Mr Bachmann, can you give us a feel for when the Connie drive gear will be back in stock?
The service department will know. Give them a call.
Thanks!
the Bach-man
Let's ping this to the top again.
I called the service department as suggested, and receive the same kind of evasive answer. NO HELP.
It is now almost three months later, and I call again. This time I get a voice mail that says "Leave a name and number and we will get back to you." When??
I asked the question here because my place of employment makes incoming phone calls difficult at best and I work the same hours as Bachmann industries. I had hoped to see some response in the last three months. Is this the same way my phone call will be answered?
If you don't know when they will be received, please just say so. If they will not be produced again, please just say so. Take a hint from the failure of Aristo Craft, anger the customers with poor service and evasive responses and the customer will go elsewhere. Put simply, I am in engineering, I know how to replace the part another way, but I would rather replace it with a manufacturer's part.
How about the respect of a REAL reply instead of the usual evasiveness.
Regards
Barry at BARRYS BIG TRAINS in Phoenix does a lot of repairs on the CONNIE. Here is some contact information he posted on my large scale.com.
I am still here:
6822 W. Villa St.
Phoenix, AZ 85043
623-936-6088
barrysbigtrains@live.com
Chuck
You can get a perfectly good replacement gear from NWSL, no need to wait for Bachamnn
I don't remember the NWSL stock number, but it is listed on their website.
Bill
@Chuck - Thanks for the info, I am already well aware of Barry's repair and reputation. I am also aware of pricing and my budget is thin right now.
@Bill - I am aware of NWSL's replacement gear, and I am sure I can find the part number if I hunt the site enough. It is an option.
However I think both of you missed the point of my post. It had less to do with the part than Bachmann's attitude toward their customers. As was suggested, I called Customer Service the first time, and was met with a response that stated "This is customer service, you should have called parts. Here is the 800 number." The attitude in the voice was "Why are you bothering me with this." That is not an appropriate attitude, and the answer should have been worded differently. Maybe I should have read her the response from this forum directing me to call Customer Service. That was then.
Yesterday when I called (the upstart of this follow on post), was nothing but multiple voice mail after multiple calls. My prior experience with Bachmann leaving messages and writing emails has been FAR LESS than stellar. I have waited three months for the first polite request for information to be replied to with real information, to no avail. Apparently there are those who have Bachmann's attention and get responses, the rest of us seem to be ignored. Customer service is at the customer's convenience, not the manufacturer's.
As I said above, I am in mechanical engineering, I know how and have the resources to source a replacement gear. I just don't wish to spend my money or time re-engineering what the manufacturer already has.
It is customer service like this that makes me think, "For far less money than the MSRP on Bachmann's products I can scratch build a better product." Then I look at the months of work it will take. However, as the cost of fast prototyping for small runs continually comes down, it becomes more attractive every day. Sooner or later, the serious modeler will ditch Bachmann as a source of material (even if it is for bashing) in lieu of getting exactly what he wants for equal or less money.
Maybe a good supplier of scratch and bash parts is in the future.
I understand the customer service. When the tender trucks on my Connie tender broke, they didn't have any and didn't know when they would. Unless they are making the gear out of a different material, you will have the same problem again. That gear and the tender trucks are the weak links in an otherwise very nice locomotive. My experience has been that emails are a waste of time. You have to call them.
Chuck
Chuck,
That was my point. The replacement gear and axle on the parts web site (out of stock) is a brass gear as opposed to the cheap plastic it will replace. I could send the broken axle and gear to any of several small gear producers and get an exact replacement, but for much more money. All I really asked for was a REAL answer to an otherwise simple question.
FWIW
NWSL part no. 2226-6
Barry
Call the direct number (215) 533-1600 and ask for Bridget Wallace.
Foreward Progress!!
Thank you Yardmaster!!
If you cant get a gear from Bachmann, the Northwest gear is a direct replacement. I replaced a gear in a connie im working on and it runs fine. There is a photo how to on changing the gear on LSC. I believe its in the Connie Thread.
Chuckger
Armor, let us know if you are successful. Chuck
Barry, Thanks for posting the gear number!
For those interested, here is the link to the step by step instructions.
http://www.the-ashpit.com/mik/gear.html
@Chuckger - I am aware of the NWSL replacement, and have read many good reviews of it. But it is still a plastic product. I am looking for a brass gear. At shows this loco may run for 6-8 hours continuous. If I am going to spend the time to tear this thing apart to repair it, I am only going to do it one time.
