I have three Williams SD-45 diesel engines, all powered. I bought a Shark B unit and installed a True Blast 2 diesel horn in it, wired it with 1/32 scale model car wire plug-ins to get the center rail power to the B unit and it works great. The SD-45's look better than the GP-9's in my opion.
Also have two GP-9's, powered and one unpowered GP-9 with a TB-2 horn installed in it. The GP-9's seem to pull more freight cars compared to the SD-45's, both are dual motors by Williams(pre-Bachmann).
Another set of diesels that I have are the F-7's, two three unit(A-B-A), they have less pulling power compared to either the GP-9's or the SD-45's. I had to add a power conversion kit to my F-7 diesels to get them to pull what I wanted.
For the money I would buy another GP-9 because it runs great and has good pulling power. Just don't try a jack rabbit start with a Williams GP-9 or it may end up off the layout, it happened to me by mistake.

Lee F.

If Atlas has solid rails, I may try it when I can afford to do so.

As for bending rails with Gargraves, it just happens when an engine falls over on its side and smashes the rail. I have not purposely bent the Gargrvaes track!!

Lee F.

Bob,

The weights that I am referring to get attached with a machine screw inside the floor of the frame of an SD-45. The Williams F-7's that I bought have the weight inside the fuel tank area.
Maybe I can add some magnets I have from Radio Shack, part number 64-1888, one & an eight inch ceramic magnets.

Lee F.

Tiffany,

The drive wheels on the 224E are solid metal and has Baldwin Disc stamped on them, don't know what kind of metal but it isn't magnetic, as a magnet won't attach to it.
The wheels are not a soft metal, that is for sure. I am not into the study of metals so I can't tell you what the wheels are made of.

Lee F.

Tiffany,

Some of the older Lionel steam engines came with Baldwin Locomotive Works hardened steel drive wheels, example # 224E (1941).

As for wearing out track, I have only bent the rails on any track I have when I had a derailment happen. The track was Gargraves stainless steel.
I may try Atlas track to see if it is more solid.

Lee F.

Speaking of SD-45's, I am missing a set of weights that attach to the frame. Does anybody know where I can buy a set of weights? Also looking for metal unflanged wheels for a Williams SD-40 or SD-45.

Lee F.

Roger,

Do you know what year your GP-7/9 was made?

I have a pair of Williams GP-9's, Pennsylvania RR, and the unpowered unit has the horn inside it, no bell feature. I don't know the year as I bought these used from a friend a few years ago, who was an independant Williams dealer. Got some great deals on Williams trains from the guy.

All the Williams I have start in forward or reverse, no nuetral starting(nuetral first then forward) from any Williams that I have ever seen.

Lee F.

I have heard people say that Super O gauge track, from the late 50's, will wear groves in the center rollers over many years of use.
From experiance I have seen that lower end engines roller wheels(low end castings of roller wheels, or cheap metal) are quick to have groove marks show up in them.

What I have had happen on a Lionel # 249E steam engine is the trailing wheels wore thru after almost 60 years of use. I replaced them with a set of wheels from a Lionel diesel I took apart.

Lee F.

Unless it is a very old Williams it should have at least a horn in it. Williams has been around for almost 25 years before selling to Bachmann.
The new True Blast 2 horn units have both horn & bell in them, however you can only access one at a time.
The other thing to consider would be is there enuff room inside the SD-45 shell to install a horn unit if it don't have one?

Lee F.

I have no idea about the paint being glossier on differant engines, as I have just the Williams(before Bachmann) engines and no new Williams by Bachmann to compare with.
To upgrade to True Blast 2, remove the old horn unit completely from the shell or frame of the engine and install new True Blast 2 horn unit. It is best to either solder the wires or use wire nuts. Don't cut the wires off at the circuit board that controls the motors. One wire goes to the frame of the engine and the other goes to the center rail pick-up roller, in case you do a mistake.

Lee F.

Tiffany,

I am using tubalar Lionel and Gargraves switches, mainly 042 with some 027 track for the upper level.
I tried using Fastrac but it got too expensive and it also got dirty too quick on the tops of the rails for me. Never had Fastrac switches, so I can't comment except to say the switches are super($100.00 a piece, $200.00 a pair) expensive!

Lee F.

StubbsO,

Are you doing this with a new Williams engine? The rubber traction tire may have something to do with electrical pick-up. Also are ALL your wheels clean? An unclean wheel, even the center roller wheel, can cause electrical drop-out as well.

Not to burst your bubble on wiring in series, but why do you need that slow of a speed? Have you tried using a lower wattage transformer first?
I have eight Williams(pre-Bachmann) diesel engines that have dual motors and never had I attempted to wire the motors in series.

Lee F.

Bernard,

Williams offered the GP-9's about two years before selling to Bachmann with the True Blast 2 horn in them.
GP-9's that are from 2003 or earlier will probally have just the horn feature in it. There might be enough room to install the new T.B. 2 horn & bell unit, but I am not sure, however you must remove the old horn unit first because there is very little space inside a GP-9 shell.
Also your transformer must have a bell button in addition to a whistle or horn button.

Lee F.

Quote from: 3rail on September 21, 2010, 06:15:33 PM
Tiffany,

We did use metal blind wheels on this truck in the early production runs.  We found that we had some problems with them shorting on some switch tracks, so we changed to platsic to solve this problem.

Regards,

3rail

I have not had any problems with the three metal axles on my SD-45 and I am thinking of changing my newer SD-45's over to metal axles if I can get them or cut down some old F-7 wheels.
Apperantly Fastrac must be the only system to have a problem with the metal wheels.


Lee F.

I have three Williams SD-45's and have found that through the years Williams made these with differant weight factors, and with dual motors.
One of my SD-45's is lighter in weight but has traction tires, cab # 4656 a Pennsy SD-45. Another SD-45, cab # 7893 Reading Lines, has dual motors but has all three axles made of metal without traction tires and it weighs about a half pound or more than the Pennsy SD-45.
The newer SD-45's have plastic wheels for the third or blind flange set of wheels, also have traction tires. This set-up won't work with some accessory activation devices as the outside rail power is broken when the SD-45 goes over an activation device. What I have done is to double head my powered SD-45's after I install a wire harness between the two engines to keep constant power to both engines.

Lee F.