That looks great. I hope to be doing something like that soon with my caboose. I have the wheels and pickups on order. I'm curious about one thing though. Is there a way to make the lights burn steady so that when you turn the power up on the tracks that they don't get brighter or is that complicated?

Again, I like the looks of that. Well done 

4-6 week turn around 

I surely hope my experience is a little different. I am sympathetic to the shipping aspect. I would hope that they ship it back in one of their original boxes. Those boxes seem to be very well made.

I'll be sure to keep you all posted. I'm looking forward to a time when this thing is completely operational for more than a few days. Thanks for setting my expecations to something more realistic too.


Have a great evening!

I may not have mentioned that in this post. I did contact Bachmann and they're having me send it in. My hope is that they turn around quickly. I ordered this about a month ago now but I've had some level of problems with it since the very beginning. Initially I had some issues where it would run roughly in one direction so they sent me a new front truck which made things much much better. At that point I really got to start running it and then after only a few hours of operation (not all at once but rather over the course of a few days), the train started making a rythmical scratching sound. My curiousity got the better of me so I opened the bottom and found what you see in the photo.

I have to once again thank everyone for the support and taking the time to read my newbie questions.


Have a great day everyone! 

Thanks everyone,

This is a brand new train. During my first problem with the front truck pickups I did call Trainworld but all I got was there must be something with how I was operating it and that I should let the train run longer so it can "break in". They weren't highly motivated to help me out.

I did end up working direct with Bachmann who was very very helpful. Before calling them again on this matter I wanted to be sure that I was really experiencing a problem as I'm still new to this and not sure what is good/bad. I will call them again this morning.

Thanks to you all for taking the time to look at this for me. I do appreciate it.


Have a great day everyone!

Hello all,

After recently replacing the front trucks on my 4-6-0 Anniversary all was going very very well. Train ran so smooth and quiet but suddenly very recently I started hearing a ticking/scratching sound. The frequency/rate increases as the train goes faster. It still runs strong and smooth but the sound causes me a little concern. Now that I'm comfortable with taking the bottom off the train I thought to do a visual inspection. I found one thing that makes me a little concerned.

The forward set of large wheels sits up into the chassis. The wheel/axle assembly has what looks like brass hubs or bearings with a patterned or sintered edge that gets captured up into "U" shaped cut-outs in the chassis. It appears as this should be a bit of an interference fit. I say this because all but one of the axles fit snugly into the chassis. I have one that appears as though the brass part has been turning inside of the "U" shaped saddle section of the chassis and has started to wear at the plastic. It's also very loose in the chassis as compared to the other axle bearing assemblies.

I apologize for the poor description but I don't know what these parts are called. I've attached the parts breakdown and I've attempted to post a photo. Any advice you have would be appreciated. Thank you!



http://postimg.org/image/4qrqadl8l/


http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/dwg/dwgs/LS_4-6-0_Metal_Gears.frame_&_wheels.pdf

Thanks VERY much Chuck N. This is great information.

Have a great weekend!

Thank you everyone,

I do sort of understand what is required but there are so many different models and products. I should have stated what caboose I have. It is a LGB 4175 D+RGW caboose and passenger car. There's a picture of it here; http://marketplace.collector-modeltrains.com/offer/details/52372. I actually bought mine on ebay but the picture isn't there anymore but this is the same unit.

Thanks very much.

Hello all,

I'm sure the first thought that comes to one and all is to "Google It". I have and likely I don't know the correct or best terminology to search by for the best results.

I recently purchase a big caboose for my train. It doesn't have any lights and has plastic wheels. I have a DC set up and would like to set the caboose up with interior lighting and would very much like to have the little lanterns on the sides light up to.

I have read about battery power but don't really care for that solution. I would much rather get the power from the tracks. I do know this will take some special wheels but even after extensive searching I can't positively identify what I would need. Until recently I thought metal wheels was the solution but I now understand that some sort of contacts are also required to pull power from the track, through the wheels and to some wiring.

I have searched these forums but so many of the exchanges seem to talk about the digital systems or battery power. I believe I can handle this modification if I could identify the parts to pick up power from the track (wheels and other parts). I'm quite handy with a soldering iron but the train lingo is where I seem to get lost.

