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Post by gprose on Dec 9, 2014 14:57:15 GMT -5
Hi, I have two AZL engines with failed LED's, one GP38-2 and the other is an RDC. If anyone out there has spare boards for any of these they would be willing to part with I would appreciate it. The lack of replacement parts is frustrating.
Glen Rose
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Post by gprose on May 2, 2014 18:45:05 GMT -5
Hi, I have five GP-38s and although I've never had any of them die on me they do tend to be quirky. They always seem to need an extensive warm up period whenever I run them. A couple of them run quite slowly at first but then surge ahead suddenly and run at a higher speed which they will usually do for the rest of the time I run them but they do this every time I run them. I do have one which the rear light stopped working shortly after I got it and AZL said they sent me a replacement board for it but I never got it. Another thing I notice is they leak oil all over the place and none of my other engines do this. I have a small layout (if you can call it that) but a lot of stuff, when I'm not using something I put it away in its box until I want to use it again. Every time I want to use one of these engines I always find I have to wipe away oil from around the cab which I never have to do with my other engines and I've never added any oil to these engines since I've had them. While these engines generally run okay I have other engines that run better. I too have some concerns over the lack of exploded diagrams and replacement parts. AZL's SD-70s and 75s did come with exploded diagrams and you could purchase replacement parts such as PCBs and trucks for them which I think was a good idea. We should be able to at least download and print exploded diagrams from the website. I have absolutely no idea how to take the RDCs apart and I have one that doesn't run as smoothly as it used to and one of its lights doesn't always work. A simple cleaning may be all it takes to get it running nicely again but I don't dare try because I'm not sure how it comes apart. Replacing the board my be the only way to fix the light though.
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Post by gprose on May 1, 2014 4:22:56 GMT -5
I look forward to the arrival of the CN one.
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Post by gprose on May 1, 2014 4:19:52 GMT -5
I hope these new GP-9s will also appear in CN, CP, GN and BN colors.
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Post by gprose on Oct 23, 2013 21:37:29 GMT -5
Hi, thanks to those who replied. To answer BAZman's question; there is some side to side play but none of the wheels free roll. My cars are stiff rolling on straight and curved track. It's nice that one engine will pull all 8 of your cars because none of mine can pull the 4 cars I have. This includes GP30s, GP38s and SD75s all of which have traction tires! Even the heavy MTL F7 can't pull all 4 of these cars! My set is the Westcoast Express set which has the Bombardier cars. I know the Amtrak sets don't have these cars and the cars that come with the Amtrak sets have different trucks than the Bombardier cars.
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Post by gprose on Oct 7, 2013 13:45:10 GMT -5
I would like to hear from anyone who has one of the AZL F59 Passenger Sets with the Bombardier cars (this is all but the Amtrak sets). I find that the engine has trouble pulling all four cars in the set (all my other engines too, for that matter). I contacted AZL about this and the explaination was that many of these cars had bolsters that were too short and also in some cases not all the wheels rest on the track. While my cars do seem to fall into this catagory and AZL sent me some replacement floor panels for them I'm not finding this has solved the problem. I find these cars have poor rolling characteristics, when moving them by hand on the straight track sections they feel very stiff almost as bad as MTL's unpowered F7B. I suspect the clips that hold the wheels in place are too tight and don't allow the wheels turn as freely as they should. If anyone else has experienced the same problem with one of these sets and found another solution I would be happy to hear from them.
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Post by gprose on Oct 6, 2013 19:24:17 GMT -5
I agree, it is a BUMMER. I bought the CP baggage car and the CN one in the later black/white colour scheme not knowing they were going release the black/green ones shortly after. Actually, I wonder just how many of the old heavy weight cars were actually repainted in the black/white scheme? Anyway, I would dearly love to have some CP heavy weight passenger cars to go with the lonely baggage car. Also, since I already have one, some black/white CN heavy weights to go with that car. Some GN heavy weights would be nice too. My black/green CN cars do go nicely with my CN Mikado even though the Mikado was primarily used for hauling freight.
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Post by gprose on Oct 6, 2013 4:30:23 GMT -5
I recently converted from MTL track to Rokuhan track and this has generally gone well except in one area. About half of my MTL SD40s seem to have a power pickup problem when they cross the rail joints in the curved track sections. If they're traveling at a high speed they keep moving but hesitate when they cross the rail joints but if they're traveling at slow speed they come to a dead stop and won't move unless I push them off the join. It only happens in the curved track sections not in the straight sections and these engines didn't behave this way on the MTL track. It is really puzzling because the rest of my SD40s and all my other engines (MTL and AZL) run just fine on the new track. Any ideas?
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Post by gprose on Jul 10, 2013 23:08:32 GMT -5
To boxcarwilly re: Don Fedjur; that's good to know. I've heard of Mr. Fedjur but this is the first personal experience review I've seen. I have an AZL loco that a local fellow managed to bring back from the dead for me but it still won't run in reverse, so I might give Mr. Fedjur a try.
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Post by gprose on Jul 3, 2013 20:19:20 GMT -5
I'm really surprised at the problems boxcarwilly has been having with his AZL Auto Latch couplers especially the part where he can't get them to latch together like they should. I've never had any problem getting these to latch together. However, I was surprised to find a brand new AZL 89' flatcar I ordered was fitted with the old non auto latch style coupler! I discovered this when I tried to latch it to one of my AZL SD75's which still has the old non auto latch couplers on it and it wouldn't go. I've found the auto latch type coupler will latch to the old non auto latch type but the old non auto latch ones won't latch to each other. There is a physical difference between the new and old type couplers; if you look down on the coupler the old style coupler has a small square shaped projection that sticks out the righthand side just behind the curved part of the coupler. The Auto Latch type does not have this, so I wonder, does he have some new cars with the old couplers? Can't imagine him having that many though.
Glen
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GP 7
Jul 3, 2013 19:24:53 GMT -5
Post by gprose on Jul 3, 2013 19:24:53 GMT -5
I would like to see CNR and CPR added to the GP7/GP9 roadnames.
Glen
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Post by gprose on May 22, 2013 13:01:25 GMT -5
I've had similar problems with three (3) of my GP-38s. Funny thing is they usually run better in reverse! One of them however, experiences speed fluctuations when run in reverse (speeds up and slows down).
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Post by gprose on Jul 5, 2012 19:19:55 GMT -5
I would like to see the stainless steel passenger cars as well.
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Post by gprose on Jul 5, 2012 19:16:01 GMT -5
Once again lots of good suggestions here. Here's my two cents worth: wood chip cars, 50' highcube boxcars and the older open style autoracks interest me too.
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Post by gprose on Jun 25, 2012 23:38:01 GMT -5
Lots of good suggestions here. Here are some of mine: MP36/40, C-Liner, 4-axle Alco PA's and FP9.
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