I bought a "J" N gage steam locomotive to run on my grandson's little layout and had problems. It seems there is a difference in the turn radius specs between the product page on the web page and the 2012 Catalog as downloaded from this web site. The catalog says 11.25 inches and the web product page says 19 inches. It would not run on my grandson's Bachman track 11.25 inch turns and switches without derailing.

I pointed this out to Bachmann by email, showing them copies of the specs from their site and the catalog. They called immediately stating that the loco should negotiate the turns but maybe not the switches. They offered a different replacement suggesting that a diesel would be a better choice for my grandson's small layout (I sent a picture of it so they could see that it was basically done and not big enough for larger radius switches and track). All the track and switches are Bachmann.

Bachmann's Laura was very nice and offered to send out a diesel, the GM DASH 8-40C which I picked out. Laura insisted that I not send back the "J" until we verify that the diesel works fine on my grandson's layout. I was happy with their response and Laura's attitude about the whole matter. She and Bachmann came through for my grandson!

Thank you Laura and Bachmann!

LDBennett

I have the small HO Bachmann power pak and it is doing weird things. I may be over taxing it. I am running the large Con-Cor MU mP54 interurban powered car and trying to run accessories off of the AC accessories output at the same time. The accessories are taking 50 MA at 16 VAC. The car runs fine but the AC accessories turn off. Turning off the power pak, waiting for a few seconds, and turning it back on again revives the accessories but only briefly. I actually have two of these (a spare) and they both do exactly the same thing. Smaller trolleys don't seem to do this.

What is the AC out max for this power pak? Am I tripping an internal AC accessories circuit breaker?

Can anyone suggest a much bigger DC only throttle with both DC for the HO trolleys and 16VAC for the accessories. Price is no consideration but there will never be any load bigger than one or two trolleys but many accessories. There is no requirement for any other features as I am incorporating Microcontroller operation with auto reverse. The throttle setting pretty much will be adjusted once for the particular trolley's desired speed and left there (no momentum required or wanted).

I have considered splitting the load between the two little Power paks but I am anticipating adding six switches to the AC load besides the current almost continuous 50 ma AC accessory load so a bigger throttle set up may be called for (??).

Anyone got some thoughts on this?

LDBennett

I have a Con-Cor PCC trolley running on a DC layout. The package says it is "DCC Ready". I find it takes nearly twice the throttle setting for the same speed as all my other four trolleys (two Spectrums and t
Bowsers). The Spectrum trolleys came with a dummy plug for DC operation and with a DCC plug in board. I installed the dummy plug in the Spectrums. The Bowser trolleys are NOT DCC ready.

Is it possible I have to install a dummy plug in the Con-Cor Trolley to make it more efficient in using the DC power source? If so where can i find a dummy plug for it?

LDBennett

My little trolley layout needs some sound for trolleys. All I want is the bell the trolley driver rang a couple of times before moving off from a stop. My plan is to have a microprocessor, that will control the layout, provide a ground during startup of any trolley on the track. That is the only sound I want. Each ground output would ring the bell once.

Dallee is suppose to eventually be making a sound for trolleys but it is much more than I want. The bell circuit would not be in the trolley but attached to the layout as a stationary sound system. Anyone got any insight as to how to get the sound of the bell?

I considered using a real bell but the sound level would be way too high. Any attempt to muffle it would change the sound, so the sound almost has to be electronic. I have no idea what is available in the way of electronic sound generators or sounds or by whom ().

Anyone got any ideas?

LDBennett

What LEDs are used inside Locomotives and street cars that have uniform illumination all the way down to the car barely moving (low track voltage on DC layout)? Are they available anywhere? Are there other components used along with the LED, like a voltage regulator? Anyone got the circuit if there are other components used?

LDBennett

I want to use Atlas Code 100 track. They have different switch machines for left and right turnouts. Which one do you use with the WYE #280? Their web page does not say.

LDBennett

I would like to document my experience here with the Bowser motor conversion for the Bachmann PCC trolley. We've been talking about it on another thread but it might go missed so I decided to start a specific thread.

