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General Discussion / Re: Quartering the wheels on MEHANO 2-8-2 mikado
« Last post by carpediem4570 on January 03, 2026, 07:08:02 AM »Thank you. Will look at it later today.
Recent Posts
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General Discussion / Re: Quartering the wheels on MEHANO 2-8-2 mikado
« Last post by gregeusa on January 02, 2026, 08:00:30 PM »you can see if you are "out of quarter" in the way that would affect the loco...
look at one side... all counterweights should be the same "o'clock" , no relationship to the other side needed.
check for loose drivers too..
run it slowly on rollers and look for a "hitch in it's get-along"
look at one side... all counterweights should be the same "o'clock" , no relationship to the other side needed.
check for loose drivers too..
run it slowly on rollers and look for a "hitch in it's get-along"
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General Discussion / Re: Coffee Grounds/Walnut Shells for Ballast
« Last post by gregeusa on January 02, 2026, 12:38:21 PM »Well this is the premier forum on this product...
Companies like Google notice that from searches by humans.
Get enough searches, and Google launches BOTs to crawl the site to keep current.
Saves time which is money for Google... it's all about the dollars.
Look at my site: right now it shows 780 "people" on my site... those are mostly BOTs scanning my site (25 million hits) on elmassian.com
Companies like Google notice that from searches by humans.
Get enough searches, and Google launches BOTs to crawl the site to keep current.
Saves time which is money for Google... it's all about the dollars.
Look at my site: right now it shows 780 "people" on my site... those are mostly BOTs scanning my site (25 million hits) on elmassian.com
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General Discussion / Re: Coffee Grounds/Walnut Shells for Ballast
« Last post by carpediem4570 on January 02, 2026, 03:36:55 AM »Good lord why?
This is just. Railpro forum. Why would anyone flood the forum with bots?
Kind regards,
Max
This is just. Railpro forum. Why would anyone flood the forum with bots?
Kind regards,
Max
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General Discussion / Re: Quartering the wheels on MEHANO 2-8-2 mikado
« Last post by carpediem4570 on January 02, 2026, 03:32:31 AM »Thank you Tim: only after I posted did I realize this should have been in general discussion.
During the conversion to the railpro system from dc, I changed out the old burned out motor for a new five pole motor.
I will take it apart and see if something is off balance.
Kind regards,
Max
During the conversion to the railpro system from dc, I changed out the old burned out motor for a new five pole motor.
I will take it apart and see if something is off balance.
Kind regards,
Max
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RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / MOVED: Quartering the wheels on MEHANO 2-8-2 mikado
« Last post by G8B4Life on December 31, 2025, 06:28:59 AM »7
General Discussion / Re: Quartering the wheels on MEHANO 2-8-2 mikado
« Last post by G8B4Life on December 31, 2025, 06:28:39 AM »Since your not driving the wheels with pistons they don't have to be quartered (90 degrees) at all, the angle just has to be the same across all the axles. Another way to look at it, a 3 cylinder loco is "quartered" at 120 degrees.
Wobbling (as opposed to binding because the "quartering" angles are not the same across all axles) sounds like something isn't concentric, like an axle not in it's slot properly as an example. If your able to disengage the motor from the drive train it could be helpful to push the engine by hand and watch the wheel and side rod motion carefully.
As this is not RailPro specific, I'm moving the thread to General Discussion.
- Tim
Wobbling (as opposed to binding because the "quartering" angles are not the same across all axles) sounds like something isn't concentric, like an axle not in it's slot properly as an example. If your able to disengage the motor from the drive train it could be helpful to push the engine by hand and watch the wheel and side rod motion carefully.
As this is not RailPro specific, I'm moving the thread to General Discussion.
- Tim
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General Discussion / Quartering the wheels on MEHANO 2-8-2 mikado
« Last post by carpediem4570 on December 31, 2025, 12:58:36 AM »Merry Christmas To All:
This is the continuing tale of hard wiring my HO steam locomotive to dcc.
After getting my MEHANO 2-8-2 Mikado steam locomotive from the presidents choice train sets of the 1990’s hard wired to dcc and running, I noticed the loco wobbles side to side quite violently now. A little research suggested perhaps the wheels were out of quarter.
The standard position for wheel quartering are 6 and 9 o’clock. Or 12 and 3 depending which way you are looking at the steam engine.
To my horror, I saw the wheels were set to 6 and 3, not 6 and 9.
I have all 11 presidents choice, (PC), train sets with a couple extra. One of those extras is a second Mikado. Its wheels are also set to 6 and 3. And it to has quite the wobble.
I looked at a couple other PC steam engines and there wheels are set to 6 and 9. They ran smoother.
Then I pull out the 4-6-2 Pacific Express. Wheels are quartered at 6 and 3 and runs as smooth as can be with no wobble.
My question: do the wheels need to be quartered to 6 and 9 or do they just need to be quartered.
Kind regards and Happy New Year,
Max
This is the continuing tale of hard wiring my HO steam locomotive to dcc.
After getting my MEHANO 2-8-2 Mikado steam locomotive from the presidents choice train sets of the 1990’s hard wired to dcc and running, I noticed the loco wobbles side to side quite violently now. A little research suggested perhaps the wheels were out of quarter.
The standard position for wheel quartering are 6 and 9 o’clock. Or 12 and 3 depending which way you are looking at the steam engine.
To my horror, I saw the wheels were set to 6 and 3, not 6 and 9.
I have all 11 presidents choice, (PC), train sets with a couple extra. One of those extras is a second Mikado. Its wheels are also set to 6 and 3. And it to has quite the wobble.
I looked at a couple other PC steam engines and there wheels are set to 6 and 9. They ran smoother.
Then I pull out the 4-6-2 Pacific Express. Wheels are quartered at 6 and 3 and runs as smooth as can be with no wobble.
My question: do the wheels need to be quartered to 6 and 9 or do they just need to be quartered.
Kind regards and Happy New Year,
Max
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RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: Lighting for Bowser C-636 with LOK decoder
« Last post by G8B4Life on December 30, 2025, 04:01:18 AM »I'm not aware of any C-636's from Bowser that have ditchlights. Do you mean an M-636 or C-630M? If you can tell us which model you have we may be able to look it up (I have several C-636's but have not installed RP in any of them yet).
- Tim
- Tim
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RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Lighting for Bowser C-636 with LOK decoder
« Last post by DJRCPR on December 28, 2025, 10:15:46 AM »Installed a LM-3S-21 into a Bowser C-636. Swapped out for the board and easy-peasy, we are good go. Basic functions working, playing around with the lighting trying to get the configuration correct if anyone has done similar. Playing with the pairing and have class lights flashing, but trying to figure out ditch and non flashing, dim. On the sheet for the LOK, it says AUX 1 and 2 for ditch, but that doesn't work.