Mark, At most it will cost him $4.95 to ship the offending loco's in a Priority flat rate box back to Bachmann. He can send them first class if he wants to save a couple bucks. These loco's are from new sets. Bachmann does not charge anything for warranty service within the first year. I assume he has his reciept from the purchases. That is all it takes, the loco, a write up of what is wrong, a reciept, and the effort to return it to Bachmann. The break on the 4-4-0 is honestly an odd one and something I have never seen before. The other problems seem to have been corrected with a little information. I should probably shut up and let you keep bad mouthing Bachmann. Because of people like you, it allows me to pickup the crappy Bachmann loco's at shows and Ebay for pennies on the dollar. I'm up to 6 of the 0-6-0's and 5 Spectrum 2-8-0 Consolidations, only my first was 2-8-0 was bought new. The others were bought as supposed DOA's off of Ebay at less than my max bid of $40 including shipping, none of which took more than 5 minutes of investigation to fix. My 2-8-0's will out pull almost every other stock loco I own (Including Kato Mikado's (with traction tires), a New Kato GS4, the new Walthers Y-3 w/sound), and looks great doing it. The only thing that will out pull it is an Athearn Challenger. The next closest performer is the Bachmann Spectrum Heavy Mountain. I know you a steamhead, like myself. Bachmann is right now, our only hope for decent everyday steam in N scale. Trashing them at every turn is not going to help the cause. The only steam we will probably see from Kato will be to go along with a passenger set. Athearn is stuck in the Union Pacific rut and hasn't re-run their Old time 2-6-0 and 2-8-0 in over a year now. Anything new from them will more than likely be a UP prototype. Model Power seems to be in a permanent holding pattern with nothing new out of them in years. Fox Valley is bringing us a beautiful Hiawatha Atlantic and I will have one but it is another very road specific loco designed to run with a passenger set. Walthers is gun shy after sales of the 0-8-0 were less than stellar due to a bunch of people bad mouthing the first batch. The second batch was corrected but has not been able to overcome the bad press of the first release. We won't see any new Steam from walthers in a long time unless the good sales of the Y-3 have improved their outlook. All I can say is I hope the H-4 coming from Bachmann this winter is a new mechanism and not just a rehash of the previous 2-6-6-2. That as been the worst performer of any of the spectrum steam releases, yet I have 2 that run pretty much flawlessly, they just don't pull worth a darn. If the H-4 is a winner, that will make 3 spectrum home runs in a row. BTW - Ask Barstow Rick about Bachmann now a days. He was a louder Bachmann Basher than you till he finally got to play with a new Consolidation and Northern. He was basing his opinion on 15 year old problems. He sings a new tune now.
Hi Tony, I wanted to continue our discussion on Bachmann products, however I think others might misinterpret our tone here, not to mention we're venturing off topic, and also I'm not so comfortable sharing my next rebut publicly (personally sensitive, not harshly angered) so I decided to reply via PM. I hope that's ok. If anyone sincerely wishes to join in private debate, feel free to send me a PM.
I do not know anything about the Acela, I do not have one. I never did like the Bachpersonnn 4-8-4. I do not have the new one. Many have said that this one is pretty good. Spookshow seems to like the third version best. A 4-8-4 is larger than what I would want, anyhow. The B-mann eight wheeler is another matter. As you correctly point out, it tends to tail. All of mine have this wobble. If you will spend some time, a large amount of time, breaking it in, it is not that bad a locomotive, considering what it is. It does not like plastic frog switches. As my nineteenth century pike has only metal frog switches, I have no problems with it, there. If you will spend the time to break it in, you can get it to run at speeds between twenty and thirty SMPH. If you try to run it too fast, the wobbling will cause it to jump the track. They are all like that. I ran across one at a Disney display at the World's Greatest Hobby on Tour show. It was running around a large loop and pulling some of the Bachpersonn nineteenth century passenger cars. It was running at a nice, smooth twenty five SMPH WITHOUT the wobble. I asked the people there about it. They told me that they ran the dickens out of it to break it in, took it apart, thoroughly, redid it to take all of the slop out of the mechanism, then put it back together and spent hours re-breaking it in. I have not gone as far as taking apart the locmotive. I have not heard anyone complain about breaking the lip on the tender on it. If you want some good steam, buy the SPECTRUM 2-8-0. If you want good nineteenth century steam, buy the Athearn 2-8-0 or 2-6-0. If you find an old MDC 2-8-0 or 2-6-0, the Athearns are copies of it, so you are safe buying them. The Athearns do have MTs fore and aft; on the MDCs you must add them. The Atlas/MicroAce 2-6-0 is also pretty good, but it can be finicky about less than professional grade trackwork.
I have an EZ track oval set up with the two parallel straights about 33 inches apart on the outer edge. The curves are made using a combination of the 19” radius pieces and the 11.25” radius pieces and two 2” straights (lots of rail joints). Last night I put the Acela on and got it running. This morning it ran many laps in both directions without a wheel derailing, including the dumby engines. The issue with the dumby engines derailing may have been the couplers. One was too loose, and the other would jam up. I tightened the screws on the loose one. On the one that would jam, I took the coupler housing apart and noticed a small round obstruction on the inside of the coupler that created friction (maybe a circle created by the molding process, I dunno). I filed it down, put it together and no more jamming. Now, if this setup will keep it running, I may take my first attempt at laying out a corkbed track with a smoother turn with less joints.