I bought the HO Bachmann PCC trolley. The disappointment was how high the body sat on the chassis.... it did not look right at all. It ran alright but looked wrong. Through dumb luck I found the Bowser motor conversion for it. The Bowser web page said that the conversion lowered the body a scale foot. That's a lot and I decided that is exactly what it needed.

Before buying it I inspected the Bachmann trolley internally and could see that because of the tall powered truck there was no way to lower the body with the stock motor/power truck. The motor was a tiny can motor hung horizontally from the truck itself.

The Bowser motor conversion (specifically for the Bachmann PCC trolley) included a chassis and both the powered truck and the un-powered truck, all assembled. The chassis is full length, cast metal with the motor hard mounted horizontally to the chassis, kind of centrally. The powered truck gets its power from a drive shaft with two u-joints. The motor is much bigger and is in a cast metal can. The task was to adapt the Bachmann body to the Bowser chassis. The instruction were not very clear so here is how I did it.

First off, you have to remove the Bachmann body from its chassis and remove the plastic central tower in the body that is used to mount the Bachmann chassis, using a Dremel cut-off wheel. You also have to remove the lighting clear plastic molded part. You have to run sans lights.  I just glued the red & white "bulbs" into the body and cleared the off the rest of the lighting plastics. To mount the Bowser chassis you have to glue in two cast metal threaded end plates. If you just glue them in they will never align with the holes in the chassis (the instruction don't cover this obvious potential problem). So I assembled the two brass tubes that go from the chassis to the metal plates that will be glued into the body. The conversion comes with the two really long screws, the brass tubes they go through, and a nut. I assembled these parts per the instruction along with the loose metal plates, out of the body. One of the plates is shorter that the other and that is to allow clearance for the powered truck so the short plate goes on the end of the chassis where the powered truck is. Once I got the mounts tightened down with the provided nut and the end plates, I put small pieces of masking tape over the threaded screw holes in the mounting plates to keep the glue out of those holes. Failure to do this might only allow one assembly of the trolley with no way to take it apart later.

Now it was time to glue the chassis plates to the body while they were assembled to the chassis. A trial fit might be prudent. I smeared two part epoxy on the top of the mounting plates carefully and pressed the chassis into the body. I laid out the trolly upside down to keep the chassis tight against the top of the body while the glue dried. After the glue totally dried I verified the screws did not get  glued in by slightly loosening them and then re-tightening them. Time for the road...errr.... rail testing.

I found that the trolley would now run smoother and slower (if desired). And the body was definitely at the correct height above the rails. The latter is the "extra feature".

This modification is very good indeed. Too bad the instruction are so meager but I got it right, none the less. The cost is OK when you consider what I got in the end... a Los Angeles lines PCC trolley in the 1950's Yellow paint scheme that no one else makes, and a trolley that runs better than the original. Also included was the correct body height above the rails.

Hope this helps.

LDBennettt

 I have the following trollies, all from Bachmann's catalog:

Bachmann PCC
Bachman Spectrum Birney
Bachman Spectrum Peter Witt

Here are my observations when run on my DC powered little street car layout:

The Bachman PCC looks good but the body is really too high on the chassis and it looks too tall. It has only one powered truck. It runs "kind of" smoothly at low speeds, but not perfectly.

The Spectrum Birney has only one powered truck (DUH!). It runs smoothly but is upset by passing through the one Backmann switch on the mainline. It doesn't derail or anything. It just bounces around a tiny bit as it passes over the switch. It is not as quiet as the PCC with some gear noise.

The Spectrum Peter Witt has both trucks powered and runs smoothly at low speeds. It passes over the switch smoothly. It has gear noise, worse in forward than in reverse. I can actually hear it running from another room it is so loud being much louder than the Birney.

In general the more expensive Spectrum trollies are better, in my opinion, except for the gear noise. All have several hours of running on them, back and forth on the 8 foot straight main track. I guess if you pay more you get more (??).

