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Messages - GtrsnTrains

#1
HO / Re: dcc sound 2-6-0??
March 21, 2013, 08:27:26 PM
Gotta say I love mine..#2 that is.  The 2-6-0 marks my 3rd Bachmann loco, and actually my 4th as well.  A 4-8-2 Spectrum, a Doodlebug Spectrum (I added a Tsunami decoder) and two 2-6-0s sound standard.  I have some love here, so please Mr. Bachmann don't take this as unkind. 
Purchased in early Feb of this year my first 2-6-0 had a slight catepillar thing going.  It seemed to stutter.  And it had pulling issues up a grade because of it- maybe one car but not two.  Most non-railroaders probably wouldn't have noticed it on the straight-and-level grade, but I did, and I think what was most important was that it please me.  If you get one, it should please you most of all too.  When I noticed it,Ishould have sent it in for evaluation or repair/replacement, but honestly I thought it could have an easy fix, and I was both up to the challenge and impatient.  I toyed with it, observed, over and again. Thought it was a few things, it wasn't, thoguht it was a few other things, it also wasn't.  What was confirmed however, was that my middle left drive wheel lifted on the rotation, enough that a razor- or Xacto-blade could easily be put in-between that wheel and the rail.  I know because I did it. It was lifting, and therefore it was causing what looked like a studder because there wasn't the traction, and also there was a loss of pulling capacity up a grade.  I could see it's effects on the boxcar or two being pulled.  The sound and all things DCC where really worth the money, IMHO.  So...
After somehow causing serious DCC/electrical issues I swallowed my repair-man pide and submitted it for repair.  Why?- I'm still convinced there is a cracked gear or axle in that unit, but I am also sure I messed up the small PCB board in the loco trying to pry off the shell to get at look at the internal gears that may have caused the pull on that wheel- AND somehow my PCB board in the tender and/or the decoder itself started smoking after a few garbled messages from the speaker...yes, smoking.  That's called Magic Smoke, once released it can never be put back!  Both PCB problems I am sure I caused somehow.
So....
I liked the loco, I wanted that loco, so as I was preparing to send it back (I have) I ordered another one!  It has been here for about 18 days, and I do in fact love it!  I DO think there was a rare manufacturing issue on my first one, and I think from reading forums that I may be the only one that had that issue or any issue really that I've seen.  And I am perfectly willing to pay the full for repairs, mostly due to anything I did myself, for the first one sent in, because I do in fact like #2 so much.  Haven't heard from Bachmann since I sent it into them, but I expected that. 
So there ya go.  1 in 100 maybe??  For the price, it really can't be beat- part of the reason I got one (two actually).
#2
HO / Re: Adding sound to Bachmann DCC equipped locos
March 09, 2013, 12:11:50 AM
I'd like to know this as well.... specifically a TSU-1000 in a 2-6-0 or other small tender?
#3
HO / Re: Making Roads
March 09, 2013, 12:03:32 AM
What I've done is put some cheap acrylic paint into some common hardware store spackle, mixed thoroughly, and spread it onto a street-width piece of foam-board.  The thickness of the foamboard I bought is comparable to the thickness of my cork+track hieght, so the grade-crossings are pretty close for realism.  The foamboard/spackle street are them glued onto my layout and blended accordingly.  This is very similar to the plaster method metioned earlier.
If I should accidentally scratch my street the color is all the way through so no worries.  I have a 'street' in concrete color, then once that was laid down I have the same mix only in asphalt color for the area near the rails, as in real life (non-rubber grade crossing...I model the rural 50's).  Use it to patch the low spots too after some sanding for real-life asphalt (and therefore darker gray) pothole filler.
If you get the colors right it looks great. 
#4
HO / Re: spectrum 4-8-2 headlight
March 02, 2013, 09:22:16 AM
Thanks K847, perfect instructions.  Only I couldn't pull on the led wires, but rather I took out the front-most screw holding the two halves together and pushed it out the front.  Clipped the wires and replaced, in my case a yelo-glow and a 1K resistor.  With the shell off it's very nice and bright.  With the shell on that little clear piece gives it a slight greenish look and dims it, so I'm going to drill it out with my pin vise, and maybe have to replace the lens.  Won't know till I get there.

#5
HO / Re: Issue alco 2-6-0 dcc/sound
February 28, 2013, 10:50:23 AM
Well, today is my 45th birthday and it started off with smoke.
Took things apart and had yet another look.  Fiddled with two wipers and made sure they weren't catching.  Everything looked good except for that one gear that is visible with the bottom off.  I tried like crazy to get the shell off- removed 3 screws at the plug, pulled out the two 'wires' at the front, but could only get it to lift maybe 16th inch at the cab end.  Oh well, not to be I guess- so put it back and plugged things in and with the sound off, there was a noticable humm coming from the tender, actually from the speaker/decoder.  Odd!  She ran forward okay or rather as normal for her.  Then if I stopped and reversed direction, the sound quickly faded away and no movement.  Change direction again and nothing also.  Took a shut-down of the DCC system to bring it back on.  The speaker also started emitting startling garbbled sound clips.  Uh oh.  Unhooked the tender and just had that on the test track and there was smoke.  Dare I say magic smoke? 
