Locomotive Performance

[jbrock27]

At this point, not that lubrication is the problem but just an FYI on lube; grease with Teflon is what you are looking for.  Works and is safe on plastic and metal gears.  I find it in big box stores in the fishing department, usually a grey tube, narrow tip, great for applying.  Just read it to make sure it has Teflon; much less expensive than having to  buy "model train" marketed gear grease. 
For oil for metal parts like drive shafts and bearings, there are a million oils out there with needle like applicators.  One of the few things my LHS actually carries that is useful for HO trains.

[Vizzin72]

Noted thanks .... I am going t a show this Saturday so I'll look at prices before I go if it is cheaper to buy regular product online I will if it's about the same I will buy train stuff at the show .... I have oil from my Lionel stuff but no grease

[Trainman203]

I forgot one cv..... 212.  Set it to 255.  It may already be there.  If the engine is too "hyper" and excitable, you can reduce it to calm it down.

Rembember .... Balancing act. These CV's are all interdependent.

This ultra slow speed capability is wonderful for folks like me who were model railroading 50 years ago and could not get die cast steam engines to go less than 15-20 scale mph .

[jward]

I don't believe the decoder in the shark supports cvs in the 200s. those sound like cvs for a sound decoder which the shark does not have.

[Vizzin72]

Yeah I see that .... I tracked down the available list however I believe I previous person suggested setting for Cv 3,4 and 5 etc which I will try ..... The higher number ones in question though are good advice for my other engine which has the sound trax decoder

[electrical whiz kid]

Jim;
What has been your experience (if any) with white (lithium) grease?  I have used this stuff in various applications, and have been satisfied.  The plastics in question would be that really hard engineered plastic, like the kind ILSCO uses on their "Kupler" service bugs.
As the gears in this instance, seem to be mostly nylon plastic, I am cautious to say the least.  your thoughts?

Rich C.

[jbrock27]

All I have read, says no no.  I have never used it for Model RRing, and save it for other machinery, outdoor stuff, threads for bolts, etc.
I wonder if lithium was part of the component in what P2K series locos (when it was Life Like prior to Walthers buying them) had for lube-it used to get hard like peanut butter and is a pain to remove from gears.

The fishing stuff I speak of goes on thick and then thins  out once it is mashed in the gearing, actually becoming less viscous over time.  Sometimes over time, I will have to wipe the bottom of the truck (depending on truck manufacturer) bc some will make its way there.  It does stay in worms and gears (delrin) well though.

[Vizzin72]

All right so I adjusted CV 3 to its max I believe it was 31 thank you whoever had given me that value .... It now works great off on click forward even with rolling stock coupled .... It does now take several more clicks for it to increase at all, but that is ok you can't have everything I guess.  Thank you everyone very much ... That was for the rf-16 ... As for the f-7a I decided to leave it as it is but I did adjust the master volume and horn and engine volumes .... I saw a cv for compressor ... I don't quite know what part of the sound that is so I left it alone .... I think everything is good .... I will return to the thread when I get a hold of some grease

Thanks

[Hunt]

All right so I adjusted CV 3 to its max I believe it was 31

You adjusted CV 3,  or was it CV 2?

.... It now works great off on click forward even with rolling stock coupled .... It does now take several more clicks for it to increase at all,

Expected – The Bachmann decoder is a basic 28 speed step decoder. Setting your command station for 128 speed steps and then sending out commands for step 1, step 2, step 3 or step 4 will all cause this decoder to produce speed 1 of 28.  Sending step 5, 6, 7, or 8 will result in the decoder producing speed 2 of 28 and so on.

Set your command station for 28 speed steps to run locomotive equipped with this decoder, or live with its performance using 128 speed steps.  Best --  installed a different decoder.

[Vizzin72]

Yeah sorry I set cv2 to max .... Yeah I will fool around with it ... I think it was set for 28 but I can set it to 14

[Hunt]

Do not use 14.