Hi Everyone, I picked up a HO bachmann spectrum 4-8-2 at a train show. It was NIB, and even had the plastic wrap around it. However, when I tried to run it at home it doesn’t respond at all. It has two plugs from the tender to engine, 4 and 2 wire. I plugged both in, but nothing happens (no lights or anything). The instructions mention lubricating it. Would that be necessary for it to even power on? What should I check first? Thanks! David
Could be a dozen different things but the first thing I would check is to make sure that both tender trucks are insulated on the same side, not one of them being accidently reversed.
If that’s not it you possibly have a wire off or broken somewhere. This is where amp and voltage guages are invaluable as they will tell you immediately whether you have a “short” or an “open” circuit.
Hope this helps…Mark
Well this won’t help since Bachmann locos use one tender truck to pick up from each side, they need to NOT be insulated on the same side.
Make sure the plugs are all the way in, that sounds like the most likely problem at this point.
I have nine copies of that loco, they all run great.
Sheldon
I double checked the plug, and crossed my fingers your were right, but still nothing. I opened up the tender and checked the wires, but everything looks OK. I took out the dummy board in the DCC socket to make sure it was in good. I didn’t think of it until now, but could it have been put in the wrong orientation? Also, I read in a review of another Bachmann Spectrum that it took 12 volts to get it to do anything. My power pack is 30 years old and rated up to 15 volts. Could it have deteriorated over time so it’s not putting out enough volts? Thanks, David
Again, this is where a voltmeter comes in real handy. If you have other Bachmann Spectrum locomotives and they run fine, I would tend to doubt that your power supply is the problem. I’ve heard that Bachmann has excellent customer service. I would give them a call.
Hmmmm…can you “beg,borrow,or steal” the tender from behind another 4-8-2 to use as a test to determine if the problem is in the tender or the engine?
My suspicions still lean towards tender truck polarity or possibly that circuit board, Murphy’s Law still applies to most electronics and if you have a faulty circuit board you can alway bypass it and throw it in the trash. You’d loose your headlight but I’d take that over an engine that won’t even run.
Again, what’s really needed are the volt/amp guages, they take all the guess work out of the situation.
Also, is your mechanism free, no obvious binds or anything? I, like you, have picked up several of these engines but they haven’t left the boxes yet being assigned to the “future projects” area so I have no expertise on these other than the knowledge of Bachmann’s tendency to not always supply the best quality in their products. Still, basic detection by eliminating the areas of possible problems is still the best route to follow.
If you hook another tender to it and it runs fine then you know where your problem is, if not then it just depends on how far you want to go on your own to fix this critter, there is always the Bachmann service center as a last resort.
Mark
Thanks everyone! We took it to a friends house to try another power supply (just to rule that out). Turns out I just needed to clean the contacts picking up power from the tender wheels. I feel kind of silly, but at least it was an easy fix. David
Generally, that would be a good suggestion, but I bought four Bachmann Consolidations, two of which had interchangeable tenders, while the other two also had interchangeable tenders, but ones not interchangeable with the first two. All four ran just fine, but were wired differently. I eventually corrected the problem by removing the circuit boards and plugs entirely, so any locomotive will now run with any tender or with no tender at all.
Wayne
Gee…I wonder “why” that doesn’t surprise me, maybe the Bachmann label has something to do with it…something like this is just defies logic…more “contrived complexity” maybe???
Mark
Naw! I’d guess that the locos were assembled by different workers, and maybe one of 'em had the drawings upside-down. [(-D]
As I said, all four locos ran just fine, and they’re even better with the unneeded circuitry removed, including this one, which survived a 3’ plunge to the concrete floor:
Other than a broken drawbar pin on the tender, the wires pulled out of one of the plugs, and, of course, the loose coal in the bunker spilled, the loco was unscathed. Crews are calling her the “Lucky 26”. [swg]
Wayne
Gee Wayne, it’s refeshing to hear someone else refer to all of this circuitry as “unneeded”, I have been quiet about that as the “flack” I have gotten for that opinion isn’t worth the ear strain, but you’re 100% correct in my book. I do the same thing to all of my Proto diesels as well and it’s amazing how much better they run without that junk in there, and pull less power as well!!!
On the flip side, that’s one nice looking engine you have there, I have to admit that Bachmann nailed it with that 2-8-0, now if they’d offer an equally vague 2-8-2 we’d be in business. For a freelance road and some prototypes as well that 2-8-0 is hard to beat, it just has the right “look” to it.
Nice job on the number boards too…
Mark
Thanks for the kind words, Mark. [:)]
I’d always intended to remove the circuitry, but never seemed to get around to it. Then I started to have some intermittent problems with my Bachmann USRA Light Mountain cutting out. I finally traced the problem to a loose connection within one part of the plug and decided to re-wire the loco rather than repair the plug. Problem solved, and she runs better than ever. [swg]
Wayne
Some general information for all that may help.