Thanks all

At last my train is 100%. The train runs equally well in either the clockwise or the anticlockwise direction and life is good 

A special thank you to Laura Harris and James at Bachmann. A couple quick questions and parts were on the way. They sent me the bottom half of the train which had the front wheels and a couple big long copper springy strips. 6 screws voila!

I would also like to thank everyone on this forum that offered advice in helping me to identify what that problem might be. It all turned out well.


Have a great day everyone!

This is very helpful information Joe,

I put the train on one side and measured resistance between all the pickup wheels on the left side of the train and they all look to be very very close to zero Ohms. I gave the front wheels a little wiggle and it all stayed at zero.

I then laid the train down on the other side and did the same, all measuring at about zero. However, when I gave the front wheels a wiggle, the resistance jumped all around.

The front wheel assembly hangs from a very flexible arm. When I move that larger assembly around the resistance isn't affected. When I move the individual wheel on the carrier assembly below that where things get interesting. There is quite a bit of movement in the wheel axles up front, not just side to side but all around in the axle tube/carrier. Not sure if that's normal or not.

I think we may be on to something here.

Thanks very much Chuck N,

Without the tender it runs "better" in the anti-clockwise direction. If I run it more quickly it does better yet but still at slow speeds not as smoothly when going clockwise. When I add the coal car the issue becomes more noticable and then when I add the caboose, worse yet. I can over-come this to some degree by making the train run more quickly (almost at full speed) but, in all cases and at all speeds works perfectly when moving clockwise. With the coal car and the caboose, if I run it at half speed or slower in anti-clockwise direction it will get quite "jerky" and every now and then stop momentarily.

I ran it for a good long time today at a high rate of speed going anti-clockwise. It's quite fast and seems to run without lights flickering and stuttering. I was thinking perhaps the wheels needed to get worn in a bit to match with the tracks but after about an hour of that I slowed it down and it still behaves the same.

Again, thank you very much for taking the time to read and offer recommendations.

Thanks sveryone. Now that my caboose has arrived I see a slightly different arrangement where the couplers are concerned. I now better understand truck mounted and body mounted. I dont have a fancy track and turnouts (yet) and really like the simplicity of the hook and loop set up...so simple. After taking the one that came with my train apart and doing the same with my other brand caboose some of the dimensional considerations now make sense.

Thanks for the education!

Let me first say thank you to everyone for putting up with all my beginner questions. Some day I hope to be able to contribute.

I went back to my original set up. Switch on train set to normal train pointed clockwise and all is wonderfull and smooth. I run the train forwards and backwards by control of the  power pack.

When I pick up the train and put it on the track facing anti clockwise the train runs roughly regardless of direction as determined by the power pack. I also see the lights flicker when the train is facing anti clockwise.

Pick up the train face it again clockwise and all is right with my mini round the chair train track.

I thank you one and all for your support.

I've been flipping the switch on the train and then pointing the train in the other direction.

The power supply has a "forward" and "reverse" button and so to keep the power supply showing forward when the train is going forward I've been flipping the switch on the train. I see what you're saying...don't flip the switch on the train (use the position that works best) then simply control by using the powr supply and ignore what the power supply is saying "forward and reverse".

I'll give that a go. Thanks very much Chuck N !

Thank you Chuck N

After reading my message I too see the confusion.

Running the train pointed clockwise it runs very smoothly. I control the train forward and back using the power supply controls and it runs smoothly both forward and back.

Flip the switch on the train and point the train anti-clockwise and it runs roughly and the lights flicker. Again using the power supply to run it forwards and back it's rough in both directions.

I did one additional thing this morning. I reversed the wiring connections on the track.

Again running the train pointed anti-clockwise it runs roughly and lights flicker. Flip the train switch and point the train facing clockwise and it's smooth again.

It appears to be when train is facing anti-clockwise when this little issue happens. I'm convinced it has something to do with the train it'self. But my inspections don't reveal much but again I don't know much of these things yet.

Hope that clears things up a bit. Thanks!