K4 Pacific

[d1werk]

  I have a k4 pacific I purch. last fall.I have been unable to turn in to a switch. The engine turns in the tender goes straight. After a curve the tender is offset from the engine. Has any body have a cure? also now the front pony wheels come off on every curve. Called factory girl was no help.  d1werk

[jonathan]

Let's look at the tender problem.  Here are a couple possibilities:  

1.  The wires going from the tender to the locomotive may need to be adjusted to allow free movement of the draw bar.  Sometimes those wires are a little tight.

2.  The front of the tender may need a little weight.  Using the K4 diagram, you could figure out how to remove the tender shell, glue in a little weight in the front (e.g. lead, pennies, fishing sinkers, nuts and bolts...), then put the shell back on.  

These are common fixes for pesky tenders.

Regards,

Jonathan

[bobwrgt]

Check the wires to be sure they are free to move but not hitting the truck.
Check the wheel gauge of the wheels on that truck. They may be spread or pushed together to far.
Make sure the truck can swivel up and down as well as side to side.
The new K4 does not have a draw bar of metal you can bend. DON'T try to bend the plastic connection between engine and tender.
Do you have other engines that make it thru the switch OK??? Might be a problem with the switch.


Bob

[jonathan]

Apologies.  While I'm removing my foot from my mouth...

All my Bachmann's have metal draw bars.  Didn't realize the K4 was different.

Humbly,

Jonathan

[bobwrgt]

Both the K4 and new N&W J have funky ways to attach the tenders. I think both would have been off with the original draw bar design. Don't know why they had to mess with it. With the new design the tender comes out of curves off center from the engine. Takes a lot of trial and error and fiddling to get them to line up correctly.

Bob