I have a Bachmann GP50, purchased used. My first-ever N-scale layout (a very simple oval with trackwork that is between sloppy and criminal in quality) is at work. Is there a rule of thumb of how long I should have the train running? Could I leave it on for eight hours with no trouble, or should I let it rest every 20 minutes, or what? Thank you.
If it does ever quit on you, Bachmann still honors the warantee on it, and they'll fix anything for a $10 service fee. So I'd say run it as long as you want!
Run it 5 minutes. If it does not feel warm to the touch, and does not smell hot, run it 15 minutes, and check again, etc. On the NTrak layout, I load a set of locomotives to within a couple of cars of wheelslip, and may run them for as long as an entire 4 hour shift, with no damage. These are hobby-grade locos, not trainset stuff though. Some of the trainset-grade equipment won't run a half an hour without melting. The Bachmann GP50 is not a bottom-of-the-barrel loco, but it is closer to "trainset" than "hobby grade" IMO, in content and execution. The issue with Bachmann is quality control. It appears they let us do their QC testing for them. But they do have a very generous warranty. I'm sure someone will post that they ran their GP50 for 200 hours straight, and I have no reason to doubt them. But for every one of those, there will be a few that didn't run 2 hours, and some more that were DOA. Bottomline: Watch for overheat. If it runs cool, is kept clean, and lubricated sparingly, it should run a long time.
LongTrain- Thank you for pointing out to me what should have been common sense. I just purchased two Roundhouse Consolidations and two Roundhouse Moguls. All except one Mogul ran perfectly out of the box. One Mogul did not run smoothly and started and stopped at will. It also was warm to the touch after several minutes. I just returned it and got a Bachmann Consolidation (I have two and love them, now, after breakin). It is the warm to the touch that I should have been aware means something is wrong.
Bob, you nailed that one! About a decade ago, I'd just completed laying track on a layout and decided to run in an ABBA consist of already broken in Bachmann Spectrum Plus F7s. No, not GP50s, but they are probably the same quality. My wife was out of town so, on the first night, I decided to let them run overnight. There was nothing but plywood, track, the four diesels, and a good transistor throttle, and they weren't struggling. I think they ran almost eight days before one of the wheel gears cracked, as they were wont to, causing a derailment. It was about 180 hours in all--about 8000 scale miles. Why'd I'd do it? Just for the heck of it. I was off work during a Christmas-New Year's shutdown. I actually timed some laps every day--they were boringly similar, within 7 seconds of 4:55, IIRC. Now, two of the three other engines cracked gears very soon thereafter, so I figure 200 hours of running--without cleaning and lubeing--was the failure time for these engines. I probably should have returned them--but I'm going to put LL GP-20 mechanisms under the shells. I probably have 12 of them--none DOA, but some that failed pretty quickly, as you mentioned.
I have read and re read this thread. It happens to Bachman. Should I be equally careful about Kato or Atlas? I was thinking of pointing my web cam at my layout, (when it is ready), and showing it off at work by letting people watch. (Ok, yes I admit I’m a geek. But I’m a _nice_ geek).
I've had Kato E-8s develop a screeching problem after years of running. It was very hard to track down. I essentially disassembled the engine, cleaned it very thoroughly, lubed it carefully and, of course, re-assembled it. It now seems to run pretty well, but I still wonder if it will withstand a long evening's run. I've had no problems with Atlas engines--excepting some of their earliest offerings from the 70s--the light Pacific and the 0-8-0 steamers.
"I essentially disassembled the engine, cleaned it very thoroughly, lubed it carefully and, of course, re-assembled it." And THEREIN lies one of the differences between us. I am not even remotely close to being able to take apart, no less reassemble. I just put the new Bachmann Consolidation on the tracks and it runs perfectly. Please understand that even the slightest thing could cause smooth operation to go wrong. I am old and balding (well, mostly bald). I had the rear truck of a tender derailing when there was no load to pull. It drove me crazy. I assumed it was crappy track work. I finally closely examined it and found a two inch long gray hair (wife is blonde) wrapped around a rear wheel and the axle. I also had a performance problem (no jokes, please) with an Atlas VO-1000. It turned out to be an ambient piece of ballasting that got crushed and fouled in a gear, not enough to bind it, but enough to cause a hell of a noise and adversely affect the performance severely. In short, don't necessarily blame the equipment. There are external forces at work that can hinder performance or damage the engine.
Besides the mystery of lost trip pins lodging vertically between the front truck and the fuel tank, now documented three times, external forces have come into play many times. On a previous layout I used to have my 25-lb female cat prowling the layout--very nimbly for her size (this was the cat that ate any tree with lacquer on it). But she did leave her incredibly fine fuzz here and there, which engines ate up and jammed. Then there were the mice inhabiting my long tunnels and, after I daylighted the tunnels, the spaces underneath the track. Mice fur is fairly microscopic, and can foul anything, including wheels. No wonder the cat was interested. Dropped kingpins, a lot bigger than trip pins, sent more than a few engines tumbling down a bank. Enough for now. On my new layout, in a controlled room, I don't have so many external problems, although one spider couldn't get out of the way of a speeding E-8. The spider lived; the engine derailed.
Hiya. Pete, what the hell kind of spiders do you have around your place - Tarantula's??? LMAO Regards, Jim Maurer Tokushima, Japan
My cat was such a pest to train running that i named my layout after her (wonder if there is a town in the U.S called Michaville?) she would hop on the layout when i was out playin real trains and when id get back - woah! Hairs hanging from telegraph poles, billboards, superliners. Now how do you make a scale electric fence.... Whoppit
Oh, let's see--tarantulas, black widows, and other creatures like 8-inch centipedes and scorpions--and black spiders (not widows) about the size of a pea. I think the train ran over a leg or two, and flopped on its side. The spider didn't stick around to file an injury claim, just ducked into the nearest crevice and disappeared.
Pete, 1000 posts, Thanks for all of the help, advice and humor!!! Let's see, I don't have to worry about insects, (not even cockroaches), cats, or mice. I guess that leaves grey hair. I wonder if that new track cleaning car will pick up the same gunk in my keyboard. 1000 posts. Thanks again.
I don't have any experience with Bachmann N (HO yes), but I have an older LL E-8 (or 9?) with truck mounted rapidos that I picked up for $30 several years ago, my first N loco, and it has been amazing. I don't know how many scale miles have been put on it, but my mainline length is about 25 feet and there is no telling how many hundreds, or even thousands, of laps it's run over time. I've never even removed the shell, and it's fell off the table more than once (thanks to my son) and it keeps on going and going. It's one of the smoothest running locos I have and will outpull everything on the layout by far. The front pilot is long gone and the KCS paint is scratched up nicely (natural weathering?), but it still runs fantastic while my Atlas diesels need a tune up at least every six months (I do A LOT of running)! She just will not die, it's the darndest thing!