The reason some 2-8-0’s do not interchange with other 2-8-0’s is that earlier ones have 12 volt headlights, newer ones have LED headlights. And, there was one very early change in the plug design that prevents interchange.
If an LED loco was plugged into a 12 volt headlight tender, the LED would be instantly distroyed.
To avoid this Bachmann PURPOSELY wires the motor and pickup conections differently to prevent both operation or damage in the event of such a mismatch. This is also true of other locos and is why the seperately sold tenders to not work out of the box with all locos. They work out of the box with the locos that tender was sold with, others may need wiring changes.
For those doing tender swaps it is a simple matter of moving the pin assignments in the plugs and correcting any possible missmatch in headlight type.
Mark, bash Bachmann all you want but I have about 30 of thier locos and they all run great and like Wayne I have done lots of kit bashing and tender swaping with great success. I have only had to return three locos for service, all were replaced with ones that ran perfectly.
I remembered after the fact that Wayne had previously explained his lack of headlight use. In that case I agree the additional “wiring” on the circuit board is not necessary. Some of us do like the headlights and the simple modification of removing the motor supression capacitors turns that circuit board into ONLY those componants needed for the directional constant lighting, be it LED or 12 volt lamp.
IF I were using DCC I would definately remove the Bachmann board and hard wire decoders, but I would do that with just about all brands for the same reasons. Bachmann is no worse or better than any other brand in that department.
I have 4-6-0’s with small vandy t
There are SOME older Proto2000 models that have voltage sucking 8 diode lighting bridges - I remove them as well. But many of the Proto locos have very effective lighting boards that have no ill effects of performance.
It seems to me that you are painting everything (Bachmann, lighting circuits) with a broad brush, or only basing your comments about a whole product line on a few items you own, rather than judging each item on its own individual merrits.
Sheldon
Those are some “nice” looking loco’s Sheldon, I esecially like the 2-6-6-2 with the “vandy” tender behind it, even though I’m not sure as to whether that tender was ever used behind a USRA 2-6-6-2 it certainly should have been!
My biggest complaint with Bachmann is that they seem to go 99% of the way there and then “cheap” out at the last minute and it seems to usually be with something that requires major surgery, sort of like Athearn with their early 2-8-2’s and 4-6-2’s, they appear to have learned their lesson there.
That being said I think the Bachmann engines are not only beautiful but long overdue. I had wanted a couple of USRA 2-6-6-2’s for a long time and the only ones that had the detail but were still Japanese were the Gem versions, not the old Akane versions as they are almost a joke but considering when they were made. Anyhow I was having no luck finding any without heading towards $500 a copy, something I just couldn’t bring myself to do. Then Bachmann brought out their version and I ended up with 5 of them at roughly $100 a copy, or one good Gem version. Best part, not only do they run nicely but the detail is as good as a Key version, the old “win win” situation. I had bought some modern version Ma&Pa PFM 2-8-0’s, then here came the Bachmann version, same thing again and closely followed by the 4-6-0’s so I have several of them on the shelves waiting for me to get after. My biggest complaint I guess is that they just aren’t the easiest outfit to work with for parts or anything like that and as I said earlier they get 99% of the way there and “cheap out” then we get the job of fixing their product.
Knowledge is the biggest key to most anything and getting any of that from them is almost like pulling teeth. I didn’t know that about the 12v bulb versus the LED until you just mentioned it, or the opposite polarity tender trucks until you
I am in complete agreement with Sheldon on this one regarding painting the entire product line with a broad brush, having owned no less then 25 or 30 Spectrum locomotives over the years and having problems with only one specific model the dreaded J class 4-8-4 I find them virtually bullet proof. That is take em out of the box, clean the wheels break em in and your good to go. I have had minor break in issues with 2 Decapods that would only start off in reverse and then you could change direction but that went away after about an hours worth of run time.
As a matter of practice I usually buy Bachmann locomotives without decoders as I am only going to throw their stock decoder in the trash. They tend to use cheap low end decoders such as out of production Lenz decoders on some of their engines and they are horrid to say the least, no low speed performance,and sound like an old coffee grinder with hat annoying growl they produce. All of the boards have been removed and I now have only Tsunami decoders in all my Spectrum’s. This problem is not unique to Bachmann as many of you know older Genesis models were equipped with MRC sound decoders that belonged in the garbage and have since been phased out by Athearn and replaced with Tsunami’s I can understand when locomotive manufacturers go looking for the best deal on components that they have to outsource thats just business and some can say it’s hit or miss and other can say it’s just poor research on the part of the company when they come up with bad products such as decoders.
