Hi coolwaldo,

           671 here. I think you mean the J 4-8-4 Streamlined steamer. If so, I just purchased and have in hand a J 4-8-4 B&O Royal Blue Steamer. Same loco different paint job. I have several WbyB Steamers and Diesels. Here are my observations and opinions on this loco.

1.        The smoke unit that came with my loco is under performing. I will need to contact Williams and have a replacement sent. ( This happens time to time with their Seuthe smoke units ).

2.        The loco has a very efficient motor, causing the loco to run at a high speed at low voltage settings. I correct this by using the Joe Satnik method of reducing voltage going to the motor. Rectifier diodes in series with the motor power wires. I use the Dallee wiring diagram found on their web site. I use One 8 amp bridge rectifier along with two 6 amp rectifier diodes. The performance of the loco is greatly enhanced. Creeping speed to too fast. Better Blast II performance due to the higher track voltage. Brighter lighting in passenger cars.

3.         I " Broke in " my Loco, well before pulling cars. Oil and grease as in the instructions.  1 1/2 hour run without cars at all reasonable speeds, checking motor temperature every 10 minutes for overheating. The loco is a 'smooooth' runner and good puller. I like it.

4.         The Madison cars are nice. Lubricate them as well. Use a noncarbonizing oil on the rollers. The wrong oil will cause the rollers not to turn, this will ruin them.

5.          I changed the headlamp bulb from a 10 volt bulb to a 6 volt bulb. I liked it brighter. It is being powered by the smoker/light board at 7.9 volts. This will shorten the life of the bulb, but that is OK.

I hope you caught the sale at Trainland...Loco $199.99 Madison 4 car set @ $99.99

                                           Enjoy...671

Hi Lee F.,

          I would contact the power company and ask them to do a power audit on your house and the neighborhood. They may have a transformer that is acting up.

                                 Good luck...671

Hi Lee F.,

         If you suspect that you home is not receiving the correct voltage from your power company, act upon this as soon as possible. Usually 115 volts ac at 60 cycles per second is standard. You could be higher or lower than that. A 10% factor is allowed. So your voltage could at times read as high as 126.5 volts ac or as low as 103.5 volts ac ( Brown out during heavy use periods ).
         Basically there are two types of "loads" found in the home environment. There is an inductive load. This is usually all forms of motors. Ie.  Fan motors, compressors  found in  A/C's , Refrigerators. Toy train motors, door buzzers and bells. Anything that creates a motion will be an inductive load. These items are the most susceptible to over or under voltage. They usually have a plus or minus 10% voltage design factor built into their design.
          Low voltage creates the problem of increasing the amperage draw to a given motor. The motor needs a certain total number of watts for its' given task. For instance, if your refrigerator compressor needs a total of 1,150 watts to run then you need to supply it with that many watts. If you house voltage is at 115 volts, the compressor will be drawing 10 amperes. It will be very happy and run at the design temperature and speed.
          Now I will take this example to the extreme for simplification. Let us say that you have an extreme voltage drop, instead of 115 volts your home is only receiving 57.5 volts. Well in that case the compressor motor still needs 1,150 watts to perform its' task. What happens? The amperage doubles ( 20 amps ) to satisfy the wattage need. If the compressor is on a dedicated 20 amp rated circuit, the breaker protecting that circuit may not trip in time to save the compressor. The compressor may short cycle on its' own internal thermal protector. Compressor failure will follow.

           That is an extreme scenario. Low voltage, not as extreme as this hypothetical case, will eventually breakdown the protective coating on the field windings within the motor. This creates a 'short' = replace the motor/compressor.
            Resistive loads can usually take more abuse without failure. Ie. bulbs,toaster,electric space heater etc.

            So the point that I am trying to make is this, Higher wattage transformers will only allow your trains to run at their given design parameters. The train's speed is not solely dependant on the wattage rating of the transformer. A low wattage rated transformer, could/will create heating at the transformer and or the Loco's motor.  The train only draws, in amperage, what it needs at given voltages to perform the task ( LOAD ). This is measured in watts. ( Ohm's Law... Voltage X Amperage = Wattage ) If we do not provide the needed amperage for a given voltage then something will fail. The transformer may overheat, the internal breaker may shut down the transformer. We as the operators of the train select the voltage that we want it to run at.
            Invest in a digital volt, ohm, amp meter. This will allow you to test your train outlet power. Test that circuit with other loads in the house on. You may have the correct power coming into your house, but your train may be sharing a circuit with a high load. Ideally, what ever the circuit breaker is rated at, rule of thumb is that it should have a constant load not to exceed approx. 80% of of the breakers trip rating.
            I am sorry for being so 'wordy', but correct voltage and amperage is so very important to inductive loads.

