Yes, it is normal for the wheels to NOT turn by hand.  The gear on the driven wheel axel(s) is connected to a "worm" that looks like a large screw with its threads meshing with the gear teeth.  It is not possible to turn the worm by rotating the wheels because of the large mechanical advantage the worm has for tramsmitting poweer to the gear.  You cannot overcome friction when trying to transmit power the other way (from wheels to motor).

FIRST, look carefully at the track where the derailments are occurring.  Some cars and locos are more sensitive than others to track imperfections, so you can't assume the track is fine just becasuse some cars and locos have no problems on it.  Look for verticle kinks as well as horizontal kinks in your track.

SECOND, make sure that the guide wheels are clean.  I had a problem with gunk buildup on a ten-wheeler that had previously run fine on the same track.  It was apparently due to picking-up gunk quickly from some used cars I had purchased at a train show and put into the consist of that loco.  The cars shed the gunk quickly and the guide wheels picked it up as the train went around the loop.

FINALLY, it the track is good and the wheels are clean, you can add some weight to the guide truck.  A bit of lead sheet or tungsten putty is typically used for that. 

Good luck.  Let us know what you find.

OK, I got a response on another forum, along with some pictures of prototypes.

The conclusion is that the boom car deck should be the height of an ordinary flat car, with its deck well below the deck level of the crane car. 

That means I need to shorten the boom car bolsters.  To do that, I need to CAREFULLY mill the bolsters so that the new surface remains parallel to the car deck.  Otherwise, the car will tilt on its trucks and look silly.

I recently purchased a Bachmann crane and boom care combination, and have a couple of concerns. 

First, the boom car looks like a flat car that was jacked-up to make its deck level with the deck of the crane.  Was the prototype raised like that?  It looks strange to me.

Second, the little tool that comes in the set to adjust the crane hook and boom positions does not seem to want to engage the pins in side the crane body.  Are there any hints to help with that?

I would buy one.  All-wheel-live-pick-up tender and back-up headlight on a sloped-back tender, please.

OK, so you are using axle bearing pickups instead of axle wipers.  That is what I was not understanding.  Thanks.

gatrhumpy, thank you for the offer.  But, I was about to post an alternative that I worked-out. 

I can fabricate the equivalent of these shoulder screws, but in a standard thread, by the following method:  I use standard 0-80 machine screws and washers with 2mm thin wall brass tubing.  The tube is cut to whatever length I want the shoulder to be and put over the screw with a washer between the tube and screw head.  A light soldering makes the whole thing solid, it that is needed.  The advantage is that I can get taps for the standard 0-80 thread, as well as nuts.  So, I can put a brass partial floor inside the car and tap it for the screw, making the electrical connection.  The brass paal floor can go to a brass partial wall around, say, the water closet or some other compartment, and that takes the electricity up to the roof area where the LED strips are located.

I am curious about your method.  It is not clear to me if you are using wipers or some other way to connect the wires to the axels.  It seems to me that you need to get rid of the wipers to reduce friction. 

On a side note, I found that the axle lengths in some of my old Shorties were WAY out of spec.  Investigating some that did not roll freely revealed some grossly over-long axels.  One was 0.584" compared to the usual 0.563"  Some were undersized as well, as little as 0.543" in one case.  These trucks typically roll pretty easily with the standard wheels so long as the axles are the correct length, so the wipers make a noticeable difference.  But, I am in the process of replacing all of them with semi-fine scale metal wheels from Fox Valley and BLMA, so standard axles will not be a problem in my future.  But I am still interested in how you are getting electricty from your axles to the wires that you are running through the floors.

The old "65' Shorty" passenger cars that Bachmannn produced in lighted version as the "Plus" line used a slotted-head brass screw with a shoulder to mount the trucks and serve as the electical connection through the car floor to the light inside.  Previous owners have messed-up some of those screws and nuts by applying some sort of hard glue, apparently to keep them from vibrating loose.  (Maybe in a vain attempt to combat flicker of the lights?)  SO, I am trying to find some replacements.

The problem is that the screw thead seems HIGHLY non-standard.  The best I could figure, it looks like an English 0-60 (yes "sixty" not "eighty) or a metric 1.5 x 0.40 or 0.45 (computes to 0.42 thread pitch).  And, then there is the shoulder.

Has anybody found a source for these?  (Not on the parts website.)

I would like to have a K4, because I am modelling a passenger train from that era.  But, I think a USRA light pacific would sell better.  Anyway, please Mr. B., make one or the other in DCC Spectrum SOON.

Well, that didn't work!

I called service/parts, and they said that the part was not in the computer.  The guy on the phone said that they had received some parts that were not in the computer, and spend some time checking stock.  Apparently, that part is just not available from Bachmann US.

Anybody have any other ideas how to get this part?

Maletrain.

I looked at the exploded drawing for my Spectrum 2-8-0 and fund the part # for the dummy scale coupler on the front of the engine, then searched the Bachmann on-line parts store for that number with no luck.  Eventally, I looket at ALL 3832 parts in the on-line catalog, and it is not there (although just about every other coupler is there).

So, how can I get one of those?

Maletrain

I'm new here and have a question.  Since this thread is under "General Discussion" rather than "HO", how did everybody know he was talking about HO scale?  Is there something in his profile that I should look at, or did everybody just assume that it must be HO because 15" wouldn't be a problemm for a 2-8-0 in N-Scale and there is no question that it would not work in S-Scale?  Shouldn't this thread have been in the "HO" secton?  When I was opening this thread, I was thinking "Heck, I run my 2-8-0 on 13.75" radius curves with no trouble IN N-SCALE.

Brokemoto,

Thanks for the links.

But what I was hoping for was a set of drawings with dimensions for the exterior and interior, like the drawings in the links that I provided in m original post.  That would show me an interior layout that fits the windows.  The links that I posted indicate that the windows on the Bachmann "65-foot" cars would result in a seat spacing of only 32", which seems awfully tight.

Brokemoto,

Do you have a link to any pictures or drawings for the prototypes for the the Bachmann shorty passenger cars.  I would especially like to see how they fitted-out the interiors.

Since the similar thread has focused on engines, I thought I should start a new one to address non-engine wants.

What I think is lacking through-out the N-scale industry is short steel passenger cars.  Bachmann used to make its "65' passenger cars" with and without incandescent internal lighting.  But, they were really not proper scale models and are not "interior friendly."  There ARE short 60' and 65' passenger cars with 4 wheel trucks that are the size of these old Bachmann models.  For example here: http://prr.railfan.net/diagrams/PRRdiagrams.html?diag=P53_fp-.gif&sel=coa&sz=sm&fr= and here http://prr.railfan.net/diagrams/PRRdiagrams.html?diag=P58_fp-E94787.gif&sel=coa&sz=sm&fr= .  These are 62' and 67' cars respectively.  The old Bachmann cars are about 62', but have paired windows that really belong on the 67' cars.  So, the interior seat spacing ends-up as only 32" to make an interior. And the end windows are not right for the toilet compartments.  Plus the old models have non-model walls between the coach compartments and the vestibules that are hard to make look realistic.

A proper model of the Pennsylvania 62' cars with electic pickup wheels for adding a good lighting package should sell like hotcakes to the many N-scale modelers who run minimum radius curves in the 14' range but still want passenger trains.  There is really nothing else on the market to compete.  The Wheels of Time limited run models of the 67' Harriman coaches and 70' cars are not produced in sufficient number to fill the demand, nor in sufficient road names.

Anybody else have cars they would like to see?