frog stalling..

[Mark5]

I bought 4 BLI/PCM E8s and consisted them all together. They still stall on some of the C55 frogs. The one thing I've noticed is that the wheel diameters seem a bit big. They frequently hit the nail heads and rumble, especially on sectional track.

That's interesting. I just received a BLI E8 but havent had time to test it. I plan to post photos and a comparison to the Kato unit when I get a little time. Will take a close look at the flanges then.

Mark

[justTRAINcRaZy]

Don't get me wrong, I think they look great, maybe better than the Katos and the sound is really good. If they just run.

[diezmon]

I've found the same thing  I have two.  they look great, and sound great.  But they are sure damn picky about picking up current.  I'm all C55.. so maybe they are hitting he spikes.  You'd think with clean wheels, clean track, and 8 wheels for pickup, they wouldn't have trouble. 

Now that I fixed the gauge of my sound equipped SD35, it runs fine.. and rarely stalls out.  The BLI's stall often.. even on some of my straight track, so I'm curious what others are finding.

I noticed when my older LL SW7 stalls out it looks like the spikes are lifting the wheels up off the rail. what a pain in the arse.

[Mark5]

I noticed when my older LL SW7 stalls out it looks like the spikes are lifting the wheels up off the rail. what a pain in the arse.

The older Lifelike and some of the 1st Walthers releases had monster flanges.

For some of the diesels the wheels can be swapped for Atlas wheelsets.

[Bob Bufkin]

Those PCM E's are tempermental beasts.  Looks and sound great but do have their stall problem.  I'm using code 80 track and they still stall.  They are one notch above Kato in looks but a couple notches below in runnability.  That said, I would still buy more.  I really want one of their upcoming PA's.  Anyone know is it will be installed with Alco sound or they take the easy way out and use the EMD sound?

[Mark5]

Those PCM E's are tempermental beasts.

The only thing that makes me nervous is the traction tires. I may swap these out for solid wheelsets if I can get some.

[seusscaboose]

Those PCM E's are tempermental beasts.

The only thing that makes me nervous is the traction tires. I may swap these out for solid wheelsets if I can get some.

with all the weight they lose putting the sound unit in, they need the traction tire to compensate. 

EP

p.s i have seen examples of people running the kato GG1 without the traction tires and not losing any pulling capacity (they basically didn't reinstall the thrown traction tire and gave it a whirl).  sorry to hijack the thread (frog stalling)... now back to the topic.  ;D

[Mark5]

Actually, the traction tire potentially is on topic, if it is compromising pickup. Decades ago I improved the pickup on the Atlas/Kato RS3 and RS11 by swapping the traction tires out for solid wheelsets.

But as they say, there may be something else going on here with the frog stalling probs.