Thanks, Trainman203.

When I bought it on eBay, the seller made it clear that it didn't run. I exected to see a burned out motor or stripped gears. Not so. The motor runs freely when it is out of the loco. The gears look to be in good shape. There is no apparent damage to the mechanism that would cause the gears to be misaligned.

I have thought about trying to upgrade to a newer can motor. When I look at the mechanism, it looks like a pretty major job to me. There is no worm gear, and no immediate access to the drivers to install one. I suppose that I could open up the hole where the motor now meshes with the spur gear on the driver and figure out a way to install a can motor with a worm gear. I notice that the newer models have the worm drive on the second axle. This one is on the fourth axle.

I don't think that there is room to mount a new motor transversly, the way the current motor is. If I could do that, I might be able to use the current spur gear on the fourth axle.

On the other hand, this loco is large enough that, if I can figure out how to get a worm drive in there, there should be room for a fairly large can motor. Maybe even a flywheel.

As I said, all the components look to be in good shape. The motor runs, the wheels do not bind. Maybe it was just that the drive gears somehow get  jammed and, when I disassembled it, everything popped back into place, erasing any evidence of the original problem.

One thing I learned when working on cars and computers is "always try the easy stuff first", even if you are absolutely, positively sure that it can't be the cause of your problem. You'd be surprised how often that impossible fix actually works. I think I'm going to make sure everything is clean and lubricated, and reassemble it. It just might work.

Thanks again.

I just acquired this locomotive. It is in beautiful shape. Unfortunately, it doesn't run.

I was able to get it apart and remove the motor. See the attached pictures.

Before I removed the motor from the frame, there was electrical contiunuity between the drivers on the right and left side of the locomotive. After I removed the motor, there was none.

In the photo of the motor itself, you can see the two electrical contacts near the motor shaft. There are wires leading down to the corners at 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock. When I applied 12 volts to these contacts, the motor spins freely and at what seems to be a normal speed.

What I can't figure out is the proper electrical path from the rails to the motor.

The frame appears to be two halves that are electrically isolated from each other. It appears that the 12v comes fromt the driver on one side, up the frame on that side, through the motor, down the frame on the other side to the driver on that side.

Looking down into the motor mount location (last picture), I can't see how the current gets from one side to the other. Both contacts on the motor are on right side of the engine, meaning that they appear to both contact that half of the frame. That's what has me confused.

Does anyone here have any experience with this locomotive?

The Bachmann website has exploded diagrams of the current DDC equipped or DCC ready versions of this loco, but that setup is considerably different. It has a more conventional worm gear on a can motor that mates to a gear on one of the second driver axle. In this setup, the motor shaft runs parallel to the rails.

Mine has a small motor with a shaft the is perpendicular to the rails. There is no worm gear, just a small gear that mates to a large gear on the rear driver axle. Its actually a neat arrangement. There is no discrete wiring in the conventional sense. Everthing is done by the electrically isolated frame halves.

Any ideas?

I have not tried putting it all back together, so maybe the gears were just jammed and I fixed the problem by removing the motor and that just reassembling it will solve the problem.

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Thanks, Jeff,

That is kind of what I thought.

I bought this loco on a whim. I didn't even know, at the time, that it was DCC equipped. I'm not sure whether to try to sell it on eBay or try to use it on my DC layout. I fgured that its worth a lot more if I can tell a potential buyer that it definitely works.

You mention disabling the DC mode. Is it possible to disable the DCC mode, allowing me to use it on my DC layout, while still retaining the DCC capabilities? I have a friend with DCC who could program it for me.

Thanks for the information.

I am new to the DCC world. I recently acquired a Bachmann "DCC Equipped"  EMD FT locomotive that doesn't run.

Upon opening it up, I could see that the decoder is fried.

I have purchased a BACH-DSL decoder made by NCE. Is this the correct decoder for this locomotive? Physically, it looks exactly like the old one.

I have read the installation instructions that came with the decoder. Removing the old decoder and soldering the new one in place looks to be very straightforward. I'm pretty good with a soldering iron and I have one with a very fine tip.

On page 3, it shows how to cut the "104" capacitors located in the fuel tank. This is after the discussion about replacing the decoder and testing it on a programming track. What is the purpose of cutting this caps? Is it necessary? Is it the case that the original decoder needed these caps while the replacement does not?

Lastly, assuming that I am able to properly install the new decoder, is this a dual-mode decoder? That is, will the locomotive operate on a conventional 12v DC layout, or does it only operate in DCC mode?