I just ordered the Con-Cor PCC (model of diesel powered version). It is priced at about the same level as the Spectrum Peter Witt. Can I expect the same performance out of it?

Anyone else got a different source of HO trollies from the 1920 to the 1960's? In searching the internet I found the Bowser PCC trolley but I was not impressed when I read their instruction for lubrication. They seem more like the Bachman trolley at the Spectrum price and are only single truck powered. They look cheap internally.

Anyway if anyone would like to comment then feel free, positive or negative. I'm just gathering info. Thanks.


LDBennett

I did a little research on the internet and was informed as to what these PCC streetcars were. They were designed by committee (representatives of a lot of the streetcar companies across the nation). The government backed the project (about 1929) and owned the final specs. The cars were built for street car railroads around the nation.

The thing that surprised me was the gage of the track they ran on. ALL were standard gage (railroad gage about 5 feet) EXCEPT for Los Angeles Railways (the ones of my memory, the Yellow Cars, running on the "J" Line). They were narrow gage. Then it struck me.... That is why the cars in real life from the LA Railway System looked to have low skirts hiding the wheel. That was not it at all. The trucks were much narrower at 3 ft 6 in. They were buried way in under the body of the car.

Another thing that surprised me was that the LA system around 1900 was much more extensive and well used than in my youth in the 1950's. In fact, the automobile was responsible for the reduced ridership. The infrastructure when plugged with autos made the route schedules impossible to keep. So the management just eliminated routes through the years. There was a surge in ridership during WWII as gasoline was rationed as part of the war effort. The streetcars were replaced with electric busses at first then by diesel buses. This happened as I was growing up in the 1950's. Eventually the  LA Railway streetcars were gone followed later by the Red Cars of the Pacific Electric Company. As an aside, the Red Cars ran on standard gage track, not narrow gage.

This whole little trolley layout I started a couple of months ago has been a trip down memory lane for me and what an enjoyable trip! For those of you that are LA-ites, I came to Bell in about 1946 at four years old and moved to Long Beach in 1952. I took many trips with my Mom to downtown LA on the "J" cars starting from Huntington Park and had several rides on the Red Cars, mostly form Long Beach. When in college I visited the stacks of piled up Red Cars in a salvage lot in Long Beach on Ocean Blvd. It was a sorry sight!

LDBennett

I have a special case DC powered small trolley layout. It is an 8 feet long straight track that runs in front of a small town scene. My goal is to allow it to run for hours unattended. To that end I have installed a Circuitron auto point to point system with two intermediate stop points with variable delay for the stop length. It works with photo detectors in the track. The end ones stop the trolley, wait for the delay to time out then reverse the DC voltage to the track. The intermediate detectors stop the trolley, wait for the delay to time out, and then proceed.

Depending on the speed selected for the trolley the stops and a starts are abrupt. I was thinking of adding a large capacitor to the track wiring so that when the control circuit removes the DC from the track for the stop, the capacitor will act like a big battery and taper the speed off over the time period of part of a second. When the power is returned to the track the capacitor will have to charge up so the startup of the trolley will be a bit less abrupt.

But here's the problem: If there is NO delay then the capacitor will not have time to discharge before the polarity changes. That will mean the power supply (the throttle power source) will be looking in to a reverse charged capacitor and a large inrush of current will flow from the throttle power supply. As long as I make it so there is always a delay at the ends of the trolley run there should be no problem. But when the DC power comes back after the delay there will be a smaller inrush of current.

I fear for the life of the Bachmann small throttle power supply. Should I?

Anyone got any insight into this.

Can one of the momentum circuits I see advertised work in this scenerio?

Sorry for all the questions but while I am doing the scenery and setting up the buildings, my engineering mind keeps wandering. The correct approach would be to use the photo detectors in concert with a microprocessor  running a custom program to control everything in a random way. But I just don't think I want to make this a long project. I just want to "get it done". So I keep gravitating towards simple and easy fixes. I know, not good, but it is what it is. I have limited time (I have to help my 11 year old grandson get his N gage setup going since the cat ruined it and I need to do some motorcycling, some photograph, some camping, etc...). It's hell being retired as there is never enough time to do everything!

