Hello gents...

I hope I can ask a non-Bachmann question here.  The Model Railroader forum isn't offering any replies, and you folks always seem very helpful.

I'm having no luck getting any help or advice with my Rivarossi Big Boy.  I "believe" it's an older engine from the late 60's or early 70's.  It's a all black engine with the number is 4005, and from all the sites that I've searched for info on this unit, I saw one that put it's manufacturing date in the stated dates above.  The information sheets at HOseeker were great to view, but it is extremely difficult to understand which parts are required to get this engine put together again.

We purchased it online about 3 years ago.  It was slow but ran pretty well (knowing now it's age and possible mileage).  We had to put it away back then as the front trucks had come loose front the underside of the engine.  I searched the entire track looking for any pieces that may have come off the engine, but found nothing.  I figured it was something inside the engine itself and would check on it later.

Well, I recently unpacked the engine to try to get its issue figured out.  It seemed like a screw or whatever either broke or just un-screwed itself from the back part of the front truck.  I think what I need to figure out is how to re-attach the "front truck bracket".  There seems to be no screw for it or nothing to screw INTO.  I know this is the issue with the front truck drooping down, but I have no idea how to get it back together.  The picture below shows the side of the engine and how the front truck attaches to the engine, but it's like it requires a magnet (kidding) or something to keep it attached.  Please look above the fourth wheel of the front truck and notice how it's attached the the engine underside.  Well I'm lost because I don't know how to get it looking that way again.  Attach a screw INTO the engine OR from the engine bottomside INTO the front truck?? Again there seems to be no catch in order to insert a screw either way.  I'm about to just crazy glue thing and hope for the best (kidding again..........sort of).  I'm just looking for a bit of advice here.  Thanks again for any help!!

Here's the sketch of the side of the engine:  http://hoseeker.net/AHMRivarossiassembly/ahm4884bigboyinstr1971page6.jpg

Good Day fellow rail fans...

Looking for some help here from anyone whose owned or owns a Norfolk & Western J 4-8-4 #612 Spectrum DCC Sound Engine.  We've had it for about 4 yrs now, but it has seen very little track time in that time period due to its ongoing issue with derailments.  Originally I learnt about the 22 inch radius issue with this engine, and figured I had things licked when I got a bunch of Bachmann EZ 22 inch corner track.  Seems all other engines are happy as ever, but this 4-8-4 J just will not make a corner without a derailment of some sort...usually the tender's front wheels and some times the front 2 wheels of the engine come off.  Because it "usually" is the tender, I had a good look at what is happening as it enters the turn.  It appears that the tender gets slightly lifted up entering the turn by what appears to be the bizarre coupler situation between the engine and tender that accompanies this model.  Perhaps even the sound wiring between the two seemed a bit tight as well, but being new at this, I was hesitant to take anything apart and fine tune whatever I felt needed help.  This year we set up the HO's again, and hesitantly again opened up the 4-8-4 to see how we left things with it.  And right on queue, the engine didn't even make one circuit around a very simple layout of a rounded rectangle using 22 inch corners.  I did the first corner very slowly and it seemed fine.  I went a bit faster entering turn 3, and sure enough, off it went.  Again, 'maybe' going half speed.  And again it appeared like the tender just gets lifted off with the darn coupler Bachmann for some reason set up between the two.  I've read similar instances of this but never as often as it seems to happen with this engine and tender.  When I read one post, the guy talked of manipulating the coupler, but never went into details.  This was a present to my son, and he really doesn't want to give it up, so I took the plunge to try and figure out the issue.  I was able to get the coupler connectors off both engine and tender and removed the slider bar that completed the coupler itself.  I ran the engine with just the wire connection to see if removing the coupler helped.  It actually did, but at 3/4 throttle, the tender again came off in the turn.  So I figured 'part' of the issue WAS the wiring being too tight.  I then took apart the tender and actually was able to loosen the wires, as they were tied just before the 8 pin connector.  Once the tender was screwed back together, I felt I shouldn't run the engine again with just the wiring holding things together, so I refastened the coupler back into place and tried the engine once again.  No Joy!  Turn three had the tender come off again.  I tried 1/4 throttle and it too seemed to barely make it.  Could the coupler itself be defective??  I just don't understand why they made the coupler for this engine.  Does anyone know of a modification to this coupler design or any other ideas in order to get this working for us.  I know better track is a must, but I can't see this engine making a corner on ANY kind of track.  Just looking for some ideas...please.

I have a DASH-40CW that seems to have its reversing light out, unlike it's counterpart here which does have its rear light working fine.  I know it's somewhat insignificant to some, but to me I hate having this be the case. I have looked up the light as being something like LEDXX-10091, and have removed the shell to see where the bulb sits.  In plain view which is a good thing.  However it is connected to the board, as I assumed.  I hoped it would just be a simple removal from the board, but it seems a touch more complicated than that.  I may be stuck here.  I can't seem to find any reference to removing a bulb from this engine (and I guess it's used in the SD-45 as well).  Am I hooped here?  I do see that you can get a replacement bulb for $3.00 here, but installing it may be out of my league.  Quite bummed.  Just looking for a bit of help if any one has done such a switch of this type of LED bulb.

Thanks for viewing

Bruce
riff99

Very strange circumstance today.  Our engines don't appear to want to work with the E-Z Command Controller.  Each engine's address is still the same, yet no response when we turn the knob to get them going.

I took the E-Z Controller off and tried a DC controller.  Engines all work fine with that.  So that eliminates the track as a possible issue.  Rerailer must be fine as well.  Used same wiring as well from the E-Z Controller to connect the DC Bachmann controller.  So the wiring is out as a possible culprit.  It must be the controller itself.

