[Carmen]

I have a Lionel 6-84726 - 0-8-0 LionChief steamer. When passing over a turnout it stops (just a few seconds) and then continues in the same direction all without touching the remote??? Any ideas anyone?? Thanks

 

[Norton]

Likely a problem with pickup roller spacing. If you put another truck on the tender that has a pickup roller and then wire the tender roller to the engine pickups that should cure the problem.
Lots of steam engines have this issue, even much larger ones.

Pete

 

[Dave Connolly]

I’m really not familiar with the newer Lion Chief locos. . The newer Legacy 0-8-0’s from the last run now have a tether. For just that reason. It now connects the rollers from the tender to the engine. These are really stall proof. Like Pete said. Look for a truck with a roller that you can adapt to the tender.
I have an earlier Legacy 0-8-0. That constantly stalled. Even on a straight piece of Gargraves after you stopped it. Track was squeaky clean. Go to change direction and it would stall. Never when moving. Surely couldn’t be a roller spacing problem. I ended up adding a wire with 2 ring connectors. Made from 2 old lighting wires soldered together to get a small sized ring. Used a body mount screw on the engine and the other end was screwed to the metal tender chassis. Seemed to fix it. You now had the tenders wheels giving the engine another ground source. When you think about it. You have a rigid 8 wheeled chassis. 4 blind drivers barely resting on the rails, 2 with traction tires, and 2 flanged wheels that provide the bulk of the electrical contact. This is the reason even the larger steamers now feature wires to the pilot trucks and wipers on the trailing truck.