@Chuck N - I will most definitely report back what is relayed to me. With luck ( :) ) I will not get another version of "shuck and jive).
@Barry and Bill - Thanks for the part number for the NWSL gear and the link to the "how to".
I feel your pain! >:(
You don't know what you had until it's gone!
Irvin was a hidden gem!
When you called him he told you were it's at! No hidden punches! He did call you back too!
Sorry this doesn't help .
As promised, a progress report.....
Had a very pleasant conversation with Bridget this afternoon. As expected, she could (wouls?) not be too specific. She informed me that the order for Connie axle/brass gears had been placed several months ago, and they are waiting for the container with the product to arrive. (Sound like another manufacturer.) She did give the optimistic comment that she thought they should be here "in the next 4 to 8 weeks.
Just due to the positive conversation with Bridget her name and number will be in my rolodex.
At least I got what I consider to be an honest answer, albeit not necessarily what I was hoping for. For those in need - there is hope!
Thank you Bridget!
Bob C.
Bob, Thanks.
Chuck
armour,
There are plastic gears and there are plastic gears. A couple of rules have to be kept in mind. Regardless of the material, the driving gear must be made of harder material than the driven gear. I use plastic gears, but all have brass hubs. In most cases I enlarge the size of the set screw and insert the set screw with locktite #222.
In my gear boxes, the first driving gear is a brass double thread worm gear, which engages an acetal Gear with a brass hub. On the shaft with the acetal gear is a 16 tooth aluminum gear driving another acetal gear on the axle.
For the record I have lost one gear in the past 15 years, and this is for everything built in the last twenty years. So the problem with plastic is not that it is plastic, how it is used.
For example all brass gears of the same material will not do well in a stressed environment, if the brass is all equal.
Barry
Barry
I don't think he is having problems with gears per say but with Bachmann's lack/understaffed service department.
Barry, et al,
As Sean has suggested, the purpose here was as much to "shake the bush" at Bachmann as anything else. If you review the date on the original post, it was early/mid July, with the usual evasive/non-committal answer. Which was OK for a time. However, as I stated when I "pinged" this thread back to the top, the response from Bachmann, when following the directions given, were also less than exemplary.
As for the need for a gear, yes I need one as do a couple of other people in my local area. I do understand manufacturing and the requirement to "be patient" for production runs, but I don't find evasive/non-committal answers to be good customer service. Again, as I stated above, be honest and I have a lot longer patience. I was also looking for the "factory replacement" it at all possible. I believe Bachmann is heading in the direction of better gear boxes on all new production. It would sure be nice if it were backward compatible.
Barry, I quite agree that all plastics are not created equal, and I am also well aware of the "harder drive gear, softer driven gear" principal. Any drives I have created in my professional career (only a few) have always used a steel worm and brass gear, with excellent results. I do have a couple of "10 wheelers" that I would like to have a BBT drive in.. Down the road some, I think.
Apparently Barry does not do installations. Does NWSL do installations?
Is this the right gear?
Fn3 Bachmann 2-8-0 axle gear 25T SGd x 15.8mm OD x .250" ID
Item #: 2226-6
#1 Fn3 Bachmann 2-8-0 axle gear 25T SGd x 15.8mm OD x .250" ID
Fn3 = Large Scale?
Thanks,
Jerry
Jerry, that is the correct gear. Are you looking for someone to replace the gear for you..? Ed
Quote from: edmc on October 23, 2013, 08:53:39 PM
Jerry, that is the correct gear. Are you looking for someone to replace the gear for you..? Ed
Yes. It is for a friend and I have never had a Connie apart. I don't like working on friend's locos because I don't want the responsibility if something gets broken.
I had him ask Barry but apparently Barry is unable to do it at least at this time.
He would be happy to have Bachmann to do the repair but it sounds here that Bachmann does not currently have the parts.
For what it is worth we are in Central Arkansas.
Thanks,
Jerry
Jerry,
Sorry it has taken so long to respond, but the nswl/bachmann brass install instructions are at
www.the-ashpit.com/mik/gear.html
Barry
Well, I have to say I am now getting real dis-appointed.
I started this thread requesting information on the pending availability of the Consolidation replacement axle and gear back on July 10th of this year.
