Although it’s an exceptionally smooth runner, my Model Power switcher has been plagued by maddening stuttering and pick up problems. After literally years of head scratching the issue appears to be related to something in the axle needle point tip and cup it resides in. Piling lead weight on the tender improved performance tremendously. The problem is that the lead weights were large and unsightly. There is simply very little space inside the tender to add anything substantial. As a band aid for now I switched from lead to tungsten because it’s 1.7 times heaver. In other words you need much less Tungsten on a per volume basis to get the same gains. Weights come in a variety of shapes and I picked up some that were roughly eighth inch squares, painted them flat black, and placed them anywhere I could on the tender. It’s not perfect but not totally unsightly during normal running. When I want to do photography I’ll just remove the weights on top of the coal pile.
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