Locomotive performance

Is this on an inclined piece of track? Have you cleaned the rails?

I should imagine reverse and forward gear ratios and mechanisms are different or something

And that would matter if the track was inclined. Most trains use one gear and reverse power.

We had a similar experience with our loco, O-gage I think it is. It's front-wheel drive and so these two wheels wear more than the rest, thus eventually just simply didn't make contact with the track. Thus toward the lst I'd have expected it maybe to act normal downhill, jerky on the stretch, dying uphill

I'm in the final stages of a rework swapping these two wheels with two others

Federal government funding for repairs is lacking.

Thanks but the track is level and clean.

Thanks but there is no incline.

I will have a closer look at the drive wheels but I still don't understand why this happens when facing one direction and not the other.

Thanks but there is no incline.

Possibly weakened motor or gear. Maybe some corrosion?

Buddy, indeed a mystery

Buddy, indeed a mystery

As a most remarkable coincidence when I finished my repair and returned the loco to its track, it too acted in a similar, most peculiar manner. That it, it would back up but wouldn't proceed forward. In my case, the trouble proceeds from a faulty transformer FORWARD-REVERSE switch as suggested by Rag above. Apparently it's somewhat corroded so doesn't make good contact in both positions

After switching it back and forth a few times sure enough, happy to report, it now starts forward too. Of course your difficulty is different, apparently having something to do with your loco and not the transformer. Though it's a bit expensive you might pick up a can of contact cleaner from Radio Shack and spray round the front wheels and the brushes or whatever is supposed to conduct the power from the tracks to the loco motor

But one way and not the other? By different directions I mean actually lifting the locomotive off the track and turning it to travel in the other direction. One way is fine forward and reverse but the other way only reverse works.

Yea Buddy, very strange indeed. There's a remote chance that two surfaces in contact are corroded in such a way as to rectify. Thus contact cleaner