My next post with some tone of dis-satisfaction came on October 4th, almost 3 months later. On October 5th the Yardmaster posts with a name and phone number inside the usual 800 system. A call to that party resulted in being told the 'parts are on the water', and should be here in 4 to 8 weeks. I cordially requested that she please keep us informed here on the forum.
Here we are, January 1st of a brand new year, and I do believe there never will be any new parts. As has been said by others, they have our money for the defective units, why should they care? I am to a point I will fix what I have and will not purchase any new motive power from Bachmann. It is truly a shame that the American manufacturer (if such really exists) has so little regard for their customers.
RIP Bachmann.
armorsmith:
So you have recently called back to the 800 number to find updated information about the parts you are looking for? When you originally talked to the person who gave you a schedule for the parts, you left your contact information and an order for those parts? That contact and your order were ignored?
Or, is it just easier to post your unhappiness with your own lack of clarity and follow through here?
This is a public forum where most of the respondents are just civilians like you appear to be. Or, perhaps you actually work for a Bachmann competitor and are just trolling? In any case, venting your unhappiness here is just so much garbage.
If perchance you are really a Bachmann customer with a problem, may I politely suggest that you use the (previously supplied) 800 number to speak to the same person and find out if / when the parts are going to be available. That was where (according to you) the promise was made.
I have found Bachmann service to be very good, but they can't always please everyone, especially folks who do not allow them the chance.
Happy RRing,
Jerry
I have found Bachmann Service and Part to be very helpful. They have not always had everything I needed, but I have seen them go out of their way to try to help. They have problems with things they have no control over.
Bachmann does extremely well compared to two other major large scale companies I have had experience with, no to mention several retail sales companies. I have never had a problem with anything when I have sent items in for repair under the warranty.
In one case I knocked a Spectrum 2-6-0 Mogul off my workbench and it crashed sickeningly to the concrete and was wrecked, I'm talking really wrecked even the tender :'( :o. I called Bachmann and told them about it. They said to send it in with the $20 handling fee charged at the time for items more than a year old. I shipped it at my expense not expecting much, but to my amazement they sent me back a completely new unit. I had expected to get the mechanism fixed but not the banged up chipped body shells and as minimum expected to get some sort of extra charge since it was entirely my fault. I called and they said no there would not be any extra charge above the original $20. Not only that they shipped it back to me at their expense.
I don't know of any company making large scale trains that has such an amazing warranty on their locomotives.
Armorsmith, Your Connie could be shipped back to Bachmann for warranty repairs and although the fee is now higher than back when I sent my mogul in, it is well worth the the time and effort it will involve putting the new gear in. It may not the brass gear but it should still give great service. I bought two connies when they first came out and use them constantly one is still going strong and a few months ago the other had the gear failure. I fixed it using the NWSL gear and it is functioning very well again. Any well used product of a mechanical nature will eventually break down American made or not, you call it a defective product, I call it a great product that has preformed wonderfully for many many years which is now having age related problems.
I can't imagine that Bachmann is deliberately withholding brass gears just to make the customers mad, I suspect there is some other problem. I will try to see what I can find out, by contacting them and asking them very nicely what the problem may be.
Bill
Armorsmith
I thought what the heck, I will contact Bachmann about the brass gear, I got connected to Yardmaster who is in Cleveland at a show, and many employees are having time off today because of the holidays. He was not sure if the Brass gears have arrived yet.
He suggested that you call the service department on Monday and ask for Rodney Watkins.
I will follow up and contact Rodney myself on Monday and report back to the forum.
If I hear anything sooner I will report that as well!!
Have a good rest of the holidays!!!
Cheers & Beers
Loco Bill
Hi All,, I have been patiently watching the spares site for four months and dont miss a day in case the axel and brass gear sell too quickly, I see that BACHMANN have listed the best selling part for the CONNIE is the AXEL & BRASS GEAR,,strange as this part has been out of stock for six months,,, Loco Bill says send the loco back to BACHMANN but Im in AUSTRALIA and postage cost there and back is well over $200, so I like most other people around the world have a great loco on display only,, I now have a SHAY that is having drive shaft problems and see the parts i need are out of stock so Ill sit and wait for them too. GRAHAM F (australia)
Quote from: armorsmith on January 02, 2014, 09:33:49 PM
Well, I have to say I am now getting real dis-appointed.