I disconnected the DC controller and tried the E-Z command again.  Again, engines will not move when the knob is turned.  I tried all 10 addresses on three separate DCC engines, but none will budge.  I then tried a trick I learnt about a month or so ago.  With no engines on the track, I hold down #1 address button and press the STOP button to start it flashing.  I then put a DCC engine on the track and press the decoder default address of #3.  This caused the engine to slightly move like it does whenever we change addresses for engines.  I figured all was gravy then.  NOPE!  Turn the speed dial and still no response.  Tried all addresses again.  No Go...

Is the E-Z Command Controller done?  Seems engines still respond to addresses changes from it.  Could the speed knob be the issue?  I'm lost!  Any help/ideas would be very much welcome.

Is there anything good about them??

It seems with only two locomotives and about 10 freight cars in total on our minuscule carpet layout of EZ Track, that these switches always seem to lose their addresses and won't respond unless the power is reset to the EZ Command Controller.  I could understand this if there was 4 or 5 engines on there and/or 20 freight cars, but with two or more they just give up the ghost.  My son seems to think we need the 5 amp power booster, but I figured that was for serious layouts, set up on large boards and such.  I just want to run a couple simple trains for my son and I to view and interact with.  DCC engines are a lot of fun, and we also have a sound 4-8-4 that thrills him.  It's just these darn switches.

Another issue with one of the DCC switches, recently, is that when a locomotive runs over it, the engines quit completely.  We have to move the train past the switch before the train starts up again.  I've looked at the switch carefully.  It's quite clean as we always clean the track before setting it up, track rail endings are even on both sides, manually switching the track appears to not have any issues; yet all engines going over it still die.  Can track become defective that quickly?  We've had them for maybe half a year.  The other DCC switch still allows trains to pass by with no issues...just the address bit is all.  Is there a way to bring this switch back to life?  I just want to know what could possibly be causing the short on this switch.

Any help or advice with them would be very much appreciated.  Thank You!!

I get extremely frustrated whenever I try to switch over a former horn hook coupler, with it's tiny hole connecting to its tiny stump in the coupler bracket that holds the coupler in place.  When I want to replace the horn hook coupler with an E-Z Mate one, its hole is huge compared to the tiny stump that used to hold the small holed horn hook coupler.  Of course the new knuckle coupler flops all over the place and obviously couples terribly.  Is there a E-Z mate coupler that HAS a small hole to make these kind of coupler conversions a whole lot easier???  I know there's a solution, but when frustration kicks in, my mind goes to mush...

any ideas out there pleeease!

I've kind of been a stickler for keeping any freight cars, engines, etc. in their boxes when they aren't being used.  However, I recently ordered some cars that came without their boxes (I guess to save money on their end...who knows).  It's my own fault for not fully reading each item description.  This was a first and safe to say last time I order something before reading EVERY word in an auction.

However, I thought, "what better place to inquire about spare Bachmann boxes than at the Bachmann Forum".

So, here it goes......does anyone have any freight car boxes, specifically for the Silver Series, that they might be willing to sell or give away??  These are the Product # boxes I'm looking for:

BACHMANN HO 40' GONDOLA SOUTHERN #17204
BACHMANN HO 40' GONDOLA BURLINGTON #17216 (NOT LISTED ANY MORE)
BACHMANN HO 40' QUAD HOPPER CSX #17618
BACHMANN HO 40' BOX CAR OPEN-DOOR TOLEDO PEORIA #17032
BACHMANN HO 50' BOX CAR PLUG-DOOR WESTERN MARYLAND #18037

I'm really not worried about the names on each car box.  I guess you could say that all I'm looking for is SS boxes for two 40' Gondolas, one 40' Quad Hopper, one 40' OPEN-DOOR Box Car, and a 50' PLUG-DOOR Box Car.

I honestly don't expect a response, but I feel better about asking.

Thanks Guys.

Hi...my first post here and trust me, it's a dumb one.

My son's love of watching trains since he was 9 months old has come come somewhat full circle.  Last year we purchased a few used (and inexpensive) engines and freight cars that had seen quite a bit of track time in their day.  Plus, as newbies and trying to set up Atlas Conventional Track on a medium sized carpet, we felt maybe we got into the wrong hobby.  But we did get two seperate trains going in this manner and our son had a smile from ear to ear watching these life like trains in his house, but for some reason (hmmmm) the track kept falling apart.  This drove us nuts but we got into this with no idea what to do, so I guess you get what you expect when you haven't done the research.

Well, this year we dove head first into DCC and Bachmann E-Z Track.  We got a couple new engines (GP 35's) and grabbed a new EZ Command controller and track (plus a switch for a siding as he said we really need to have that........."so it begins").  Well, it was great to watch these newer engines run seperately and controlled with a single controller.

Well, next thing I know we have to 'have' the same cars and engines that are on the DVD, not to mention a companion controller, pedestrian bridge and house that's being built (you'd understand if you saw the instructional DVD).  If it's not in the DVD, he doesn't want it.  No big deal really as there aren't too many cars in the DVD.  But this video must have been done a few years ago as some of the cars are near impossible to find.  A "red" DCC GP40 Santa Fe?  a Maine Central Flat car w/no load?  I've searched everywhere but no sign of them.  Is there a list of Bachmann train stock that goes back to whenever this DVD was made?  I just need to know when these were made and IF they truly are discontinued and gone for good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAin_nEMHlY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xb9w9on05g&feature=related
(flat car is later on in this video)

That's our model train story to date.  Hopefully it continues with this fine hobby.

Thanks for any help...