I was given a B'mann 2-8-4 loco (item # 50902-No sound) for Christmas.  Beautiful loco. but...
When I placed it on the rails for the first time I noticed it made a noise which you might take for a chuff, but being a no-sound loco, that was ruled out.  What's more, it only does it consistently when going down a slight incline. It will make the sound every now and then  on level track.
I figured it might need breaking-in to get rid of the noise, but after several hours of running the noise remains.  Might it require lubrication..??  I would think that a new loco would be factory-oiled and run without a hitch...If a lube is required, is Labelle 108 oil plastic-friendly..??  And which parts of the power train would require oiling..??
Thanks for any help you may provide.

Gus.

I was given this 2-6-0 engine for Christmas, and wish to install a decoder in it, but for reasons known only to the designer, taking off the tender shell is an impossible task.  Are there some magic words that need to be said, or some ritual that needs to be carried out in order to remove it..??

Has anyone actually managed to do this..??  If so, I would certainly appreciate any pointers on how to accomplish this.

Thanks for any input from y'all...

Gus.

P.D.-  I have installed over a dozen decoders in all sorts of engines, so I'm not a newbie at this...

Been away a bit (life gets in the way), but I just got me a Bachmann 2-8-4 with DCC installed. What a beauty of an engine..!!.
This is the first loco I buy with the goodies already installed, so I'm kind of hesitant to mess too much with the CV's.  I've set CV's 2, 3 and 4 to values that make it start & stop quite nicely. But I've got a couple of questions.
For starters, the loco seems to respond much faster going forward than in reverse. This is kinda' strange, since all my other locos behave exactly the opposite (faster in reverse than forward), but by a very little difference. On this loco, it's like 2 or 3 times as long to respond...
Also, since the decoder can only be programmed in OPS mode, I have not been able to change the default address (3), to the number it should be (22, in this case). Also, can this decoder be reset to its default settings by entering 8 to CV #8..??
Since all my other decoders are D'trax I don't feel too comfortable messin' around with this one. Any help y'all can give will be much appreciated....

Hi folks....Summer is over so it's back to train-things once again.  Hope you all had a great summer..I did...Got to see a grand daughter come into this world..!!  Nothing less than a miracle..!!  For those of you that are grandpas, you know the feeling...Those that haven't made it yet...you don't know what you're missing..!!

Well, it's time to get those trains dusted off & running.  Here's this little beauty to help you in the once-ugly task of keeping track clean.  It's listed on eBay...

The current listing ends Saturday 11:00 PM CDT. Check it out...
Here's a link to it:

HO TRAINS TRACK GUARD - Greatest track cleaner ever...! - (eBay item 260166612698 end time Oct-06-07 21:00:00 PDT)

Thanks if you l@@k..!!

If you have reservations about dealing with eBay..pmail me & I'm sure we can arrange something.