                            Keep on Chuggin'...671

Hi Phillybeth,

               If you go to the posting by Joe Satnik Dated May 27, 2012..." Series Wiring Mods For Dual Motored Williams and WBB Locos" The answer to your "prayers" will be found in that post.
               Joe gives you a very clear explanation as how to wire the motors from a parallel set up to a series set up. By doing this, your voltage throttle setting on your transformer will be advanced to almost twice the voltage to achieve the same Loco speed.
                I have done this to one of my dual motored Williams loco SD45. I am very pleased with the results. Very controllable throttle speed/settings = a more prototypical speed.
                Try it, you'll like it. Do not give up on Williams products. I have Steamers and Diesels by WbyB ( More than my wife knows ). They are an excellent product and value. I have Post war Lionel, I find myself running the Williams Locos more than the Lionel.
                Maintain you equipment ( Lubricate as in the instructions ). This will extend the life and fun of your trains.
                I too have a "U-Boat" READING color scheme. I power my trains with Post War 275 watt ZW's. The starting voltage on the ZW is above 7 volts. This causes the U33c ( U-Boat ) to run a little too quick for my slow pace of life. I will be following Joe's modification with the optional addition of a dual position switch. This will allow me to have the choice of parallel or series wiring at the flip of a switch.

                  Good luck, Joe is the type of guy that if you ask for help, he is more than willing to help.

                                         ... 671

                                                 

Hi Bob,

         Try going to True Blast II Problems... started by 671 on March 2011. This may help. Joe Satnik has a very good explanation of why it may not sound loud. All of the posts may lead you to a louder sounding Blast unit.

                                              671

Hi Joe,

       Maybe Greenville Yards is having the common problem with the TrueBlast II. This was discussed quite a while ago about the potentiometer challenges.
       Maybe you could link him to that discussion board.

                                 Thanks...671

M1FredQ,

          Try Amazon.com. I just bought an F3 A-A New York Central brand new for $189.20 free shipping.

                                                          671

Hi Joe Satnik,

       I use the 8 amp bridge rectifier along with two of the 6 amp rectifier diodes from Radio Shack. The two six amp diodes can be mounted in between the "table legs" of the 8 amp bridge rectifier. Using a little care, it becomes a small package. Snip off the excess "leg" length.
       Follow the Dallee wire diagram, to interupt the motor lead. I use a ZW 275 watt transformer. I have used this on all of my WbyB Steamers.
       1.  The 2056 semi-scale Hudson, Great Northen Berkshire, J 4-8-4 B & O. These three locos have a "Well" below the electronic E-unit card. The 8 amp bridge rectifier fits perfectly into this well, table top down, legs up. Wrap two turns of electrical tape around the rectifier to prevent shorts. It is an easy manufacture and install.
       2.  My scale 773 Hudson has the E-unit in the tender. Plenty of room, just interupt one wire from the board that is going to the plug socket at the front of the tender.
       3.  My 671 S2 turbine was a little tight on the installation. I installed a nice tight flat Bridge and diodes on the left (PORT SIDE). It is mounted edgewise legs facing E-unit board. Wrapped with electrical tape to prevent shorting.
       All five of my steamers perform flawlessly in conjunction with my Post war ZW. They do not "Rabbit Start". The speed is super slow creep to faster than I would want it to go. I run my trains at about the 10 volt setting on the control handles. If I run a long passenger set that has a lot of interior lighting, possibly a 11-12 volt setting.
        I modified the Wheat grain bulb headlight by placing one small rectifier in line between it's plug and bulb. Test before soldering and shrink tubing. This is a DC circuit. If the rectifier is installed backwards against the current flow, the bulb will not light. This single rectifier reduces the voltage by approx .7 volts to the bulb. It is still plenty bright, but this voltage reduction will surely extend the life of the bulb. This is almost 10% voltage reduction. The board energizes the light at 7.9 volts, the diode drops that voltage by .7 volts.
         I have also modified the smoke units. I use a small slide switch that is mounted into the Engineer's cab side using 5 minute two part epoxy. DO NOT get glue into the switch. The switch is mounted far enough into the cab so that it can not be seen easily. Yet it is easy to reach with a finger to operate. I wire it so that it interupts one of the wires going to the smoke unit. When I want to run smoke, I turn it on, no smoke, unit off. This should extend the life of the smoker.
          Another modification that I have made is to the smoker on the 2056 semi-scale Hudson. The original smoker came through defective. WbyB sent me a replacement. This was my first WbyB loco. At that time The loco had no modifications done to it. The new replacement smoker performed poorly in my judgement. The smoker spit out the smoke fluid and was a poor quantity of smoke.
           My fix was to buy and install a Seuthe #5 smoke unit. It was larger in diameter than the original William's unit. Simple to install the larger unit. Remove original smoke unit along with the short stack that it goes into. Both are hot glued in place. The hole for the stack is now large enough for the #5 Seuthe unit. Infact it is a little too large. I shimmed the stack to the correct height by placing a very small piece of shrink tube between the smoker and the loco's smoke stack hole. Cut off the excess tab of tubing. It looks great.
            The smoker is rated for 4.5-6 Ac or Dc volt power. The smoker board puts out 7.9 volts. I reduced the smoker's incomming power with two small rectifier diodes in series ( DC voltage, test before soldering and shrink wrap). This reduced the voltage by 1.4volts. Effectivly suppling 6.5 volts maximum to the smoke unit. This is less than 10% over-voltage. 10% or less over-voltage is an acceptable amount in most electrical applications.
             Let me say this, This loco smokes like it is on FIRE. It takes fifteen drops of fluid. ( I have switched to the Crest brand of fluid) It smokes like crazy. It does not pop and spit. Consistant smoking for over 15 minutes up to and including twenty minutes on one 15 drop fill. I have been running this loco for about one year now.
             This loco with all of my above small modifications is super. It is so smooth running, great smoker, whistle and bell loud and clear. I can not say enough positive things about it.

