Hi,

I'm pretty new to trains, inherited some O gauge Lionel over Christmas, and have been buying a few things from a local train shop and eBay. I recently purchased a Santa Fe 8263 Diesel engine (GP-7 unit, 8263 ATSF (low cost) - I'm not sure what all that means, but that's what I found in the Lionel Product Supplement 1-9). Thing is....it's slow. It does alright on its own but get a half dozen cars behind it and it slows to a craw and usually dies when it tries to cross over a turnout. I also have an 8915 western maryland diesel which goes gangbusters...so the setup seems OK, even with my crappy 25 watt/13 volt transformer.

So, what might be wrong with the engine? Is this type of engine historically underpowered? Seems odd though that Lionel would put out an engine that couldn't even pull 6 cars. Maybe the motor truck is old/bad and needs replaced (where to buy replacement, part number?)? I noticed that there are no pickups on the motor truck but there are on the collector truck...this seems odd, no? Could I get a second motor truck and replace the collector truck and double the power? Or toss is and buy something new?

Any advice would be useful. Thanks!

Greg