I dropped this loco onto my carpet and the copper wire assy from the loco to the tender has come apart. I have marked it with an arrow in the attached photo. There are two copper wires that connect from the tender to the loco. Does anyone have any experience putting this little mechanism back together? Thanks
Fairly typical Bachmann newer tender set up. Unless you lost or broke part of the tender drawbar what is basically shown in the photo is the right orientation of the wiper wires. The two wires are nothing more than friction contacts between the split drawbar post on the loco and the tender electrical pickup. The drawbar should be held turned at either slightly to the left or right . One brass stiff wire goes to either side of the drawbar post and when the drawbar is turned back straight the whole assembly just simply locks on the post since it has a small lip to retain the drawbar and wipers. Since the loco has a split metal chassis that is the way that tender pick-up is supplied which works well as long as there is sufficient pressure of the two brass wires on the drawbar post and they were not bent. As far as any wiring between the loco and tender for the DCC functions there should have been a parts schematic that shows the wiring in case any came loose and if not then usually the Bmann web site has a drawing that show the schematic. However good luck on a weekend since some of the Bmann site seems like it takes the weekend off and some things cannot be accessed.
John, Thanks for your reply. I found the schematic that came with the loco and I am indeed missing a piece of the assembly. They probably sell the entire assembly as a unit which would make it easy to install. Wm
I've just been working on my Bachmann 2-6-0 and there are six wires running from the tender to the loco of which two are for transferring the current from the loco to the decoder in the tender. The spring clips are a throw back to the older locos which relied solely on the spring clips for current transfer. The only purpose I can see for the spring clips now is hold the drawbar onto the loco. Ted
Bachmann tells me they don't have the parts in stock and check back in a month. Does anyone have any spare parts for this model? Here's the schematic with the part numbers I need:
Not knowing which or if this is a new tender in the Bmann line they may have another tender that uses the same length of drawbar perhaps their short tender which is a separate offering. One would have to check the dimensions on both to be sure. If they are of one and the same then it might be easier to pick-up a tender for the parts cheaply.
The drawbar shown is the current drawbar used on the Bachmann Spectrum tenders. You can purchase a spectrum tender separately and get the part, or see if someone here used hte tender on another project but changed out the drawbar. A number of people buy the tenders to improve pickup for Model Power engines and use the MP drawbar with the Tender.
Did look at the drawbars on the tenders today and they are of different lengths depending on the tender, with the shortest one being on the short tender. The medium tender has just a tad longer drawbar and the larger tenders are way too long. Forget about the slope back tender as that is a completely different drawbar. Hold the presses folks. I just got through rummaging through my small stock of items I am getting rid of and did run across a short tender that is excess to me. Should have the drawbar you need so if there are no other offers from folks here PM me and the whole tender is yours.
John, The PM doesn't appear to be working this morning or there is a long lag before it posts. Anyway, the tender measures 1-3/4" or 44.5mm at the bottom sill. Thanks
You will find your answer here at Mark's (Spookshow) site. http://www.spookshow.net/loco/spec260.html
