I just picked up an HO "Toby" to run on my club's modules for the upcoming season (Thomas and Friends are real crowd pleasers), and during a test run on a 3' section of track set up on the dining table, I see Toby is very slow, he can barely crawl along, even at full throttle. Thomas, James, and Percy are three to four times as fast at the same power setting. He runs quietly and seems pretty smooth, so I removed his shell to see if there was a bind somewhere, but found nothing. I was surprised to find him wired up with a circuit board containing two resistors and a couple of diodes, and even after a short run one time back & forth on the 3' track, the resistors get too hot to touch (this cannot be right). This circuit board doesn't appear to be for interference suppression, and Toby has no lights, so I can only guess that this is a circuit to drop the voltage going to the motor, but given the heat it's generating, it can't be long before it melts the surrounding plastic or burns itself out. I checked the Bachmann parts list and photo of this circuit board on the Bachmann website, and the resistors seem to have the same color code value (red-green-black-gold). Is it normal for Toby to be so slow moving? I can't imagine any kid running his train at this speed, so it seems like this can't be normal operation.

Bill in FtL

You don't mention the decoder manufacturer and model, not all DCC is sound capable. Are you sure you have a decoder equipped with sound? If so, the sound may be set to "mute", check your decoders instruction manual to see if it has a "mute" CV, and how to turn it off & on. Also be sure the loco has a  working speaker and it's connections are good.

Bill in FtL

Bachmann came out with a bunch of EZ-App locos in HO, first diesels, then even the 2-6-0 steam loco, but I think they might have missed the boat by not doing a version of Thomas or a Williams 3-rail O loco with EZ-App Control. After all, it's the younger generation that more fascinated by smart phones, wouldn't  they appreciate using their phone to run their trains? Personally, I would like to see an EZ-app board with a DCC plug made available that could go into some of my On30 locos without requiring extensive modifications (the Blue Rail Trains board was just a bit too big).

Bill in FtL

It could be universal joints or axle gears slipping on their shafts. A very common problem which is usually caused by the plastic part (in this case, the universal joint socket, or the axle gears) cracking, which then allows it to slip on its metal shaft, rather than transferring the power from the motor to the wheels. Fixing it requires pretty much total disassembly, replacement of bad parts, and then reassembly. A big job for an experienced modeler, to say nothing of a newby. Sorry to say, replacement with a new loco is probably your easiest alternative.

Bill in FtL

In looking for E-Z App HO locos on the web, very few are still listed, many are shown as O/S, and a couple show a blowout price, indicating possible discontinued product. Has this technology been abandoned by Bachmann? I have a couple of E-Z App locos in HO, and I like them a lot and was hoping to see E-Z App expanded into the Thomas HO and the Williams O gauge product lines, but it looks like this may not happen. Sad...

Bill in FtL

It sounds like either the board itself is defective and can't run on DC, or the Analog operation has been disabled in the DCC cv's. See if you can find documentation on the cv values, just to make sure the analog feature is enabled. You also might try to check the programming using a computer with jmri's Decoder Pro, or contact Bachmann's Service Dept. to see if they can help.

Bill in FtL

If you can find a good hardware store that has a good selection of Allen headed cap screws (around here, we have Ace). Take your loco in and find the screw whose head properly fits your bolt (it may be metric). Select the screw (a longer one is better), and then for a handle, take a piece of a wood dowel (3/8" diameter by 2" should do) and drill a hole in one end just large enough for the screw to thread into with a dab of epoxy on the threads. Wallah! Cheap socket driver!

Bill in FtL

Thanks everyone who replied. It didn't seem logical to me that the 18 footers would have radius issues, but there it was on the web. Odd I couldn't find it later (note to self-remember to bookmark!). I'm glad to hear about the 10" part, since I probably won't try to go that sharp!

Bill in FtL

Quote from: Country Joe on January 02, 2018, 10:06:17 AM
The one item on my wishlist is EZ App bluetooth O gauge locomotives.

I'll second that wish!

Bill in FtL

I recently read somewhere that the On30 18 foot cars suffer wheel interference on curved track. I have tried to find this article and now it seems to have disappeared. I would have thought out of all the On30 cars in Bachmann's line, the 18 footers would be the ones least likely to require larger radius curves. Has anyone else heard of this? I was thinking about a mini or micro layout using some of these cars, now I'm thinking I need to run some tests...

Bill in FtL

I wonder the same thing about the SR&RL (or any other of the Maine Two Footers), thankful that we have the Forneys and even the caboose and pulpwood car, but how about some other freight cars too? I'm guessing the EBT followers are wondering the same thing...

Bill in FtL

Quote from: Searsport on January 10, 2017, 06:33:06 PM
Hi, thanks very much. I shall proceed!

Best Regards,
Bill.

WAIT! Before you remove the E-Z App Bluetooth board, remember that your E-Z App loco will function just fine on ANY layout already running DCC, with the only caveat being that it will need to be controlled with a BlueTooth device such as a cellphone or iPad (or equivalent tablet), but not with a typical DCC controller. Other DCC trains will operate on the same layout alongside the E-Z App loco, and neither will interfere with the other. If you plan to have more than one operator on your DCC layout, an E-Z App loco is a good choice because you will only need the loco and your cellphone, so you won't have to go out and purchase an additional DCC handheld.

Bill in FtL

It's true that these locos do not have a DCC decoder, but since a DCC layout always has full power on the rails, any E-Z App loco(s) will run just fine on the layout, you'll simply have to control it with your cell phone, iPod, or tablet (it just can't be controlled by a DCC handheld). Running it on the DCC layout will not interfere with that system controlling decoder equipped DCC locos, either. You will have to pay attention though, to avoid having a collision with other trains, whether they are E-Z App or DCC. The only disadvantage (and it's a minor one) is that with E-Z App, you won't have access to the DCC system's emergency stop feature.

Bill in FtL

GrandtLine makes large scale stirrup steps in rust colored delrin engineering plastic (pretty flexible & tough), a package contains at least 8, enough for a couple of cars. Walthers carries them, but they're currently O/S, expected in late October.

Bill in FtL

Hello Bachmann,

Is Skarloewy now discontinued, or are we simply waiting for US inventory replenishment? If the latter, when can we expect back order fulfillment? Our LHS had orders in with distributors, but never received the first piece...

Bill in FtL