Can anyone tell me if this is normal? I have a Bachman GE 44 ton switcher, DCC, item # 62209. Since I bought it it has always been VERY sluggish to get started. I have to crank up the cab to ALMOST full power to get it moving. Once moving it will operate okay but it seems like it lags a lot and is not smooth, it lurches and such. I opened it tonight and noticed it has cheesy worm gears driving the wheels. Could this be part of the problem? Is it just a lousy, cheap, loco? Can I fix it by reprogramming a CV or two?
The locomotive itself is grand. The decoder is typical Bachmann, cheap. I replaced with with an N/Z scale Train Control Systems decoder. If interested I can try to post pics or just email them to you. It instantly changed this thing into a little beast. You can use other brands I just already have bunch of locos with Digitrax and decided I wanted something different.
On the other hand making sure the gears are properly lubricrated, giving the little loco a good break, and monkeying around with V start (CV3 IIRC) may help. Like I said, the loco is great, just not the Bachmann decoder. I doubt you would have problems if you wired for DC.
LION has two of these locomotives which I bought more than a year ago. The have not even been around my layout even once. I will treat them like I do my subway cars: I will remove the entire circuit board and wire the motors directly to the wheels. When I decide on what consist they will pull, I will train-line them to the tail car and give the train all wheel pickup.
I have not yet done this to these locomotives, but on the Walther subway cars I just remove the entire circuit board and just wire the motors directly to the wheels.
To train line a set is more complicated, you would have to remove the couplers, install draw-bars and hard wire the cars together from one end of the train to the other. On my subway consists there are six-car lash-ups, and I needed to build a special foam jig just to move the cars from bench to table. But with 48 wheel power pick-up there is never any hesitation.
Nothing advanced here.
I built my own circuit boards to provide continous lighting even when the train is stopped. I’ll let you know how I did that once I can make it do what I want. [:$]
No, HOW do you wire the motors directly to the wheels? This might be too much to go into right now.
I’m still trying to figure out how to program CV’s with my NCE DCC CAB. I changed the numbers of the locos but haven’t had any luck changing CV parameters. I guess I need to read up on it some more.
