Ho Christmas Train spining on Flat EZ-Track

[Assapuffington]

Hi all,I have a ho Christmas train,runs great.All wheels turning,has 4 or 5 Cars on a flat oval track.
Engine seems to be slipping on track,like it's not heavy enough? It's a small engine,with plenty of power.
But seems to light,you can see the wheels turning faster than it's going.Is there something I can do to
fix this so it won't spin so much? not much room to add weight? any help appreciated.Thankyou. 

[Terry Toenges]

What kind of loco and what kind of cars are you trying to pull?

[jward]

I am basing my reply on the assumption that you have one of the actual Christmas train sets Bachmann has produced, like the North pole express. These sets usually seem to include an 0-6-0 steam locomotive.

Did you oil the locomotive before using it? if you used too much oil, it would get on the rails causing your locomotive to lose traction. If so, clean the rails and locomotive wheels with rubbing alcohol.

Do all the cars, and the locomotive tender roll freely? If not, find which ones don't and checque to make sure all the axles are properly seated in the trucks. You should be able to spin these by hand and watch them spinning. Note: you won't be able to do this with the locomotive itself because the wheels are geared to the motor.

Is the track itself on a level surface? Sometimes floors and tables slope. It doesn't take much of a slope to drastically impact pulling power. If your train can pull all the cars on one side of the oval, but struggles on the other side this is probabl your problem. Checque your track with a level to make sure.

[Len]

You should also check to be sure the loco hasn't thrown a traction tire.

Len

[Assapuffington]

Yes it is the 0-6-0 Loco,and there is no traction tires on it at all? The cars it pulls are all the same size as the loco,all spin free.It just seams metal wheels on
metal rails,no traction,everything seems fairly level. How would I get traction tires on this little locomotive.
Has those steam rails attached to the wheels.

[jward]

As a general rule you are better off without traction tires. they are more trouble than they are worth. In the case of the 0-6-0, it only has electrical pickups on the locomotive wheels, not the tender. Your locomotive needs all those wheels to conduct electricity in order to operate reliably. Even so, the ones I have tend to stall out on switches with insulated frogs.

Like I said before, clean the wheels and track with rubbing alcohol to remove any oil residue that may be present. And checque to make sure your track is level. I can't stress that enough. Don't guess, get out the level and actually see if your track is level. Given my experience with the 0-6-0s I have (3 of them) they should be able to manage 5 cars on level track. But any slope at all will drastically cut their pulling power.

[Terry Toenges]

It looks like the stack and cab are the only places you could try to fit some weight in, maybe like small split shot. I don't know if there is screw in the stack like some locos. If there is, you couldn't glue the weight in. Is there any way you could attach some weight underneath somewhere. On one loco I had, I cut a piece of lead weight that had the adhesive backing and put it on the pilot deck and painted it black and it was barely noticeable.

[jward]

Terry,

As you guessed there isn't much room under the boiler to add weight. I converted mine to DCC, and there was just enough room in the smokebox for a Z scale decoder, if you removed the smoke unit. That is the only place other than the cab itself where it would be possible to add weight, and it wouldn't be much.

[rbryce1]

I do not have the Christmas train set from Bachmann, but I did buy an 0-6-0 steam engine as a switching engine, and found it would not pull it's own shadow.  It could not pull 4 small ore cars without spinning it's wheels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIZssg4oWzQ

In the video, both engines were set to the same decoder ID number, and were receiving the same throttle settings.  It took a much higher throttle setting to even get the 0-6-0 to just move, and once it did, it was being blown away by my Mantua 2-6-0 with a number of ore cars behind it.  Both engines were receiving a full speed throttle setting.  It seemed to be laboring to make it up a very small 2% grade with no cars in tow.  I looked into why it would not pull anything, and here is what I discovered about my engine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg41Bn-8NkA

I wrote it off as a brand new piece of garbage and bought something else for a switcher.  It now sits on a siding of my large layout as a diorama engine in a saw mill.

[Len]

The 0-6-0 in the Christmas set is the USRA 0-6-0 w/tender, that also does triple duty as a 2-6-0 and 2-6-2, not the tank loco in your video.

Len

[rbryce1]

I don't know what is in his set, just know how well mine performed.  Symptoms sounded similar.

[Trainman203]

I had an engine once that was a spinner.  One driving axle was not mounted right, so that the other drivers set slightly off the track because the one raised the engine slightly.  If that makes sense.

[Assapuffington]

Thankyou All,for all the great tips on this problem.Really Appreciate it.

[VTBob]

The 0-6-0T Saddle tanker is a very light locomotive, but I haven't had any trouble with it. I added about 3 'sticky' wheel weights (1/4 ouncers) in the cab & nose of it, & it pulls about 6 Walthers iron ore cars (retrofitted with metal wheels) on a flat level surface. I have to ease the throttle out because it likes to spin on the start. It's a very light locomotive, much like its prototype. Only difference is that the prototype gets to use sand for traction, whereas the model doesn't have that 'function"

VTBob

EDIT: Can't put all the weight in the cab otherwise the balance gets thrown off & it likes to lift off the front.

[Joe323]

Would Bullfrog Snot (yes its a real product) help the OP?