I recently got one of these with DCC but no sound.
The pilot truck has no springing, and little very weight to it. Has this been a problem - it seems pretty picky?
Also, at low speeds (say, step 5) it gives off a rasty hum, like an old transformer with loose laminations. It eventually moves, although with a bit of an unsteady gait and a once per driver revolution sort of ticking sound. This may be due to some main rod or valve gear problems. I tightened up the main rod screws, and that helped a bit, but it’s still there. The benefit of your experiences would be greatly appreciated.
Any recommendations for adding a sound decoder and speaker at a reasonable price? I mean, I’d like a Tsunami or such, but I can’t afford to put $100 into a locomotive that cost less than $80.
Not much room to add weight to the front pilot truck. I have 2 of them with no problems with the truck. Check for flashing on the mounting hole and if the wheels are in gauge. If you have a spring you can try to add one. Or you could use a thin piece of brass or copper, curved to put pressure on the truck. Just put a hole in it to mount to the mounting scew post.
For the clicking sound also look at the power pick-up wipers that ride on the back of each driver. They get bent sometimes and hit the spokes of the wheels.
What radius curves are you running it on? At anything less than 22-24" radius the pilot truck will be “picky”. Personally I would not run that loco around anything less than about 30" radius, for both appearance and operational reasons - It has a long rigid wheel base, it needs big curves to operate well.
As suggested, check the driver pickup wipers for your noise.
I’ve found Spectrum steam engines often have an issue with the side rods and eccentric rods. I don’t know if it’s the way they’re built, or the long trip from China getting buffeted around or what, but it seems like the rods often get bent in a little bit so they hit each other. I have a 2-10-0 that exhibited the same features you’re talking about, when I found which rods were hitting and bent them out a tiny bit it solved the problem and it became one of my best running engines.
The humming noise at low speeds is probably because of the decoder that Bachmann uses – a very low end Lenz product. Replacing the decoder and clipping capacitors off the circuit board usually cures this problem.
Lenz was the primary originator of DCC and makes some excellent decoders, but the ones that are custom made for Bachmann are not very good.
I have two of these and once I tweeked and fiddled with them became excellent runners. Cacole is right the decoder is one of the issues and if you put a Tsunami in to replace it, problem solved! As to the pilot wheel I put a 1/4 oz lead weight on it for starters then I still had an issue or tow so I removed the drivers, ya say it aint so, and filed the faces of the holes just to smoothem up and remove metallic burrs. Made a World of difference! I also found these engines had “Room under the Hood (boiler shell)” for additional weight. So I was able to increase pulling ability.