Was this engine which came with smoke in fact a DCC ready engine. Also did it have a 5 pole motor with flywheel?
Hello:
the bachmann plus loco is different than the current 2-8-0
the plus version is more or less a redo of the older ones, only difference, better motor, no more crappy pancake motor,
it is not dcc ready, it can converted to dcc, the motor is isolated, there is no flywheel,
one recommendation is the wheels and such by Bowser, that engine has the crappy ones with the sleeves that dry and crack.
hope this helps
take care
George
The flywheel of the Plus 2-8-0 is the massive worm gear. Its large diameter removes the need for a chain of gears between the worm and the axle pinion. The motor is 5 pole, but I cannot remember if it is skew wound. The good low speed performance would suggest that it is. Generally, they are a good candidate for conversion to DCC.
The only fault with these locomotives is that the wheels often did not run true. This caused them to waddle down the tracks. But if you remove the front truck and use it as an eight coupled switcher, the waddle looks very prototypical. If you look closely, you will see a boss underneath where a rear truck was added to the original 2-8-0 to make a Mikado out of it.
Before the Spectrum 2-8-0 came out, our model railroading group used the Plus 2-8-0s in a display at our local museum and put many, many miles on them. They often ran between 500 and 600 REAL miles before we replaced them. This was about 50,000 trips around our layout with hard acceleration at the beginning and locked wheel braking at the end of each trip. Another brand of locomotive, which we tried before the Bachmann Plus ones, broke down after as few as 500 trips.
Some people look down their noses at these Plus locomotives because they were eventually replaced by a better Spectrum series version. But I feel they are looking through the telescope backwards. They do not see what a fantastic improvement these Plus locomotives were compared to what went before. They were a large step forward at a time when Bachmann and others were finding that there was a market for quality. I see them as a step toward the plethora of great models we have available today.
As for me, I will part with my Bachmann Plus 2-8-0s only when they pry them from my cold, dead hands.
Jim