So I took the engine apart and cleaned and lubed all the gears. I noticed that when the wheel assembly was separated from the motor, the wheels would bind up going forward after about one revolution. Like getting stuck. I noticed that one side rod was slightly bent so I straightened it out and aligned all the gears and then the wheels now turn as they should. I put it all back together and now it runs. But for some reason the engine is slightly hesitant and takes more voltage than my other ones to run. But it is running so that's a good start. So thanks for all the help Flare. Maybe it will smooth out by running it.

Flare, you are so smart! I never noticed that the new chassis didn't come with the small decoder chip. After reading your message I removed the plug in decoder from the old chassis and plugged it into the new chassis circuit board and it ran! But now the engine has a problem. It runs fine in reverse but when I try to run it forward, it runs a few inches and then stops like it it hitting something. Probably something in the gears I'll have to check out. Unless you also have the solution to this issue. But thank you Flare. Much appreciated!

One of the small wires on the tender chassis of one of my 4-6-0 On30 engines broke. I ordered from Bachmann a new tender chassis and when I received it I plugged in the engine and tried running it on my NCE Power Cab. It will not run on the default address 3 and when I try to program it to respond to address 2 since this engine is labeled 2, I get the message "cant read CV, main off". But my other three engines run fine. There is 12.5 volts to the track but this engine will not run at all. I'm puzzled. All I did was plug in a new tender chassis into the engine because the old tender chassis had a broken wire. Any ideas why this engine with the new tender chassis  does not respond at all? Thanks....Don

I usually run it at least four times a week for about an hour each time. I don't really know if it is a gear problem. Something may have happened to the motor or bearings? Now it even seems to run slightly jerky. But it runs fine in reverse. I have two other 4-6-0 DCC engines and they are quiet and run well.

I have three DCC 4-6-0 engines on my layout. Unfortunately one of them has developed a "grinding"noise when running forward. It also keeps up with the speed of the engine increasing with more speed and decreasing at slower seeds. The engine is totally quite when I run it in reverse. I thought it may have needed some lubrication so I removed the bottom cover cleaned all the wheel contacts and lubed the white gear with LaBelle gear grease. Unfortunately now the noise is worse. Does anybody have any answers to this problem? Thank you, Don

I'm glad you haven't had any issues with your ten wheeler engines. Maybe it's just the assembly of the 4-6-0 and the lack of quality control checks on them. But I wouldn't call it the luck of the draw when three out of three new 4-6-0s have issues. Some of them the same issue. I believe this is what happens when you don't have competition. I know this is a Bachmann forum, but if other companies were making On30 engines we all would get better engines and more variety even from Bachmann. Like I said before my layout is loaded with Bachmann equipment so I have supported the company.

Hi all. I have an On30 layout and currently run four DCC Bachmann engines consisting of three 4-6-0s and one 4-4-0. All were bought new and the problems occurred when I initially got them. These issues were as follows. One 4-6-0 had a very noisy motor that Bachmann fixed (a bad bearing). But this engine eventually stopped running so I purchased and installed a whole new power train for it and now it runs well. Other issues with my other two 4-6-0s included windows coming unglued and falling out of position in the cabs which I glued back into place and problems with the rear tender truck. There is so much play in the truck that either the wheels derail or the whole wheel actually falls out of the truck when you pick up the tender. I also fixed these issues by purchasing extra tender trucks and replacing the ones on my new engines. All of these issues makes me question the build quality of these engines, especially since I had issues with all three 4-6-0s when new. I fixed the problems but this should not happen on new engines. I had to purchase new parts and replace those defective ones on my new engines. I support Bachmann and I have many of their engines and freight cars on my layout, but I feel that issues like this should not happen and in my opinion points to build or QC problems with these engines. I just finally had to come on the forum and point these issues out.  

I am thinking of getting an On30 Bachmann Whitcomb diesel. Does anybody know the dimensions of this engine. Specifically the width of the frame at the bottom, the length, and the width at the top of the body? I am wondering about my layout clearances. Thank you.

