Mr Bach-man,

Is there a good reason why Bachmann will not market their replacement metal wheel freight trucks through dealers?

Bob C.

Bill,

Thank you for the correction and assistance.

Jon,

Thank you for your excellent instructional dialog.

Yes, I do have Conducta (had to look in the tool box to see what I actually had), and I have already done the ball contacts at the back of the wheels as per the instructional video (yea....VHS) provided with the loco. Neither the book nor the video mention the additional contacts at the king post.

Yes, you are correct in that I do not think I am ready to disassemble the trucks from the loco quite yet, so the upside down and run option will be tried.

I apologize for confusing you and Bill (the wife says I live in the 51st state....the state of confusion ).  You both have provided invaluable information on several questions I have asked.

I also have the Climax, purchased at the same time, so I will watch it for similar issues. The Climax did run flawlessly for about 3-4 hours at a train show last weekend, so I am hoping to not have these issues in the future.

Thanks you both again.

Bob C.

Bill,

This evening I took your advice and turned the loco upsidedown in the top half of the clamshell packing. Removing the cover from the rear truck and doing a visual inspection both with naked eyes and with an optivisor, I can detect no cracks in the drive gears.

Applying power to the upturned trucks (low power, slow speed) and all seemed well....for awhile.  I was able to load the truck by applying pressure to the alligator clips I was using to power the trucks with little or no change in the function of the truck. After a short while I began to notice that the front truck was not running.  A minor repositioning of the rear truck seemed to repower the front truck, however I believe this also indicates that there may be an internal electrical issue, as you stated earlier that both trucks share power.

Thanks for letting me know that the rear truck is independant of the line shaft and that the bevel gears are supposed to rotate independantly. This is another point I will have to make sure to lubricate now and again.

I think at this juncture I am going to contact Bachmann and arrange for a trip New Jersey.

Thanks for your help and interest in a novice.

Bob C.

Bill,

After putting 10' of track down on the work bench and doing some testing here is what I found. She will run back and forth for a few cycles, then the rear truck will fail/lock/bind. When this occurs, it will stop the loco from forward motion with the front truck slipping on the rails. Also, the jack shaft will rotate inside the bevel gears on the rear truck. Sometimes reversing direction will clear the problem, and sometimes it takes a little nudge. Either way, the rear truck seems to be the issue.

Would you recommend a return trip to Bachmann, or purchase the aftermarket trucks and do the repair myself. Also, can one truck be replaced or do they need to be done in pairs.

This is kind of disconcerting considering I purchased this at the South East Garden Railroad Show in Dalton, GA this spring as NIB.  This was the first opportunity I have had to run it since I purchased it.

Any suggestions or recommendations are welcome.

Thanks,

Bob C.

Well, I posted last week asking about lubrication for the Shay and Climax loco's. Our club did a show in Dothan, AL this weekend and all went great until I went to run the Shay. My Shay is a 2 truck 3 cylinder 36 ton Shay P/N 81196. When put under power all the cylinders, valve gear, bevel gears and wheels turn, but the shay will not move. It almost appears to be supported on something even though it is not. Any attempt to manually rotate the drivers feels like all the gearing in the power truck is connected ie.. lots of resistance. Anyone have any ideas (besides sending it back to Bachmann)?

Thanks,

Bob C.

Jon,

Thanks a heap for the tip on the center gearbox.  I didn't see any location for this while I was searching and lubricating every movable joint I could find.  I have been using the two lubricants from Labelle.  The heavier 102 I have been using on gearing, cylinder rods, drive shafts, etc. The lighter 107 on the valve gear and parts that move 'less' or have smaller amounts of stress on them.  I started to use the white lithium (which states on the tube 'For use on metal to plastic applications.', but was advised not to do so.  Unfortunately, I believe the Climax was run 'some' before I purchased it, even though it was sold as NIB.  The truck gear boxes were already fairly heavily loaded with a white grease of some kind.  I removed any excess.

