Engine running like a duck

Is it a steam locomotive? I've had this problem if the drivers are not identically quartered. Solution - requarter the offending sets. HTH.
Jerry

Hi, it is a diesel one. I don't know what the drivers are, and what is to quarter them? Sorry, I'm lost...thanks!

You might have a mechanic check to see if the pistons are changing holes.
Phil Anderson

wrote
Your loco almost certainly has at least one wheel -and maybe more- out of round.
Only solution I know of is to replace the wheels with ones that *are* round.
-Pete

muselart wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@59g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:
A couple things come to mind: Motor out of alignment Flanges making contact with the ties Something on the wheel itself
I'd start diagnostics by checking the wheels. If you hold a piece of track to the wheels and take a good look (usually I do this with the locomotive upside down for better light), that will tell you if the flanges might be rubbing. Be sure to use the same stuff as what's causing trouble.
I'd then check the wheels with the NMRA standards gauge. Just follow the instructions that came with the gauge for doing that.
If those items don't solve your problem, take a look at the motor and mechanism. Most (decent) locomotives use a ball-and-socket connection to power all the wheels. If the motor's not aligned properly or loose, this can cause the locomotive to sway. I found this out on a recent DCC decoder installation. Once I reseated the motor properly, the engine was fine.
Drivers: The big wheels on steam locomotives; Also the middle numbers when talking about wheel arrangements such as 2-8-2. Quarter: The side rod on one side is 90 degrees out of alignment with the other. So, if the left side is at the top center, the right side is halfway down.
Puckdropper

Does it have traction tires (sort of like small rubber bands around some of the wheels)?
I once had an old Tyco diesel that would waddle because the traction tires seemed to be nothing more than just that, cheap little rubber bands.
Because those "traction tires" were not of consistent thickness or width, they would be thicker and thinner at various points around the wheel. That in turn caused the loco to wobble at regular intervals as it went down the track.
The cure was to appoint it Shelf Queen status...
Stevert

I don't know if you're joking around or not, but if a vacuum hose is off on one side of the collection boxes - that's something to check.

"David Nebenzahl" wrote
Because they waddle from side to side as they walk.

On 3/10/2008 1:59 PM muselart spake thus:
Why a duck?

So, ya could call it a Rove-er on that basis.

On 3/11/2008 3:56 PM P. Roehling spake thus:
"Whoooosh!"
(The sound of a joke flying by overhead, un-gotten.)

"David Nebenzahl" wrote
Uh, if you're going to cite obscure film references, you're likely to hear that sound quite a lot.