Hello all!

I have had a long absence from the forum, for a number of personal reasons... not the least of which is that I retired for good and relocated to southwestern Ohio.  If any of you are near this area and know of an active MR club, I'd be interested.

My new home has a large, unfinished basement.  I have sectioned off a 16'X18' area to begin work on my final-final layout.    Now that I'm getting up there in years, my layout will be 48" high so I can scoot under the layout on a shop stool, for wiring and the like.

A couple of photos of my mega-maniacal plan:

Layout 4-002 by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

Layout 4-002 by Jon Vogel, on Flickr

More later.

Regards,

Jonathan

These Mountains are also among my favorite locomotives, for looks and pulling power.

Sooo... the front truck--I adjusted the wheel gages on my trucks--they were slighlty off.

Also, I added very, very small amounts of lead to the top of the truck... just glued it on top.  That solved all my derailing problems.

Another thing to check is the loco's balance. The center of gravity should align between the middle of the drivers.

Can't speak to the spring you showed. Not near my locos at the moment. 

Regards,

Jonathan

Dunno if this will help:

The original bulbs in the Consolidations were incandescent. I replaced them with LEDs and added a 1K ohm resistor, paying attention to polarity. Wire colors are not reliable with these locos.

Regards,

Jonathan

https://shop.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=487_672&products_id=6664

This the set I would get.  It's On3 (narrow gage).

Regards,

Jonathan

Thanks Wade! Looks like you're off to a great start!

Regards,

Jonathan

Wade,

Don't let 'em fool you.  We are anxious to see another layout in progress. Hurry!   

Regards,

Jonathan

Addendum: I used Flickr for photosharing.  Still free and reasonably user friendly.

Wow!  Great stuff. Thanks for sharing this.

Regards,

Jonathan

CNR,

Yes. Depends upon your programming system. You can try laying a 1K resistor across your programming track.  That usually gets Bachmann locos to respond to most systems.  Good luck!

Regards,

Jonathan

Was Pleasantly surprised this morning! The forum was up!

Just clicked it by chance.  I have a feeling folks will slowly find their way back.

Thanks Bachmann for getting this up and running again.  Cheers!

Regards,

Jonathan

Martha,

Thanks for the kind words.

What kind of DCC system do you have?  There could be an issue with how much current is getting to the tracks.  Some systems, like Digitrax, have a switch between N and HO scale.  The N scale setting sends less current to the track. Some HO locos will respond in N setting--some will not.

If you have a speaker issue, usually there still would be some kind of crackling noise from a broken speaker.  A loose wire would be fairly obvious.  Just spitballing here.

Regards,

Jonathan

It's been my experience in DCC that the sound requires more current than the motor. So, if not enough power to the track, loco will move but sound won't work or is sporatic. Couldn't hurt to make sure track/wheels are clean and the power unit is well connected to the track.

My two cents.

Regards,

Jonathan

https://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,18857.0.html

Reading,

Since they didn't have a harness for the EM-1, I suspect you were sent the harness for the Consolidation.  They are very similar, if not identical.

Wiring diagrams for model locomotives pretty much do not exist.  Your only choice is to open the locomotive and the tender, and visually trace the wiring.  The boards are marked at the point where the wires are soldered.  I know it's hard. Something we have to live with... and enjoy. 

The link above is my thread on tinkering with the EM-1.  You may find something helpful.  Good luck!

Regards,

Jonathan

Love watching your empire grow. Thanks, Ken!

Regards,

Jonathan

Hogy,

These links:

https://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,35300.0.html;
https://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,36963.0.html

...will take you to my projects, working with the F-7A.  There are photos of the innards which may help.

There are 4 screws (underneath) that will loosen the shell to you can take a look.  While not necessary, it is much easier if you remove the front coupler as well.

The screws are located: 2 in front of the fuel tank; and 2 behind the fuel tank.

My thought is you may have a loose wire connection prior to the decoder--just because everything went dead.  No headlight, motor sound, or speaker sound?  Yes?

Could also be a short caused by something metal, preventing the current from getting to the decoder.  

These are guesses, as I can't see your loco.  Hope this is helpful.

Regards,

Jonathan

Addendum:
Pay close attention to wires that are connected by those pesky little plastic caps.  They work OK for the most part, but I've had to adjust more than one of those little things to get solid contact.  Just sayin'...

Roger,

A mallet is sometimes called an 'articulated' loco--two set of drivers (think 2-6-6-2).  The newest Bachman 2-8-2 is based on the USRA Mikado.

If we're talking the USRA Mikado, derailing is usually caused by weight imbalance--needs more weight added to the smokebox area (dead space in there), to get the balance between the two middle sets of drives--makes a big difference if you can add an ounce of weight in that dead space up front.

Regards,

Jonathan

Addendum:  Also, make sure the pony (lead) truck is mounted right side up.  The pony truck on some Bachmann steamers have been known to be mounted upside down... easy to do by assemblers who don't know any better.  Just sayin'