Bob C.

I recently purchased the 2 truck 36 t 3 cylinder 36 ton Shay P/N 81196 and the 25 ton Climax P/N 81180. These were advertised as NIB, however when I opened the Climax there was no video or DVD.  The instruction book shows the lubrication points, but is small enough, some are hard to see. Do both these locos use the same motor block? From the pictures in the small book, it appears they do.

Thanks in advance.

Bob C.

I recently purchased an older 36 Ton 2 Truck 3 Cylinder Shay and just finished watching the VHS tape that came with the loco.  All of the products that are used in the video are Bachmann of course.  I have been using white lithium on my other mfgrs products without issue.  Can I use this product instead of Bachmann's?

Bob C.

On30,

I just picked up a B'mann Bumble Bee 10 wheeler and noticed the same problem.  My solution was to open up the tender, and cut the wires about 1 inch off the PC baord.  I then removed the wires from their existing path.  I drilled a clearance hole dead center in the end beam above the draw bar.  I snaked the wires thru the new hole in the end beam and the existing hole in the bolster.  I soldered the wires back together, and re-assembled the tender.  This makes plugging the connector in a little tougher, but I don't have any issues in operation.

Barry,

After inspecting the insides of the B&O, the motor appears to be solidly 'glued' to the side framing of the gear enclosure.  George's site comments about this possibly failing under heavier usage due to motor heating.  Knowing this going in, I can keep an eye on it after each operating session until I get a better idea of how this will stand up.

Bill,

I purchased the D&S 10 wheeler from Al Kramer, who is supposed to be a very reputable person, so I am not too concerned over swapping, although that is good information to know.  Is there an easy method to know if this has been done?

Thanks to both,

Bob C.

Byron,

I have been running a Spectrum K-27 with Bachmann and LGB 1:22.5 and 1:24 car consists since I got back in model railroading (large scale) a year or so ago. My K was my first purchase (I work on a shoe string budget) and the Bachmann and second hand LGB freight cars fit there. I have one AMS box in 1:20.3 and it dwarfs the smaller cars. So long as I leave the AMS in the box until I can buy or build some more 1:20.3 rolling stock, no one seems to notice the scale difference.

My tuppence worth.

Bob C.

Barry,

Thanks for your input again.  It appears that the B&O is a first, second or third gen as it has the flat bottom plate. I just finished reading George's pages on this and will be opening it up in the near future to recon the necessary work.  This is only intended for a short 3 passenger consist, and the Bumble Bee is going to have a 6 care consist.  We usually run at traveling shows where all the track is flat on concrete floors, so no grades to deal with.  If I run at the club layout, we designed it with max 1.5% grades which are fairly mild.

Thanks again for your help.

Bob C.

Barry,

Thanks for the quick reply.  The Bumble Bee is the #177, and base on other posts and other very informative web sites, I should get a good bit of service before major overhaul.

As for the B&O, would a picture of the bottom with the cover removed be of assistance getting a closer definition of which drive I have?

Thanks,

Bob C.

Barry,

I wish I had found this thread before I purchased two of these lokeys.  The one is a 'B&O Royal Blue Lines' and the other is a 'Durango and Silverton' in the Bumble Bee paint.  References to Versions 1 thru 5 and 'Plus' series have been made. I do not have the Bachmann numbers on these (unless they are in the secret compartment). 

The B&O is used, the Bumble Bee is in it's original styrofoam packing.  Both were purchased on eBay for reasonable dollars.

Thanks for any help.

Bob Cope

Hey B'mann

Can you please clarify the part numbers of Bachmann rolling stock.  I purchase some of my rolling stock on eBay, and have seen cars listed as 1:20.3 with Big Hauler boxes.  Looking on several reseller sites, it appears that car with the 88XXX part numbers are the Spectrum line and the  9XXXX are the Big Hauler line.  Is this an accurate evaluation?

Thanks

Bob C.