Noisy Microtrains FT....two locomotive set


railfan

railfan

junk collector
I bought my first and only microtrains brand loco a few months ago....an N scale EMD FT A+B set, two powered units connected with a drawbar just like the prototype. These are modern day, supposedly well made products and usually sell for around $150-175 when new. The asking price for this NEAR NEW or TEST RUN ONLY previously owned set was $95....so it was in my price range. They run very nicely, smooth at slowest speeds and top speed is the fastest of all my ten different engines of all types and makers.

The thing is...they are also the noisiest of all. There is a harsh high pitched shhhssssssss or hissing sound coming from all the sixteen wheels on the two lashed together units. Nothing seems loose or otherwise out of place or adjustment. There does seem to be alot of side to side movement of the wheels in the trucks compared to other engines.....and this noise is not what I would expect from a high quality product sold for a premium price when new. The instructions warned against too much oil....and I dabbed only a very small amount of alcohol based silicone lube with a cotton swab on the wheel axles which made no difference in the noise. Maybe I need oil?

Mike
 
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Not shure but did intermtrn make them ?? does it happen when you run then alone? did you flip flop the ends around ?? I'd take the body off and have a look see ,just to check if the works were all lined up.I have a pair of atlas sd50's talk about noise !!! had them apart a zillon times run great just loud.
With one hand my typing/spelling really bites,good thing i model better then I type !!

L
 
Worse case if they still do it call up Mt's and see if they can help you out,I think they would,or one would hope they should ????

L
 
I just got back from walmart with some light-weight machine oil. Going to try that tomorrow and see. I really like this locomotive set, it runs great and the noise is mostly a minor issue. Just wanting to try to see if any solution is possible.....if not no biggie.

Some units are just loud and quirky sometimes. I did have the bodies off a while back and switched the motors so the faster one is now in the front A-unit...and the slower one is in the rear. Before I switched them...the rear used to push the front one....and it caused the drawbar to jack-knife to one side pushing the bodies out of line with each other...enough to make a noticeable un-attractive skewed looking condition going down the track. Now it's fine. I was thrilled to find out I could successfully repair and adjust these small precision machines.

Mike
 
powersteamguy1790 said:
MT FT's always run noisy...
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. I have five Micro-Trains FT's, two A's and three B's, and they all are quite runners. A couple of them were noisy when I first got them, but I discovered on each of those a gear on one of the trucks was hitting one of the flywheels. I moved the flywheel toward the motor slightly on the noisy ones, and they are all quite now.
 
CSX Robert said:
Not necessarily. I have five Micro-Trains FT's, two A's and three B's, and they all are quite runners. A couple of them were noisy when I first got them, but I discovered on each of those a gear on one of the trucks was hitting one of the flywheels. I moved the flywheel toward the motor slightly on the noisy ones, and they are all quite now.
Click to expand...
Ok, thanks for sharing that Robert....I'm going to check that out. The gears are at least one of the sources of the noise.


Mike
 
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