I would second the ATSF blue and yellow. I know the silver and red did freight duty but it only looks right in front of passenger cars.

Frank

The curved rerailers/terminals are to shallow. I've had no end of trouble with them. Discard them and buy a straight rerailer/terminal.

Frank

Well I finally sent my older not so good 4-8-4 in and got a new one back. Very impressive, much better. Runs quiet and strong.

On the basis of that I decided to try a Spectrum engine and bought a 4-8-2 Light Mountain.

It's performance puzzles me. I have a test loop of EZ Track set up, I'm using a MRC Locomotion 1500 to drive it which works fine with all other engines. . It seems to run slower than any of my other steamers and the light is yellow rather then white. I know about scale speed and all and I haven't tried to calculate speed yet but it does seem a bit on the slow side. 

I'm letting it run to break it in after applying some grease and oil but is this normal for this engine or do I need to send it in?

Frank

You will need to remove the screws on the baseplate and carefully lift it off. If you look at it a bit you will figure out how it works.

1) On a percentage of mine the contacts (the X shaped thing) did not route power correctly beciase they were 90 degrees out of alignment. You have to adjust the round gear as to how it meshed with the contact bar and the throw bar. It takes some time but you'll figure it out.

2) The wire that throws the point is, ahem, flimsy to say the least. I carefully bent mine and adjusted it until it worked well on both sides.

3) 2) is also a function of 1) in that if the gears aren't set just right the whole thing doesn't work.

I've considered replacing the throw wire with something sturdier like a heavier brass wire from the LHS but I've got mine working for now so am letting sleeping dogs lie.

Also a judicious bit of filing on the outside of the points, the sides that contact the rails seems to help. finish up with a light filing of the inside to clear any burrs you've left behind.

I know PITA for a $20 item that ought to work out of the box. Such is quality these days.

Frank

Yes but the straight portion of the turnout does not match either the 5" straigh or any combination of the short straights and 5" straight.

Hard to add a single ended siding that way. Nice going Bachmann, you could do it with HO but not with N. I would have loved to sit in that design committee meeting.

Frank

Robert and Bacn-mann, that makes sense. I kind of thought it looked as if it were molded in one piece. There is a small tab sticking through a slot in the front. I pushed it in but was trying to pull the bottom off, no joy. Will try pulling the front tonite.

THANKS!
Frank

Don't see any!

Hey Bach-person, any thoguhts here?

Frank

Well I replaced the wheels on the tender with a set of brass wheels/axles I had sitting in the parts box and performance has certainly improved.

Now I'd like to open the tender so I can add a bit of weight, but how? It's gotta be easy it's already drilled on the bottom for a speaker so Im guessing it's something simle.

I removed one screw in the front that's hidden under the truck but all that did is let something loose that is now rolling around inside.

Help!
Frank

Of the 4 switches I bought 2 at least had the insides reversed. There is a fairly simple mechanism inside that is supposed to throw the points and direct the current flow at the same time. In both cases the X shaped bar that directed current flow threw in the opposite direction from th points. In one case in shut down the entire track when set.

Flip it over, take out the 3 screws CAREFULLY remove the plate. There's a geared ar that has the nub that sticks out the top, a round gear that has a hole in it that fits over a nub on the bar that controls the points and that meshes with the cross that directs the current. You'll have to look at it and figure out how it's incorrect and adjust the round gear. The bar that has the spring wire that controls the points is very lame. I do not feel that it holds the points against the stock rails very tightly. Consequently the points get picked fairly easily and causes derailments regularly. I'm not sure how to fix this yet, though I've heard people suggest a heavier spring wire.

Don't bother calling Bachmann, they reccomend buying new ones if you've had them more than 90 days. Gee, thanks. Throw $20 in the trash and try again.

Frank

Gene, you are clearly a wealth of inofrmation and a valuable if biased toward steam resource.

I have very carefully gone over the track as has my son. I use an Optivisor and have a pretty decent feel for the EZ Track. My joiners are clearly on both sides of the joint on the rails. Yet there remains a small misalignment. I got that on my test loop, but my engines are different and seem to do fine. There isn't the glaring "step" you get when the joiner slips under the rail but a very modest step, almost feels sometimes like the ends of the rail tops taper a bit, though I'm sure it doesn't.