I just bought a bag of 50 painted, seated, 1/50 scale figures from some place out of Hong Kong on Amazon. They look ok for just using in the passenger cars and are slightly smaller than typical O scale people which makes them just about right for inside the passenger cars. Only $6.00 for 50 painted figures and free shipping. And I did figure out how to get the cars apart. You just pry the roof off carefully from the top of the car body and then you disconnect the one light and pry the car body off the frame around the sides along the bottom very carefully. No screws. I will also add two more lights per car so they also will be brighter when running. Pretty simple actually. Just took a little courage to try it. Thanks all for you info, Don.

Hi all. I have a number of Bachmann On30 passenger cars. But they are all empty. I would like to add passengers to them, but it isn't obvious to me how to take them apart to put people inside of them. Is there any instructions on how to remove the shell so I can get to the inside to do this? Also has anybody added better lighting to the cars? If so, how did you do that also. Thanks, Don

One of my engines is a Bachmann On30 4-4-0 DCC sound ready. I have decided to add the proper sound card to it. I can't find the part number or the price. Does anyone know where I might find that information? I have looked on the parts page and can't seem to find that info. Thanks. I will run this along with my new 4-6-0 sound equiped engine that runs great and the sounds add alot of interest to model railroading.

Thanks guys for the answers. I was pretty sure that's the way they operated but I thought I'd get input from the forum.

Thanks Hunt for the reply. I will look at that. If I'm careful, hopefully I can see what is causing the problem and then order the parts. The 4-6-0 is such a nice engine I really want to get it back running normal again. 

I just want to be sure I'm not damaging my engines so I'd like this question answered. From what I understand Bachmann DC/DCC On30 engines can be run on both DC and DCC layouts without me adjusting anything in the engines. I have two 4-6-0 and one 4-4-0 DC/DCC engines that I have been running on my DC only layout. My layout has two independent mainline tracks with one powered by an MRC Tech II Railmaster 2400 transformer (pulse power set to off) and the other mainline powered by a Tech 3 Model 9000 Power Command transformer (momentum and brake set to off). I understand by reading the literature that came with these engines that they should run fine on this setup and as long as I keep the pulse, momentum, and brake settings off, the engines will not be damaged in any way. Am I correct? Thank you.

Hi all. I'm new to the forum. Please excuse my long first post but I do have a quality concern. I have been an On30 model railroader for years though. Raised in the fifties with Lionel Trains as a kid and the hobby stuck with me. So here I am still "playing with trains". I have a number of Bachmann On30 engines on my RR. Initially I had two of the typical 2-6-0 steamers that ran well for years. They were very reliable. Now I run a 4-6-0  and a 4-4-0 along with an 0-4-0 and 0-4-2 Porters. My layout is standard DC using Peco On30 track. Both the 4-6-0 and 4-4-0 are DC/DCC engines. A while back my 4-6-0 was making a loud screeching noise as it ran on my layout. I sent it in to Bachmann and they couldn't find a problem. So they returned it to me. As soon as I got it back it ran ok for a while but then strangly the screeching noise came back and got worse so I returned it to Bachmann with a video of it exhibiting the problem. They found that it had bad bearings and replaced them. After getting it back it ran good for a while but now it hesitates and makes a kind of grinding sound while running. So I removed the bottom cover and cleaned and then lubed the bottom visible gears with Labelle 106 grease. I also lubed the side rods with Labelle 108 oil. The engine still runs poorly and makes a grinding noise. My question is,  where can I find instructions to take apart this engine to get to the actual mechanism and see what is the problem? I don't want to have to send it to Bachmann a third time for a "repair".  I also just bought a new 4-6-0 to replace it but have not run it yet. So I do support Bachmann, but it appears that my original 4-6-0 is basically a "lemon". I would like to see if I can figure out what the problem is and maybe order replacement parts. I'm also hoping that the new 4-6-0 that I just bought turns out to be as reliable as my old 2-6-0s were. I know this is my first post on the forum and I don't want to appear as a complainer. I just want to get some information so I can get my original 4-6-0 back to running like it should. Thanks all for reading this and if anybody can help me out with this I would appreciate it. Don