Quote from: mlrr on January 14, 2010, 09:23:42 AM
The wheels definitely need to be lubricated. Lube the wheel bearings and the wheel wipe contacts. The squeal is mostly from the contact between the copper pick-up and the inside of the wheels. I lubed these spots Monday. It seems that this needs to be done fairly often.
When you say the train runs reasonably, I assume it tops out near or close to 150 MPH under DCC?
Members on other forums support your earlier claim that removing the PC board and hard-wiring improves performance. I have yet to try this myself but the confirmation eases my mind a bit.
One thing I want to point out is that the HHPs on DC power started up and slowed down smoothly in addition to getting up to 125 MPH scale speed. The Acelas that I have don't start up smoothly on DC control. Lubing the cars helps a LITTLE bit.
Nah, its not going that fast, but i haven't lubed all the coach wheels yet either, only the dummy end (I can't find my other powered end for the life of me!). However, it moves fast enough that i don't feel like i'm moving slower than a passenger train should. my HHP8 could not catch up to the Acela set, but i'm still sure my AEM7s can out run it.
If it is true what you say, that others support my plans, i'll have to get a decoder for it. the only reason i haven't is that its not on my decoder priority list, so to speak.