As far as wiring issues I have found that also with Athearn locomotives being wired incorrectly but still working. So some fault does lie with the worker who assembles them.My point is you’ll find good and bad in all manufactures but it’s not fair to black list the entire product line. I absolutely hate my Spectrum J class 4-8-4’s as their poor draw bar design has relegated them to be nothing more then dust collectors because they won’t stay on the track no matter what. But
Mark, Thank you for all the kind words. I am always happy to help with this sort of tech stuff I have learned over the years.
I don’t disagree that Bachmann has a few minor weak points that could be better, but I don’t see Broadway as being that much better, especially at the higher prices and the lack of direction regarding how products will be offered. DC?, DCC?, all with sound?, Stealth?, it changes every two weeks.
My BLI experiances have been mixed and I only own 9 pieces of the stuff. Two USRA Heavy Mikes, one Blueline, one orginal Powerhouse, both had problems. I fixed them myself and installed Bachmann long tenders behind them, making them quiet thank goodness, not tomention run better.
Two Reading T-1’s, very nice but both needed some ajustments to run “perfect”.
An ABBA set of PCM F3’s, stealth still waiting to be painted but they seem fine in test runs.
And one N&W Class A - this one was perfect out of the box - very nice.
I have a number of other conversions, some complete, some it the works. I will post some more pictures when a few more are done.
Sheldon
Though I don’t own the Spectrum steamers in as much volume as Sheldon, I’ll certainly agree that the ones I have (2 USRA Heavy 4-8-2, 1 USRA 2-6-6-2, 1 2-10-0 and 1 2-8-0) have proven to be very trouble-free and smooth running locomotives.
I did have a problem with one of my 4-8-2’s, which came decorated for Southern Pacific, with the SP-1 Hicken tender. It ran backward. I checked the tender trucks, and they had been put on in reverse, evidently. I reversed one of the trucks and the locomotive did not run–PERIOD! That’s when I found out that the Spectrum tender picked up from both sides of the rail. With a little experimentation I finally got the tender trucks in the right polarity and the locomotive ran just fine.
So you might check to see if the insulated side of your tender trucks are all on one side. If they are, then one of them needs to be reversed. But be CAREFUL–you might end up with your locomotive running counter-direction to the rest of your motive power, LOL!
But I have absolutely NO complaints about Spectrum quality, at least from my point of view.
BTW, that SP “USRA” (which SP never owned–all of their 4-8-2’s were ‘home built’ at their Sacramento shops) is, courtesy of a bunch of SP detail castings, is on its way to becoming a ‘kinda/sorta’ SP MT-2. I say kinda/sorta because the USRA drive wheels are too small, but those Spectrum locos just lend themselves to kit-bashing. All you have to do is look again at the excellent photos of both Dr. Wayhe and Sheldon.
Tom [:)]
I haven’t read this whole subject thread yet, nor run a lot of my Bachmann locos as I sold my layout in anticipation of moving overseas. So I am trying to learn about some of these ‘Bachmann problems’ via the forum discussions.
Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t Bachmann experience a number of ‘quartering problems’ with their 4-8-2 Mountains??..some sort of side-rode bidding and drivers getting out of quarter??
I love the looks of the C&O Mountains with the Vandy tenders. In fact my very first steam engine purchase was an IHC model of this loco. I eventally got 4 of them, and have put a lot of running on a pair of them double-headed…even weathered them and some say they look like brass from a distance.
I’ve not run my 3 Bachmann Mountains as they came after the layout was sold. But I am concerned that I should take them overseas and then experience problems with them?
I’m also embarking on a kit-bash project to hook-up a couple of those Bachmann tenders VC16, VC12 (equipped with super sound/DCC) behind a Proto2K engine modified to look like a C&O H7. But now I have problems with what electrical min-connectors to use?,…and bad stories about the stock PCB boards in Bachmann tenders destined for decoder instalations?
Just the guy I was looking for. I live in SS, MD myself. Here is my project:
Adapt Bachmann Vandy Tenders to Run Behind Other Engines
This idea has surfaced as I attempt to kit bash a Proto2K Heritage 2-8-8-2 loco to look like a C&O H7 loco with the vandy tender option.
I have 2 tenders I would consider using with this loco,…a VC-16 and a VC-12, both of them those very nice ones made by Bachmann. I have already modified one of my VC-16 tenders to mate up with the Proto2K loco;…I carved out a slot in the front of the tender so that it accepts the stock draw-bar of the Proto2K loco.
Here is my basic thought process on the tender and sound situation. I thought I could take one of my Bachmann VC-16 tenders and one of the VC-12 tenders and put the sound decoder and the speakers in each. (I have in mind a dual hi-bass speaker installation in each one). I could then run either of these tenders behind the 'H-7 Proto2K loco, AND behind the various Mountain locos I have ( I have several Bachmann ones and several IHC ones).
I simply need to equip these two tenders with speaker(s) and a Tsunami decoder. I just need to make everything compatible with electrical mini-connection plugs between loco and tenders. I believe I could just utilize the Bachmann st