At my club, we have a Lenz DCC unit, and this sort of stopping...starting thing happens. Lenz helped develop the Bachmann DCC unit.... Periodically when thei happens with the Lenz, there is a procedure to do a 'system reset' where you set the controlloer to address 0, press the F4 button 25 times (watch for the power light to blink at around 19 or 20 times), and remove the power from the unit. Turn it back on, and the problem disappears until a few people enter multi unit consists and the like and forget to delete them. I am not familiar with the bachmann unit, and this might be just and educated guess. Hope it helps...

At my age, it's not so unusual that my coupler pocket and coupler will sag a bit. I have shimmed the coupler inside the pocket, but the pocket still has quite a bit of sag. The problem is made worse by trying to match it up to a BLI GG-1, which has a naturally high coupler. Before I go opening up the combine, how can I cinch up the sag?

The 2-8-0 problem at this point appears to be the wipers on the two middle sets of drivers-both sets of wipers appear to be "flopping"...(I HATE flopping wipers, don't you?)...I gave it to our club's "Engine Doctor"...if he can, he will re-install the wipers or if he can't, I'll have to send it back. The "J" problem fixes ("Charo" - like waddling or wiggling) just did not work... A club member says he has noticed for a few years now that certain larger Bachmann steamers (mostly 4-8-4's)  have an inherent "wobble", and he is not aware of a "fix" for this...possibly most people either don't notice or don't care. This didn't make me feel any better... At this point, I would even settle for a lessening of the waddle...some kind of spacers to force stability? HELP!

The 2-8-0 cam from an "Explorer" set this Christmas. I had the same EXACT problem with another "Explorer" set four years ago... I had someone disassemble the then "New Engine" four years ago, lubricate it everywhere possible and re-assemble it, and it's been running fine until this day. Fast forward to last Christmas, and I got the same 2-8-0 engine in another Explorer set, with the SAME problem. It "c l i c k s" and slows, runs well, "clicks" and slows, runs well, etc... Curiously, it doesn't click while running in reverse, if a bit slowly. On the surface, this seems to agree with the "Oil the bushings" advice...I'll let you know....I have another item...My DCC on board J-Class runs down the track like it's doing a samba - wobbling. It's so bad, the guys at my club now call it "Charo" (because it wiggles, I guess)...what can be done about that?

Does anyone have any tips for lubricating the belt drive in a 2-8-0? Like what "grease" to use, disassembly ideas...etc. I need help! My guess is that it most likely laid on the warehouse shelf for quite awahile, and now the belt is making clicking noises...