Dear Bach-man (or anyone else that would like to respond  )

The K-27 comes with excellent info on lubricating the running gear.  The manual states the gearbox is lubricated at the factory, but does it also need periodic lubrication?  Or is it sealed and should never be opened up for lubrication?  If it needs periodic lubrication can you provide steps to do this and the recommended lubricant?

Update ... I had been having issues with my Bachmann K-27 using a Phoenix P5 sound card triggered off of the optical chuff.   I followed the instructions on the Bachmann site, but was still having problems with the chuff cutting out at 50% or less of full throttle.   Phoenix has provided a fix in the latest version of software, 1.04. The optical chuff trigger gets too short for older versions of the software.   I now have chuff at all speeds.

If you have the Phoenix computer interface you can download the latest ROM file of your choice from Phoenix Sounds into your K-27. The file name should end in 04 or  higher.