Removing the spring helps the front pilot? That seems sort of counter intuitive, what's the physics that makes that work.

The problem with the tender seems to be that the plastic trucks seem a bit wide for the plastic axles. I tried gently bending them in but I think they rebound out after a bit. I've gotten to the point with my own stuff that "trucks, wheels and weight" are obviously the source of and cure for most problems and adjusting or replacing the first, replacing the second and adding the third is a matter of course. The problem I think is just adding weight at this point would simply add more stress to the wheels/trucks and make the axles pop quicker.

That's what I meant by shedding wheels, BTW. The tender doesn't derail, the axles pop out of the truck frame. I'm still somewhat new at this but gauging the wheels ain't gonna help if the axle is to short or the frames to far apart. Hence my query regarding replacent trucks and/or axles. As in are the Bachmann axles a bit undersized since this seems to be a fairly common issue with these newer Bachmann cars. I was talking to one guy at Hobby Lobby who was buying an Overland set a few months back and his set seemsed to have popped all of it's axles in the sealed package, there's even a note on the package referencing the problem and assuring you that you can simply pop the axles back in.

East coast,
West coast,
Diesel or steam,
switcher or road engine.
Just have fun!

Frank

Bought the Overland set for my son for Christmas. We've got a slowly growing setup in the family room, keeps him away from Daddy's layout!

I know the 4-8-4 is a train set engine but it's not to bad, needing some tweaks.

First the tender trucks tend to open up a bit to much occasionally shedding wheels wich is discoraging him. Some of the freight cars suffer froom the same problem. I also think the tender is to light but adding weight is not an option until I resolve the truck issue.

Would quality metal wheels resolve this possibly? I have some but can't dig them up right now but I'm gonna need 6 axles total. I saw some metal trucks on the Bowser site (Cal Scale?) would that be a better way to go?

Second the pilot truck seems a little squirrely. Is there an easy (or difficult) fix for this? I've had it jump rail a few times, we've both checked the connections the EZ track is correctly joined, thought the joins themselves aren't always that smooth.

Frank

http://www.golfmanorhobbies.com/

They have oodles of stuff. Mehano/IHC/AHM/Rivarossi had a lot of interchangable products. I've got one of the parts guides. He had brushes and springs for my AHM/Mehano/IHC SW-1.

Frank

Quote from: kevin2083 on November 25, 2007, 06:53:22 PM
sorry to bring up an old thread, but I recently got an AHM 0-4-0 (for free, otherwise I wouldn't have it) and now it needs a motor, or at least some new brushes and springs. Is there something out there I can use, or should I just give up before starting. It looks like it's geared to go pretty fast, but I haven't been able to run it.

Found these on sale at a very good price. But are they good - appearance, performance, etc?

Thanks
Frank

I was wondering if there were any websites that did "independent" reviews of at least engines. i actually found one for N scale stuff, and as a static modeler of aircraft, tanks, etc there are quite a few that will attest to the accuracy and ease of assembly of kits.

I'm curious about two models. Bachmann's FT A?B and the Proto 1000 F3 A/B. I have found both on sale at really good prices. Both have a DCC decoder instaledd in both A and B unit. Neither is in a roadname that I can really use as I am mixing real with freelance so markings are not an issue as i will be painting and remarking them.

The FT is dead on for my era ie WWII home front, though my road probably didn't really have one, I'm taking a liberty. The F3 is postwar but again if you're freelancing a bit...

If you could buy only one set? I'm leaning toward the FT on cost and correctness for period, but is to good a deal not a deal? $50 for an FTA/B powered and decoders in both. The Proto 1K is $62 for same thing F3A/B powered and with the plugs but not the decoders in both.

Note: I have not committed to DCC yet, but the new engines I'm buying will have the plugs at least, just in case I decide to go for it. I understand these will work with either DC or DCC. What is more important is sound, I am becoming fascinated by the idea of having quality sound coming from my engines steam or diesel.

Your thoughts?

Frank

Do any of the reccomended sets (trucks) have a pivot sufciently large enough to fit over the post on the B-mann cars? If reaming is all that I need I can just ream the B-mann truckes and use the existing Atherns, which was the original plan anyway. The shop havd a bag of 12 all brass wheelsets for $3, maybe I'll grab those when I go back.

Frank