axle to run power to the light kit, and it all adds up to a difficult pull for this little HHP-8.

I think I've done all I can, short of adding a dry lubricant to the axle/truck touch point.  I'd still be interested in what Bachmann says about this...surely when these cars were made someone noticed and thought, "Hey these cars barely roll!"  And I'm hoping there's a better fix (like a redesigned truck) on the way.  I'd really like to purchase more of these Amfleet cars, but if they won't roll and are problematic, and without knowing a fix that improves their performance, I won't be doing that soon.

Any great ideas Bachmann?  Please!  I really want to increase my Amfleet operation.

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post and I was hoping to learn more regarding these Amfleet cars.  I have three brand new out of the box Amfleet cars and none of them roll freely.  The HHP-8 can only pull two at the most before wheel slippage prevents the electric engine from moving at all.  Three cars is too much for the HHP-8 to move.  I'm not sure what's going on at the factory, but it seems strange that there are cars leaving the factory with wheel sets that won't hardly roll.

My questions is just like the start of this thread...what can be done?  The wheels are clean, the track is clean, the engine is brand new as are the cars.  The wheel sets check on an NMRA standard guage as does the track.  I've checked and can see no plastic or metal binding the wheels - but they hardly roll at all.  So my question for the Bach-man is what is causing the wheels to be so restricted that the car will not roll freely and how do I fix it?  It is very dissappointing to spend a great deal of money on the HHP-8 and three Amfleet cars and they won't run on a flat layout.

Help please!