My railbus 'jerks' while driving at low speed.
It runs with dcc.
Any thoughts on what may cause this?
John Baron
Netherlands.

Hi all,

I have another tip for you on  the speaker.
There is not much room under the roof for a decent speaker. There is lots of room though inside the truck The truck body can be taken of fairly easy. It is 'snapfitted' onto the frame.

Hold the front end of the frame in your left/right hand, and the body in your right/left hand.  Wiggle the body a bit and it should come up. The sides and back-end come lose just by bending the body carefully a bit towards the outside and pushing the frame up the same time (your bus lays on its top) 
With a piece of double sided tape I mounted the speaker to the inside of the roof.
About in the middle where there is a whole. There it is least visible and you do not have to interfere with the leds for the inside lighting.
The speakerwires go through two of the the many holes on the intended place for a speaker.
Solder the wires on to your sounddecoder, clean/insulate the soldering point, add the roof again and away goes your bus .
Taking the body off  is also great for adding passengers to your truck as well.
(At least you get some much needed revenues for your railroadcompany that way....)
I have not tried the trailer yet, but I assume it opens the same way.

Happy railroading!
John Baron
The Netherlands. 

Hello Bill,

This is what I did:
I am using a decoder that has an additional plug (susi) built in for adding a separate sound board.
It is a also a seperate soundchip.
Check out this (usa) internetadress:

https://www.dcctrain.com/images/75%20series.jpg.

You can see the (motor) decoder on this picture  From the soundchip only the plug and the wire. On the motordecoder the susi plug is fitted (for 4 small wires) But it is for the impression only. The soundchip itself is as large as the motordecoder.

I have a soundadapter and with it and my PC and through the Susi plug I can load in as many different sounds as I want. I have used a very small soundchip and decoder. It all fits nicely under the roof of the railbus where there is litte space.

The only thing I am waiting for is a small 14mm speaker I ordered today in your country with John Thut of DCC hobby supply. It takes a week to get down here in the Netherlands. They are not available here.
Then I will be all done with this railbus and it can go into service.
I am happy with it now.

John Baron

JohnR

Your explanation (and Bill's as a start) turned out to be the solution to the problem
Thank you ! It got me going.

Here it goes:

When using another decoder with the 8-pin plug (Nem/NMRA 652) make sure the green function wire (F1) is soldered to the empty pin on the plug and that this wire is also connected to to the decoder.  With European decoders the green wire is many times not soldered to the pin.

Many decoders have the green wire already connected to the decoder, mine however did not.  But there was a solderpad provided on the decoder for it. It is a bit of a tedious job but a fine pointed soldering iron (max 15Watt) should help you out.

When hooked up to the socket on the bus next, the F0 turns on the headlights, F1 turns on the markerlights and interiorlights. Both stay on non directional. Leave that.
((Sorry Bachmann, you have not done anything wrong, just made it a bit confusing. )

Next, I hooked up the sound decoder through a susi plug.  And of course F1 showed  'the battle' mentioned before.
I had to do some remapping of the function buttons next. For this you have to follow the instructions that go with the sounddecoder.
I left F1 to handle the markerlights, F2 and others were adressed to the soundfunctions.
I used the Lenz LH 100 to do this programming.
It can be done!

Dear Mr. Bachmann, what do you think of all this ?


Bachmann, our much appreciated On30 manufacturer, should (have) understand/forseen this and should have written about it in the instructions, I would say. 

Narrow gauge greetings to all of you,
John Baron

Hi Bill,

No solution yet.
I did not make any modifications to the electrical system of the bus.
There is a standard 8 pin plug (NMRA 652)
The F1 's keep competing with each other.
I have asked the soundchip producer whether remapping is possible.
No notification yet.
I have to wait for someone to come up with a solution, I guess.
A different decoder? I do not know yet

This is the sound I choose with Uhlenbrock Germany
Hope you can try it out on this link:

http://www.uhlenbrock.de/3/
Then:

Choose: Produkte
Choose: Digital
Choose: sound
Choose: Probehören

choose on that page the following (scroll down on the page) :

historischer Triebwagen TCA der SKLGB

Thought it would go fine with the Bachmann bus. Hope I can stay with it and get the lights to go on with it.

Hope you have fun listening.

Untill then
John Baron
The Netherlands.

Thank you Bill,

Your remarks made me do another test: I have used another cab and another decoder, this time one without sound.
I used the Lenz LH 100 cab. Together with a Zimo decoder without sound "0" shuts the headlights on/of while "1" shuts the markerlights/interior lights on/off.

Like Bachmann promised.

The Uhlenbrock sounddecoder however uses "1" to shut of/on the sound and thus no markerlights etc.
Who is to blame? Mr. Uhlenbrock or Mr. Bachmann ?. I do not know the NMRA regulations on what "1" is intended for in the dcc-system.

Guess I have to go for an American made sounddecoder to solve this 'battle of the knobs"? 

Do you have any suggestions in this respect?

Thanks again
John Baron

Hi all,

If you want to add sound to your On30 railbus the original Bachmann dcc-decoder must be removed.
The bus has many leds on it: frontlights, markerlights, lights inside. I counted 14 leds.
The decoder has to 'serve' them all what I think, draws more milliamps than we are used to with a regular locomotive with only headlights (and perhaps a cablight).

