Wow ! Kato GG 1 is here

[victor miranda]

Hi inkaneer,

I love guessing at causes....(not!)

the derailing is most likely caused by a traction tire.
there are other possiblities buuut  it is the simplest.

I met one GG1 with the tire off its driver.
I had to look for the groove to notice it was not in place.
it is not obvious due to the blackening.
the tire was wrapped around the axle point and was hard to see.

other possiblties include a power truck not quite seated properly.....
and maybe the pickup tab on the inside of the pickup strip.

I hope this helps
victor

[inkaneer]

Hi inkaneer,

I love guessing at causes....(not!)

the derailing is most likely caused by a traction tire.
there are other possiblities buuut  it is the simplest.

I met one GG1 with the tire off its driver.
I had to look for the groove to notice it was not in place.
it is not obvious due to the blackening.
the tire was wrapped around the axle point and was hard to see.

other possiblties include a power truck not quite seated properly.....
and maybe the pickup tab on the inside of the pickup strip.

I hope this helps
victor

Yep, it was a traction tire. and they are not as easy to put back on as with the Kato Mike or the B'mann 2-8-0 either.  Had to remove the side frames which meant the pickup cups fell out and reassembly was a bear.  the pickup cups have two holes where they mount onto pins in the truck tower.  I used some tiny bits of Hobby-tak to hold them on while I but the side frame back on.  Then with a toothpick and a N0. 11 blade I removed the Hobby-tak.  I also found that the sideframes on one of the four wheel trucks was not seated correctly so I fixed that.  After all was done she runs and doesn't derail.

[up1950s]

Geez , imagine the volume of these that are bought by the less talented . They would need to return them , and anytime that happens consumer confidence goes down a notch . Its a shame that assembly sloppiness is hurting a beautiful , smooth running , a good pulling Kato loco and Kato's name . Is the design just a hair too delicate and difficult to expect assembly line workers to do correctly , or is it just assemblers not up to the normal Kato quality ?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Is it assembly sloppiness, or just damage in transit? I'd really lean toward the latter.

[wcfn100]

What do you expect for 57¢ an hour?   :-*


Jason

[nscalesteve]

did receive mine yesterday, one of them has had a missing numberboard/marker light cover...
...this part



did write an eMail to Kato Customer Service and got an answer back:

We will send out the replacement components to you today

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Uh oh, Steve, what type of trouble are you going to be getting into with one of these?

[nscalesteve]

Uh oh, Steve, what type of trouble are you going to be getting into with one of these?

well, they are all dismantled now, they all have had a bath in 96% alcohol, one shell has a lot of additional #80 holes already, right now I'm bending .008 phosphore bronce wires for the handrails and grab irons (actually I'm writing this post right now but...) the cut levers are already on and all the drive parts are washed and ready to be painted...

...I always wanted electric lokis for the Yukon Territory Rail Road  ;D

[ryourstone]

Kato fixed my GG1 and promptly shipped it back... to a house I had 4 years ago  >  Despite the letter I included with my return mailing address.... Don't know where they got the old address, must be from an order I placed to the parts store years ago.

Anyway, I emailed and let them know but it looks like UPS has already picked it up. Is there any way to get UPS to redirect a package?

This is why I hate sending things back for repairs... I also asked for just a replacement part to no avail (they need to return defective parts too for credit) I would have been better off just keeping the broken one for parts.  Guess I just write this one off as a loss and pretend I paid full MAP price for my other 3, I'm done dealing with this crap.

[NorsemanJack]

Kato fixed my GG1 and promptly shipped it back... to a house I had 4 years ago  >  Despite the letter I included with my return mailing address....

For the good of us all (and for your sanity), I would strongly encourage you to call Kato Monday and talk to them directly about this.  They owe you a replacement and whoever just pulled an old address out of the "system" needs a real good talking to....

[gunner]

Finally got mine on the rails, WOW!  It does exhibit slow speed operating without cogging until it stalls.  About 1 tie per second.  It did stall in one spot consistently, bot a brightboy to the rails cured that.  I haven't been in the trainroom for months; so lifting the dust cover off the layout and running was pretty nice.

I had the 11 car CZ in staging so after a few turns around the outside track, I hooked up to it and took it around a few more times with no problem.  I then backed into staging and pulled out 8 MT tankers and 26 MTL 33' hoppers on the back of the CZ and ran it more.  Not too shabby for a first run locomotive.

Now it's time to get busy and start working on wiring up my wye so I can turn locomotives without the 0-5-0 helper.

Bob

[Mark5]

Finally got mine on the rails, WOW!  It does exhibit slow speed operating without cogging until it stalls.

5 poles is gooder! ;D

[up1950s]

Finally got mine on the rails, WOW!  It does exhibit slow speed operating without cogging until it stalls.

5 poles is gooder! ;D

Maybe our planet would run smoother if it had 5 poles . ;D

Poland has a had a slow acceleration in getting up to global economic speed . ;D Do too many poles cause diminishing returns ? ( Just a joke so lighten up Ed ) ;D

[gunner]

Finally got mine on the rails, WOW!  It does exhibit slow speed operating without cogging until it stalls.

5 poles is gooder! ;D

Maybe our planet would run smoother if it had 5 poles . ;D

Poland has a had a slow acceleration in getting up to global economic speed . ;D Do too many poles cause diminishing returns ? ( Just a joke so lighten up Ed ) ;D

Some of us are poles apart...

Bob