LDBennett

I found that Dallee is working on a trolley sounds system, what they call TRACTION / TROLLEY CAR SOUNDS. But it is months away. Is there another sound system that covers traction/trolley sounds? The picture in the Dallee catalog, announcing it as a future product, is of a common street car that might have run in the 1950's and pretty much match the PCC streetcar by Bachmann.

LDBennett

What trolleys will run on this HO track (Luna Track system) that has a radius of 10 inches (250mm)? The Bachmann trolleys require a 15 inch (350mm) radius track. Anyone using this track system that comes with tracks that appear to be in the roadway rather than on ties?

LDBennett

Thanks to the links given here I pretty much understand DCC. But I have another question.

When the motor controller part of the decoded follows the directions of the cab controller for speed and makes up a variable pulse width pulse train to run the motor to control the speed, at what frequency does it do it at?

Does this variable pulse width speed control really give and allow better slow speed performance?

As a mental exercise I wondered if I could get better and more realistic slow speeds with a variable pulse width voltage to the track of my non-DCC point to point trolley. I might consider coming up with an auxiliary circuit to do that if I knew at what frequency the action of the pulses on the HO locomotion would look smooth.

I also wondered if anyone made such a power pak/throttle that used a variable pulse width for speed control rather the variable  voltage. I do not need or want DCC.

Thanks:

LDBennett

I bought a Bachmann HO Single Truck Birney "DCC ON-BOARD" Trolley to run on my little point to point layout. Since there was no DCC some fifty years ago, the last time I did an HO layout, I do not have a real handle on DCC. My little point to point layout is running non-DCC, just straight variable DC voltage to the rails from the small Bachmann Power Pak.

The instruction sheet shows a Dummy Plug and there was one in the box. The instructions show how to install it but does not say why or when. The trolley runs on the variable DC voltage track but am I damaging the DCC Decoder by not changing to the Dummy plug?

So what is the purpose of the Dummy plug and removal of the Decorder? Should I be replacing the Decoder with the Dummy plug for straight variable voltage DC operation?

Besides the fact that Bachmann is a German company, why are their instruction for their products written in poor English? Is our USA market for their products not large enough to give us USA customers a better translation job and more complete instructions?

LDBennett

The Spectrum Norfolk & Western Class J 4-8-4 Locomotive we purchased recently stopped working after only a couple hours of operation. So we sent it in for repair under warrantee only to get a card back that side it would be repaired within 8 weeks...8 WEEKS. But I was surprised to get a brand new replacement in just a couple of weeks.

Thank you Bachmann/Spectrum. But you should not freakout your customers with projections that are so long.

LDBennett

What is the current draw at 12VDC or the operating resistance of the motor in the Bachmann HO PCC Trolley. #62931?

I am building a little power supply for it and I need to know its power requirements. I already have a source of 12VDC and it does not make sense to buy yet another power pak when the trolley will only be going back and forth at a constant speed on a straight track of about 8 feet. It is a Xmas display that will have the trolley going from end to end continuously. (And yes there will be a potentiometer to control the speed, in series with the track.)

LDBennett

Anyone here use the Walthers Cornerstone building kits?

How detailed are they?

Do they require any painting?

What are they made of?

Are there better choices for building kits that represent this age?

This question is for HO kits.

I plan a small trolley point to point layout with the collection of these buildings along the route. The trolley will be the Bachmann PCC Los Angeles Railway (this trolley is the trolley I took with my mother back in the late 40's and early 50's to go to downtown LA for shopping.....J car route..Huntington Park to Downtown). The memories are vivid!

Thanks,

LDBennett

We just got the N scale track set with four turnouts. We already have the smaller power pack with the AC output (I assume for switches). It came with no instructions on how to wire the turnouts.

Can some one post the instruction for the turnouts or explain in words how these four turnouts are to be wired?

LDBennett