I started this thread requesting information on the pending availability of the Consolidation replacement axle and gear back on July 10th of this year.
My next post with some tone of dis-satisfaction came on October 4th, almost 3 months later. On October 5th the Yardmaster posts with a name and phone number inside the usual 800 system. A call to that party resulted in being told the 'parts are on the water', and should be here in 4 to 8 weeks. I cordially requested that she please keep us informed here on the forum.
Here we are, January 1st of a brand new year, and I do believe there never will be any new parts. As has been said by others, they have our money for the defective units, why should they care? I am to a point I will fix what I have and will not purchase any new motive power from Bachmann. It is truly a shame that the American manufacturer (if such really exists) has so little regard for their customers.
RIP Bachmann.
Best to call the parts department directly. I understand they have a few or will shortly have a few in stock for customers who are having problems and more on the way in a container.
I have found that often they get enough parts for customers who need them but not enough to post the parts on-line for general sale. The reason is simple. A lot of people (me included) purchase a lot more than they need at the moment and when a part is in short supply it sometimes is best to keep them on hand for those that really need them now.
Stan
Stan,
I have no interest in calling parts or service at this juncture. Both have either not answered queries (phone and email), or just plain lied to me. Give me a real good reason I should believe anything they tell me? In case you didn't follow the whole thread, I already got sold a bill of goods by the very person recommended by a Bachmann forum representative - even included a phone number around the 800 system. I generally have a rather long patience with manufacturers as I understand their difficulties in supply chain. However I am tired of being lied to so they think they can keep a customer. They are quickly driving this one away.
I stated above all I wanted was honesty and communication. Honesty - If you have an answer, publicize it. If you don't have an answer, SAY SO. Communication - Keep the purchasing public informed, not it the dark. I have received neither honesty or communication. If you really want a positive response from me, have Bachmann post here, and COMMIT TO A SCHEDULE, when the parts will arrive and when they will be available. As far as I am concerned, with out a PUBLIC COMMITMENT, it will all remain in the smoke and mirrors category.
In case you don't keep up with other manufacturers, this very same pattern of hollow promises and deception is precisely the path Aristo Craft followed before they left the market place. Doesn't exactly instill trust in the this party of the purchasing pubic.
As a side note, all but 3 pieces of motive power on my roster are Bachmann (4 - 10 wheelers, 1 - 36 ton shay, 1- first run climax, 1 - heisler, and 1 - k27). 3 of the 4 10 wheelers have drive issues of one nature or another, last show out the shay started getting nervous and jerky, and the K27 has fried a circuit board from a derailment on a 10 foot diameter curve (larger than minimum spec). The heisler and climax have not seen much run time so for now the jury is still out. Overall I can't call this reliability record stellar. I can tell you that on a professional level (I am a mechanical designer) I would NEVER purchase product with the history Bachmann has.
Regards to STAN AMES comments,,How do you become a customer who needs parts so that BACHMANN have me on their list ??I only need one axel and brass gear assy,,there is no way to pre order parts..(GRAHAM) australia
Quote from: armorsmith on January 04, 2014, 12:46:01 AM
Stan,
I have no interest in calling parts or service at this juncture. Both have either not answered queries (phone and email), or just plain lied to me. Give me a real good reason I should believe anything they tell me?
You likely got the best information they had at the time. I contacted them as well on this part last fall and I believe they honestly believed it would have been here long ago. If you have not noticed a lot of product delivery dates has been pushed back lately so I am not surprised in the delay for this part.
As with all manufacturers, I have had the best results by calling them and then calling them back about the time they say the part will be in to get the latest information.
I have several new NWSL 2-8-0 gears I can sell you at 1/2 price plus shipping but I prefer the brass ones and calling them is the best way to get one.
Hopefully they will get enough soon to sell them on their WWW site.
Hope that helps
Stan
I got thru to Rodney today and sadly have bad news to report. Rodney was frustrated that they do not have the parts and apologized for any high hopes some of you may have had trying to get the gears, and offered the following information.