R.I.P. 2-6-0
#6
HO / Re: ho dc loco won't run
February 26, 2013, 06:17:32 PM
Sorry I'm stabbing in the dark...I don't have EZ or that loco, just going by my own 'trial and error'...and there's been quite a few!!  Dog hair...second only to cat-hair! Non-metallic I know, but sometimes I wonder....
#7
HO / Re: ho dc loco won't run
February 26, 2013, 06:12:32 PM
Ok.
Strange.
I take it you haven't messed with DCC CVs at all?  I think it has to be some kind of short.  Like I said I've had 'woriking fine' locos with lights and sounds just 'go off' because of some unknown factor.
Clean the wheels lith some rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip (while the loco is upside-down but try not to get any on any paint as best you can).  Look really closely at the pickups- brass-looking strips touching wither the inside of the wheels or the wheel axels, and maybe slide some alcohol-soaked paper inpetween the contact to the metal, to see if there is any black 'crud'.
Somethng is giving the light power, but not running the loco....
#8
HO / Re: ho dc loco won't run
February 26, 2013, 06:03:48 PM
CV8 to 8 I think.  Maybe CV30 to 2, but probably not.  Worth a shot.
#9
HO / Re: ho dc loco won't run
February 26, 2013, 06:00:43 PM
Have you tried re-setting the decoder?  Stabbing in the dark here- I don't have either the loco or the command set, but I've seen some strange things on my set.  Hair, the tiniest bit of metal causing a 'working fine' loco to go all-out, to accidentally changing a CV without knowing it.  A short can cause strange things that make a resetting of CVs fix them somehow.
#10
HO / Issue alco 2-6-0 dcc/sound
February 26, 2013, 05:26:04 PM
Got this unit new around the 4th of Feburary, and I've had an issue I've been trying to track down.  I haven't run into this problem doing a Search on this forum, so maybe I'm the only one.
I've noticed a slight lift off of the rails from the middle left (port, not starboard) side of the loco.  It is enough that in the 'up' postion I can fit a razorblade under it.  There is that kinda gap!  This is causing serious traction problems on a grade, and an annoying but slight wobble everywhere.  It kind of catepillars along, slight but I notice it because it's mine :) .  If a car is pulled behind it you can see it better, even on level track.  It doesn't like to pull a single car up a grade- mine are at most 1.5%, but were planned at 1%.  Even with a run from 5 feet away it starts slipping after 8 inches, and the grade runs up for another 4 feet.  I set a 1/4 oz weight in the cab floor and set some washers on the smokestack to test, and put some BS on the wheels for some grit, but the slippage remains.
At first I thought it was an off-center wheel axle causing an egg-shapped rotation, or a bit of flash, but after numerous observations on its back with the bottom plate off, and lifting the drive assembly off to observe just the one visible gear, I've concluded all of the rods, axles and wheels are fine. 
Also, and this is important I think, if you kick it up to speed step 2 or higher you hear a 'plastic' sounding rattle.  At first I thought this some loose plastic part (the shell or cab maybe) but couldn't find anything loose or that would stop rattling after a little finger-pressure.  On its back, with the bottom and drive assembly off the gears, the rattle is still there and I was able to listen carefully to pinpoint it to the motor area.  So with the motor turned off, I took my small screwdriver and touched that visible gear (00K02 on the .pdf blowup I believe) and it has a lot of lateral movement on its axis(side-to-side, not forward-to-back).  In other words, it is not firm on its axle, but twists on its axle.
Not sure from the blow-up diagram what holds those two gears, and I haven't been brave enough to take off the shell and take apart the two halves and have a look at the two gears (00K01 and 00K02 I believe), but I do think something in that area is causing a gear to spin oddly, thus causing the drive assembly to spin oddly, thus causing my middle left wheel to lift off of the track, thus causing some severe wheel slip.
Whew.
Thoughts?
#11
HO / Re: spectrum 4-8-2 headlight
February 25, 2013, 07:59:53 PM
Ok, you've definately given me a starting point.  Two more days of work then a 4-day weekend, so this is on my agenda!
#12
HO / spectrum 4-8-2 headlight
February 24, 2013, 06:54:43 PM
First off, been reading this forum for many years but have finally joined.  Lots of good info here!
Ok the headlight issue has been asked about many times for many different models.  After recently purchasing a Dcc Standard 2-6-0 and after upgrading my specturm Doodlebug to a tsunami (and changing it's headlight and adding a reverse as well, and interior too for that matter) I REALLY want to update the sadly dim headlamp on my 4-8-2.  The internet is full of N scale answers but only here do I see anyting close to HO, thanks to member jonathan and the connie project.
First off after being scared to take my Doodlebug apart I have now many times.  Tried to take my 2-6-0 apart today and got scared, so backed off.  Touching my prized 4-8-2 is downright terrifying.
I need direction and guidance please.  Btw, the loco in question was purchased new in 2008 and came tsunami-equiped, if that has any bearing on the issue.