The following happens with my bus (a beauty, is not it ?).
With the Bachmann decoder all the lights work perfectly.
Not so when a (German Uhlenbrock) sounddecoder is installed.
The sound works perfectly. But with it only the two headlights of the bus on. You can shut these on/off. That is ok.
But no markerlights, no lights inside turn on.
The same thing with a standard ESU decoder.
The connections of the decoder are therefore 'proven ok' otherwise I would not have gained this result so far, isn't it? 

Any idea what causes the markerlights and inside lights not to light up with other decoders than with the original Bachmann ?

The original Bachmann decoderplug has two wee small resistors(?) mounted on it.
I have not seen this on dcc plugs before. The board even shows up some circuitry.
Has  this -parhaps-  anything to do with the 'challenge' I am facing with my bus?

Thanking you all for your kind replies!

John Baron
from Harderwijk
The Netherlands.

But the magazine mentioned is not (readily) available on this side of the great, deep pond................

Lucky fellas overthere

John Baron
The Netherlands

I have only lowered the "old" cars. They came on the "high"trucks.
I changed them for the lower/longer ones.
 
I do not know how the new cars come along.
Check it out on the several websites where these cars are offered.

Hello Bob,
You're welcome.
I have done several Bachmann cars sofar. There is one tip I want to give you: frames of the Bachmann tankcars/flatcars are different form the ones used under boxcars.
Just compare the bolsters of each and see the difference. The once on the flatcars/tankcars lie deeper at the truckbolsters.
If you use the link I gave you: the best way is to start with a boxcar. Get some experience there. Work slowly and give glue time to settle.
With that in mind modify a flatcar and filedown bit by bit, rather then cut, the centershaft where the truckscrew goes in.
There is a difference in heigth. Compare frequently with the height achieved on the boxcar untill you are satisfied.

I personally love all the results I achieved. Especially when the low truck frame are used mentioned in the webpage of Allan Carroll.
Bob Hayden's results in the NG&SLG are also beautiful.

Nice universal 0n30 hobby, is not it?

John Baron
The Netherlands.

Hello all,

Bob Hayden's article is inspiring, but not unique on how to get that  'Low Maine narrow gauge look' on your rolling equipment.

Here is a link that shows you even more exactly how to to it. It has been there for a long time already.

http://on30center.com/on30/library/articles/ac/tc/tc.html

John Baron
The Netherlands

David,

I know and it might be a problem for all of you who do not speak the german language.
One advantage though: digital (steam) sound speaks a universal language.
Hurray!
Therefore:
On the Uhlenbrock website choose:
'produkte' ;
next 'digital'
next 'sound'
next 'Probehören"
Take your choice ( click "hören")  and away you go.
When you are interested: I am sure they correspond in the english language.

John Baron
Netherlands.

At www.bachmanntrains.com:  try the german site of Bachmann (liliput)
I was lucky once; They sent me a -hard-to-come by part of the 2-8-0.
On the website choose "informationen' and then 'service'
You end up there with their emailadress
Perhaps, you are lucky too.......

John Baron
Netherlands.   

Hello Dave,
There are not too many replies on your question yet. Let me help you out
The tender shell is fastened by 4 little bolts, one on each corner of the shell.
Unscrew them and save them in a little container so the do not get lost.
You can take the body from the frame now.
What you see next is the circuitryboard on which the eight pin decoder is fastened. Take the decoder out by prying with a tooth pick a little on each side of the plug. Remember where the orange pin goes in.

Next unscrew the bolts that fasten the circuitryboard to the frame.
Now push it a little up and away from you. You see a round hole where your speaker should go. Any 28mm speaker should do. 8 Ohm is the most common. Unless you have an ESU sounddecoder which requires a 100Ohm speaker.

Now the tricky part. After you have attached the speaker you can put the circuitryboard back on. Make sure there is no contact at all with that board in whatever way! Mind you, the solderingwork on the bottom of it is coarse. Some piece of metal may stick too far out and touch the metal back of your speaker. A short circuit will be the result damaging your decoder.
Take those ends all off with a pair of small pliers. Take care and enough time for that.
Just to make sure there will be no contact, next  attach a piece of isolating tape on the back of the magnet of the speaker. Put the circuitryboard back on the way it came off.
Take the 8 pin plug of your sounddecoder and stick it in the 8 pin socket in such a way that the orange goes in the spot mentioned above.

You have to tuck the wires away and find a place for the decoder. If you have a 'naked' decoder always use a piece of isolatingtape and make sure, once again, no metal parts can come in contact with the decoder. I have been unlucky in that a few times already. 
After you have put the shell back on and fastened the screws you are done.

Good sounddecoder are the (minI) Tsunami light steam, Uhlenbrock etc.
ESU decoder are (way too) expensive. Uhlenbrock is a good  quality at a fair price. I do not know whether they are available in the US of a.

Have a look at the sound at www.uhlenbrock.de or at: www.d-i-e-t-z.de
Mr Dietz makes the sound for Uhlenbrcok. Their service and support is (in Europe) outstanding. Soundtraxx, however is top of the bill at the moment. The greatest in (steam) sound.
Good speakers are to be found in your local hobbyshop, AHM for instance
I hope you can go ahead now.
The Forney is a great little machine of which the overall qualities are enhanced by the use of a good sounddecoder.

Man, I have got three of them....................
Sincerely

John Baron
The Netherlands.

Bachmann makes beautiful 0n30 tankcars.
But how were these cars used/filled in real life? Through the '90 degree' funnel attached to the side of the big 'bump' on top of the tank?
Is that also the place where the oily 'spillings' occur?
How were they emptied?

Thanks for your replies!
John Baron
The Netherlands.