Farish Pannier tank

[geofff]

Hello

I have a second hand Chinese manufactured Farish Pannier , brought to life by Dr Al. The track circuit is Peco Settrack 3rd radius.

I hooked up 3 full brake coaches and 3,  4 wheeled BR wagons. The loco really struggled to negotiate the curves at 50% power. What weight load would you expect from this loco? Am I expecting too much?

Regards

[ntpntpntp]

Should handle that easily enough I'd have thought.  I remember my old Farish tank was quite strong.

Check the stock is all running freely and bogies turn freely?  If you pull that stock by hand does it feel heavy or tight?

In what way is it struggling?  Is it slipping or just lacking in torque?

[Roy L S]

I would expect the Farish 94xx in good order to pull eight or so coaches without any issue, it has plenty of tractive weight to it. If it runs OK without a load, it would lead me to suspect the issue is not with the loco but is with the rolling stock, possibly one or more sticking wheelsets or excessive weight added.

[geofff]

Should handle that easily enough I'd have thought.  I remember my old Farish tank was quite strong.

Check the stock is all running freely and bogies turn freely?  If you pull that stock by hand does it feel heavy or tight?

In what way is it struggling?  Is it slipping or just lacking in torque?

Just slows on the curves - it picks up a bit on the straights but is still a lot slower than when running with no rolling stock.

[geofff]

I would expect the Farish 94xx in good order to pull eight or so coaches without any issue, it has plenty of tractive weight to it. If it runs OK without a load, it would lead me to suspect the issue is not with the loco but is with the rolling stock, possibly one or more sticking wheelsets or excessive weight added.

Thanks , I'll try removing one  wagon and see if the I can find the culprit.

[ntpntpntp]

Just slows on the curves - it picks up a bit on the straights but is still a lot slower than when running with no rolling stock.

hmm Peco R3 is plenty wide enough. Even a slightly wide back-to-back shouldn't really notice on R3: if it were that far out the loco would be jumping at point frogs too. Does it obviously slow at a certain point on the curve? Maybe check for bad rail joints causing high resistance and loss of voltage?  Try bridging the joints with something metal immediately behind the loco when it slows down.

[Platy767]

Maybe check for bad rail joints causing high resistance and loss of voltage?  Try bridging the joints with something metal immediately behind the loco when it slows down.

The track circuit is Peco Settrack 3rd radius.

I reckon @ntpntpntp  is going to be spot on. Adding the load of wagons/coaches increases the current drawn and the loss of voltage across a dodgy joint. This is where you could use a couple of ezi hooks/probes connected direct to the controller so you can power individual pieces of track.

[geofff]

Opened one of the full brake vans (purchased second-hand)  and there was large piece of blu-tac stuck over each bogie, which has been removed. Runs a lot better now. The slowing down happened over the whole circuit.

Thanks for the help.

[ntpntpntp]

@geofff   Oh! I think some people add weight to brake vans at the end of trains to try and stop coupling bounce. Not something I would ever do.  At least you found something that certainly doesn't help with the haulage