When the initial order for the brass gears came in, they sold out in less than 4 months even though Bachmann put a limit on how many a single customer could buy when they saw that people and hobby shops were ordering large numbers. The gears were distributed to to other Bachmann distributors in other countries as well. Bachamnn USA is just one point in the distribution chain for parts. A quantity of the gears were retained for warranty repairs after the old style plastic gears were used up. All the gears retained for warranty repairs have been used up. There are NO MORE replacement gears either plastic or brass. An order had been placed for more of the gears, but so far they have received no indication as to when they might come in, if ever. Since the locomotive is long out of production there is a possibility that the China Headquarters office will not produce and send any further gears. This is the case with many of the older locomotives that have been out of production for a long time. Since I did not have any issues with my Connies at the time the gears were available, I never thought of the idea that I should try to buy any gears to keep in the event of future problems.
The bottom line is that the Bachmann Service Department CANNOT repair any Connie's with gear problems, and has NO real idea if they will ever receive any more even though they did order more. There is currently NO real expectation that the gears will be available in the future. There are no plans to return the Connie to production which would mean parts might again become available.
So my advice to send the loco in for repair is BAD advice, and you should not do so. So what do you do?
Try to contact a hobby shop which does repairs to Bachamnn G Scale locomotives and see if they have any brass gears you could buy. Here is a link to some which may do G Scale, but not all do. http://www.railmodeling.com/repairs/NORTH_AMERICA/
MY BEST ADVICE FOR NOW
My new advice is to order a Northwest Shortline NWSL 2226-6 delrin Fn3 2-8-0 axle gear.
This is the URL for NWSL specific page for the gear needed:
http://shop.osorail.com/searchquick-submit.sc?keywords=2226-6
The current price is 12.95 not including shipping.
Here is a great set of instructions courtesy of the Ashpit.com on how to replace the gear.
http://www.the-ashpit.com/mik/gear.html
I have used this gear and have found it to work perfectly in my connie. It should be reasonably cheap to order the gear if you are down under and shipping should be low cost as well. NWSL has a great reputation for making quality custom replacement gears for out of production trains as long as I can remember.
If anyone finds a source for the metal gears at a local hobby repair shop please post the info on the forum.
If I hear more I will post more.
Cheers & Beers
LOCO BILL
Just a thought!
Here is some possible insight on why the gears may be failing. Bachmann found that many of the gears that failed were subjected to conditions where the locos were subject to situations where the temperatures fluctuated a a lot causing uneven expansion/contraction of both the plastic gears and metal axles. The more frequent the temperature variation the more likely the failure would occur. This could have occurred in a container at sea, a dealers warehouse, or in a customers basement or other normally unheated space which is subject to temperature variation.
Hmmmmm, My trains sit in an unheated metal barn which does have high fluctuation in temperatures. (today it is 2 below zero) One of my connies is usually parked on a spur which is in my heated shop while the other is on the layout out in the unheated area. The spur comes thru a tunnel in into the shop and a insulated piece of foam is fitted to the tunnel to keep the heat or AC in the shop. The connie on the layout is the one which failed. The inside one shows no sign of failure and they were bought back in 2001 when they first came out.
The 2-8-0 Connie's have been out of production for about 7 or eight years now, and I expect parts of any kind will be harder and harder to get.
I will never know for sure if that is why it failed, but it couldn't hurt to store your trains in a climate controlled place if you can!!!
As I said it seems to make sense, just a thought for what it is worth.
Bill, et al,
I am not sure of how many, or if any of the folks on this forum are aware, but Allen Bupp aka Mik passed back in October. His web site http://www.the-ashpit.com/mik/gear.html may not be around long, so I would recommend printing any information you are interested in as quickly as possible.
This was posted here http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/20050/sad-news on another large scale forum.
Ouch! That hurts, may Allen R.I.P.
Sad to see another great Large scale follower and contributor go to the "Big Rock Candy Mountain"
Many thanks to LOCO BILL for giving us an update on this large problem that BACHMANN have with supply,,Why couldnt they have let us know this thru their own forum? Also why havnt they used the resources of NWSL to keep us their customers and future purchasers of their products on track, I also have a K27 and what future episodes will I have with it? How many CONNIES (all over the world) are patiently waiting for their CREATOR to give a new lease of life? GRAHAM (australia)
This thread has run it's course. Contrary to what has been stated previously in the thread Bachmann does care about it's customers and products. We have more of the gears coming this week and the original poster will be contacted by our service manager in case he is still interested in the part. We do our best to make everyone happy but sometimes we have to wait too. It is sometimes difficult to obtain individual parts when you are not doing a full production run of a particular product.