Large Scale Thomas Engine w/ DCC Surges in Speed

[Myang64]

When I run my Thomas train around on my layout, sometimes it surges in speed and then slows back down almost like it is storing up energy and then releasing it.  The throttle is not changed to cause this to happen.  Any suggestions on how to fix.

I tried to play around the the CV settings and I found that my Percy Engine had a PWM CV of 0 and Thomas Engine had it at 180.  Not sure what the correct setting should be or if this has any bearing on the issue.

Thanks,
Michael Carney

[jbray]

I'm going to spitball some possible fixes here because I've only worked with the DCC models on DCC sparingly (I do have the DCC models running on DC currently.

- I've seen what you were describing and the fix we ran (on a DCC layout) was replacing the track just before the restart. Our trains were able to power buffer over the dead/low power track and then would restart when their connection was reestablished. So try replacing the track right before the spot where it "releases". This is my guess as to the issue. The replicable with the Thomas models while our LGB equipment didn't have that issue on the same track (they did slow down).

- Less likely is issues with the curve radius. My Thomas chassis slow down on curves considerably in comparison to Percy even on R2. It's something i use weight to compensate for when running two trains on my DC setup so that they don't catch each other easily due to the stops and starts. It's important to note that these are not dramatic, however, low enough track power can make trains stop on the curves, again, in a way that my LGB equivalents do not.