I am new to N scale modeling, but purchased a Bachmann starter set. The Explorer i believe. You have to be careful with the EZ track rail joiners, I found after I assemled it that half the tracks werent joined properly. I have ZERO issues with any of the products i received with this set. I believe your issue is with the track, and not the engines or cars.
Bachmann does make some lesser quality stuff but that doesn't mean there junk. There Spectrum line steam engines are bar none some of the best steam out there, and yes they are still Bachmann. Glad to hear you got them running ok, trouble-shooting can be a royal pain! That being said if you are into diesels, Atlas and Kato really do have the market on amazing running and detailed engines, can't go wrong with either one!
Greetings!, I'm going to take the middle of the road here. Yes, Bachman has made some not so good and even bad stuff. The SD45s are questionable. Yes, definitely Bachman has made some very good stuff - I can vouch for the 4-8-4 J3. Yes, model railroading will always require some tinkering / trouble shooting. To me it is part of the fun. You have received some good advice along those lines. Yes, Atlas makes some good starter sets such as the ones with the "Trainman" GP15 and cars. I personally encourage you to build a small - no bigger than hollow core door size - layout and use Kato Unitrak. Above all, feel free to post your quesitons at trainboard and support it's advertisers.
Since I'm new ya'll assume I have not checked the track, but the track is smooth and the joints are fine. Obviously, the EZ Track has a lot of joints. I have three tracks and the 4-8-4 will run slow-and-steady or full-speed on all them (several laps in reverse with 10 cars even). It only took me several hours to get that thing dialed in, but its jammin now. The Acela power car just quit running (see above). When I give it power, the lights flash then go out and it won't run (same problem on three tracks). The person who bought me the Acela for Christmas told me to return it. Out of frustration, I checked my HobbyTown receipt and it says no returns on electronic items. I called and they told me the same thing. At this point, I have a loud, full-blast-only train that I'm gonna have to try to get running again. I'm not sure I got what I bargained for.
I just laid down a piece of flex track with alligator clips to the tracks. Put the Acela power car on, flipped the switch and same thing ... lights flicker and either go out or it may start moving. Again, other engines immediately work on this track. After googling a Model Railroading Magazine article on how to clean wheels, I put power to the wheels with alcohol and cotton swabs without the swab (just the cotton sticks). I just kept cutting the stick shorter after it got dirty. One Q-tip per truck. It is now circling the track with all 5 cars. Thanks. It seems like maybe the lube was all over the wheels (Idunno). Thanks for all the comments and I appreciate the newbie-help.
I wonder if anyone has come accross an engine shorting out? I have a "cheaper" bachmann train I bought used, and I did take it apart and cleaned it good. Now once in a while it seems to be shorting out but works when I tap on it or something. Anyone else?
On the Acela set... I wrote a nine page article for N-Scale Magazine on this set. It took a lot of work, and some extra money. but I got it to run fairly decently (even on 15 inch curves).
Sounds more like an "Open" then a "Short". An Open can be caused by a poor, loose or broken connection and when you tap on it you temporarily repair the connection and close the circuit and the loco runs again. I suggest you take it apart again and look for any poor, loose or broken connections as you go. Not sure what loco you have, but it could be as simple and a motor tab is not making good contact with the frame or a motor brush is hanging up among other things. Other things to look for are dirty wheels and track dirty wipers on the back side of the wheels (assuming it has them, wipers that is) a broken wire somewhere other then the ends, of course it may not have wires depending on its age a poor/dirty connection between the trucks and frame. Gary
Thanks Max, but I do know its a short. The Light on the engine dims to medium, plus engine #2 and its light will also go to half speed. looks like a short from that aspect. Maybe i over lubed it, lol. I really did give it the berries!
Now I have the wheels clean and the engine alone seems to run laps okay. When I add the cars, the wheels spin causing the engine to shake and jerk the wheels off the track. Even if I apply power slowly, same thing. The traction treads are still in place.
Happens with any one car? or only with all the cars? Maybe one is hung up. Its the only reason I can think of that the loco would slip. Sorry I'm not more help, just throwing ideas around.
Check each car one at a time to find which car is causing the problem. I just haven't seen the issue you are reporting before. It sounds like the wheels are dragging or not rolling on one or more of the cars. Check to make sure a wheel didn't get dislodged on one of the cars or that there is not hair or something wrapped around the axles.
It does not run consistently well in any configuration I put it in. Even at its best when it has done 10-20 laps without an issue, it would derail the next day. I've tried just the engine, then add one car at a time and do several laps before adding another, even if I get it up to all the cars running laps. It won't last and it starts having problems again. I have to admit, it looks cool when its doing laps, but that is rare (and LOUD). The wheels on the NON-power cars turn okay. Out of the box I was concerned they didn’t turn that well so I checked and they all turned. I checked again last night, and they all turn (maybe better). They are better now than when out of the box. I’ll try to compare them to regular stock wheels. If I flip regular stock wheels with my finger I get a long “zzzzzzz” sound as they roll to a stop, but on the Acela, I get a “zzz.” On the track, if I push regular stock cars, they move a couple/few feet with a nice “sssssss,” but with the Acela non-power cars they quickly stop with a small “ss” or more of a short “sh” sound. Even if I get the Acela going on the full track and cars it came with, it derails a lot (usually with that bouncy wheels spinning jerk). OUT OF FRUSTRATION, I PUT IT AWAY LAST NIGHT. It's suposed to be running Christmas morning.
Forgive me for asking, I think we went through this before, but are you running the Acella on the 19" radius track that it came with? It won't work at all on 11" radius track that the other trainsets come with. It's just odd because I have not seen a report of issues like you are having since the train was released quite a few years back.
