- Preparing a P2K for sale, it was found to have several issues. The primary fault was in the fundamental performance.
- it ran very slow at high power
- Its MSV (minimum sustained velocity) was another twice the normal and the voltage level was nearly six volts. Even the P2K electronics is supposed to start at 4 volts.
- The engine barely pulled 14 cars on a 2.5% grade. More than a nominal train of 2X the drive axles or 8 cars. Most engines of this weight will pull 17 to 20 cars on the grade.
- the speed loss for a nominal train was large at both level and 2.5% grades.
Prior to the test, the trucks were cleaned and the axle gears were replaced to eliminate the “cracked” problem.
To understand this problem, a few tests are planned.
- The P2K electronics will be removed, thus running on DC with no module losses.
- Run a series of wheel materials
- lubricate the motor bearings
Depending on the results of these tests, a motor change may be in the works.
Once that has been decided, additional tests will be performed with two classes of digital control modules:
- A constant DC Rail Pro.
- A NCE DCC card mobile decoder.
after these tests, LED’s will be added and the unit will be sold.
More later.
