Wow, great info Thanks!

I just received the four car set of the NYC by Spectrum for my b-day. I was wondering what year the cars were modeled after. I can't find them listed in the product information page. the car numbers are item no 89401 89402 89403 and 89404. I want to run them in the steam to diesel era. Were these cars from that period or just from the diesel era?

I should ask have you? Do you add weights to your cars? Some times a little weight also makes the difference .

I am currently running my trains on the carpet in my family room. It is not the largest layout but at 12x12 I can operate three trains at the same time. I found it was not so muck the change in elevation that caused the cars to separate but the twist in the track from side to side. My cure was to place cardboard,(the cardboard that the EZ track is packed in) under the track where the cars separated. I don't know what type of carpet you have but I can run all three of my trains wide open with no separation or derailments. I run dc only so my speeds at wide open are must faster than scale. When I run scale speed I can walk away and come back whenever and find my trains still running strong. A little bit of surface area goes a long way on carpet.

I too have had this problem and found that my engines were having a problem going from a right hand to a left hand back to a right turn in only 27 inches. By installing some straight track between the curves it greatly improved the operation but I could still tell speed falloff when pulling 8 or 9 cars.

Jim, you are so correct, I really liked when my daughter and her husband moved back in. Ok, I had to pack my trains away again, but having grandchildren was worth it to me. I am now the proud Grandfather to three little girls. Two are old enough to like the Choo Choo, and ask for the train,every time they visit, the newest one just showed up Friday at 2.15 am. I hope when she becomes aware she will also like my trains.