A few drops of oil

You've probably noticed trains much on my mind these days. Now that I've got some locos that run I'm having fun getting them to run their best.

You've ever noticed while waiting at the light for a train to go by that they often have 2, 3 or more locos hitched together to pull long trains? They call this consisting. Model trains can do this to, it's just a bit of work to get them to all run at the same speed so they pull together. It helps if the locos the same model and brand. So with this in mind I've picked up 3 SD40-2's by Kato, one of the better brands. The SD40-2 one of the most popular locos ever made, they sold over 4000 of them, so from a prototypical point of view it makes sense to focus on this model. I like the looks of it to.

My two CP Rail SD40-2 little jack rabbits, while my Burlington Northern drags behind noticeably. I spent a fair amount of time slowing the CP Rail's down to match and then it occurred to me perhaps the BN just needs a little oil. I got out my precision oiler and lubed all the critical spots. Sure enough it much faster, not as fast, but fast enough to make the whole tweaking process much less tedious. All three of them now can run a lap around the layout and stay within a couple inches of each other, more than close enough to allow them to consist well together.