                                        Joe Satnik, Keep on Chuggin'...671
       

Hi Phillyreading,
          I agree with the using of the post war ZW. All of my WbyB Steamers have been modified by using the voltage reduction/diode circuit touted by Joe Satnik. Hi Joe!
          I use the diode voltage drop circuits that you find on the Dallee website. The locos run slower with control, smoke better, ( Due to the higher constant voltage delivered to the smoker/headlamp constant voltage circuit ), whistle/bell plays better, and the lighted cars have brighter lighting due to the higher track voltage.
          I run my trains for hours. No performance or overheating problems have shown their ugly heads.

                                 Keep on Chuggin'...671

Try Mario's trains. He has an on line site with some good prices and stock.

Hi r0gruth,

             I have done exactly what you have wished for. On all of my Steamers, I have installed a micro slide switch inside the engineers cab using 5 minute two part epoxy glue. ( be careful not to get the glue into the switch mechanics.) The wires from the switch run to the smoke unit's wire. I interupt one lead with the switch. This allows me to turn off or on the smoke unit as needed. The switch is mounted far enough into the cab so that it is not easily seen, but yet simple to reach and operate with a finger.
              The slide switches were purchased at Radio Shack. Solder, glue, wire and shrink tube are always on hand at my layout.
                      Keep it simple...671

     

Hi Cobrabob,

            671 here.  Santa (me) acquired the  J 4-8-4  B & O " THE ROYAL BLUE " Trainland $199.99 Nice loco. Smooth runner. Some challenges...
1.          I changed the the ten volt rated light bulb and installed a six volt bulb. Much brighter, more to my liking.
2.          The smoke unit is very weak. It struggles to make any smoke. I may test the voltage regulator this weekend, possibly not producing the 7.9 volts that my other steamers produce. I may need to tinker with it and change the voltage regulator on the electronic board. If the voltage is correct, I may try testing the smoker at a slightly higher voltage to see if this helps. The smoker may be a higher rated voltage unit that somehow got mixed into the unit that Williams uses. If higher voltage is needed, I will change that voltage component for a higher rated one. It is the three legged item on the board.
            The second loco is New York Central F3 A A  I know they are discontinued, and hard to locate at a fair price. Amazon.com $186.20 free shipping, brand new...They have six left. Great deal. It runs flawlessly. I got it last night, oiled and greased it, broke it in for 1 1/2 hours than ran it for 4 hours straight pulling my five post war Lionel aluminum streamliners. It is perfect ! ( approx. 14 real miles traveled )

             I hope Santa still has room in his toy sack for more units...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

                                        I think I am addicted to Trains...671

Hi Dominic,

               Thanks for the info! Looks like I will have to stop at Trainland tomorrow and treat myself to a new loco.

                                             Thanks...671

Hi Dominic,
            Do you run that SD 90 on Lionel tubular track? If yes, how does it handle the 031 turnouts? Does it run well? Pros/Cons
            I am asking because that is the type of track that I have on my layout. I am thinking of purchasing the UP "KATY" version from Trainland. Most of the SD 90s are currently on sale for $109.99 from Trainland. I need to treat myself with an early Christmas Gift.

                                              Thanks...671

Hi stubbsO,

            671 here. The loco that is having this problem, does it have a single can motor or a dual can motor drive?
            If it is a single can motor i.e. a Steam loco, try this simple trick.
            Remove the loco's shell and locate the electronic "E" unit. trace the two wires from the can motor back to the E unit. they will terminate at a plug. The Eunit is designed to control two motors, It should have an empty plug receptacle directly next to the can motor plug. Simply remove the can motor plug from it's current location, and plug it into the empty plug socket. Test unit. If it works, reassemble loco and have fun.
             The E unit has two circuits to control two motors. When it is used in a single motor configuration, there is little wear and tear on the miniature relay contact points of the none used circuit. You should get additional long use out of the E unit.
             If you have two can motors, the electronics of the Eunit board may have failed.
             Purchase a new replacement Eunit from Trainland on line approx $30-$35 dollars. Simple wiring  and you are back to having fun.

                                      I hope this helps you...671