SouthWind Models 4-4-2

Running Improvements

Bill Winans stated that his model has the "inside bearing" trailing axle, where he found that the actual bearing had some burrs on it and the slot it fit into wasn't clean either. Once he filed things square, that helped a lot. His engine's gearbox had been incorrectly assembled, which, once fixed, made the model work very well. The best improvement he found was to replace the motor. He does not remember the manufacturer of the motor.

Brian Jackson reports that you may need to straighten-out the tall drivers by placing them between arbors in a lathe and gently bending them back to being perpendicular to their axles (not for the faint-of-heart). Use a dial indicator against the inside of the tires to test your results. The other common issue is their drivers don't sit evenly on the rails, which causes a loss of traction. To check for this, place the loco on a surface plate and shining a light behind it. Odds are you will be shocked at the two or three driver tires suspended in the air. You can take the pedestal binder castings and file them down (carefully and slowly) to make the drivers sit evenly. This should solve your traction problems.