Bachmanians,

I recently bought 2 Bachmann GP40s and a GP35 at a yard sale. All three are the OLD ones with pancake motors and only the front truck drive. A few questions :

*How do I lubricate the pancake motor ? Maybe a tiny drop of oil on the motor shafts on each side ? A little bit of gear grease in the little slots around the shafts where I can see the gears ?

*How do I lubricate the gears in the trucks ? This doesn't look easy; I can't see any visible way to open up the bottom of the truck assemblies.

*When the GP35 runs, it has a clicking sound - is this the gear drive 'click of death' ? Or is it perhaps something else that's repairable ?

*One of the GP40s is factory painted gold with UP lettering & trim. I seem to recall that this was a locomotive in a set. Was there a UP gold painted locomotive in real life ?

Thanks for any and all information !

I appreciate very much Bachmann's Code of Conduct for their forums. I would have added this as a reply to the original Code of Conduct thread but it's been locked. And my post here may be redundant and taken down but here goes . . . .

Today on another model train forum (not a Bachmann forum), I had an encounter with a guy that was just downright nasty. He took exception to something I said about a post on some causes of derailments; I was just repeating what had been said in another thread and wasn't even saying it in a negative context. But this guy stopped just short of publicly calling me a liar. I did a little digging and he's obviously an extremely accomplished model railroader - he's likely forgotten more about the hobby than I'll ever know. But even so, don't wear your superior knowledge on your sleeve. In one way or another, we're all here seeing a bit of help. I hear all the time about 'our hobby's dying'. . . . yep; and it's guys like that who are highballing it's demise on the mainline. In fact, the reason that I was on that particular thread was to get some information for someone  that is brand new to the hobby . . . and had just had a very rude experience with a train store owner !

There's an old saying that goes, "If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all." Keeping this hobby going is enough of a challenge; let's not add to the challenge.

Update 1: Today, the guy posted a challenge to me on the aforementioned forum thread to prove with a link to what I'd quoted from another thread. Really ? If I had the knowledge and layout that this guy had, picking fights with strangers would be the last thing I'd waste my time doing !

All:

Are the side rails that go in front of the cab on a 'regular' Bachmann GE B-23-7 locomotive interchangeable with those on a Bachmann Plus GE B-30-7 locomotive ?  I can't tell just from photos. If they're kinda close, then maybe I could make them work; but otherwise I don't want to order useless parts.

Veteran Bachmannians : In the course of clearing out some of my junk, I've come across some older pieces of Bachmann-branded track that are silver with black ties. Does anyone know if this is nickel-silver or is it just plain steel ?

Thanks folks !

I have an MRC Tech IV 260 that's dead. MRC's Service Department will not look at it so I gotta do it myself. Does anyone happen to know if the fasteners that are used to hold the box together are some sort of oddball screw or rivets ? I've tried several Allen wrenches to no avail. . . .

I have a new-old-stock Bachmann GP-40 that has a perplexing problem with the powered rear truck assembly. I inherited this unit from my dad and it looks like it's either never ran or has been run only a few times. I ran for a minute and then it lost drive to the wheels on the back/powered truck. I took it apart and there was a lot of lubrication oil on the entire drive shaft assembly. It took several cleanings until it would stay together; but now I have a new problem: the front axle of the drive truck seems to be slightly higher than the rear axle and the engine constantly derails. I tried taking it apart and reassembling it. If I get it loose enough that it sits level, when I stop the engine, the rear axle on the drive truck almost always derails to the right. If I tighten up the assembly to where the truck sits level, it's too stiff to navigate the curves. If I run the engine in reverse, where the powered truck is leading, the engine runs fine with no derailments. Any idea what I've done wrong and/or can remedy the problem ? Should I try replacing the entire drive truck assembly ?