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Bachmann’s N scale USRA 2-6-6-2 steam locomotive is compact and flexible
Hi all, Well I found this loco to be a dissapointment. Positives: Engine looks great, and has a ton of details. Engine does run well at low speeds Negatives : Engine is very light and doesnt pull well No traction tires Center driver on on each set of drivers is the only one powered, others are connected by the siderods. Alot of gear noise, that never went away after a break in period. I exchanged the first one I had, and the next one was the same. If it ran like it looked it would be great.
Yes, this locomotive does look great and it will go around tight curves and No 4 switches without problems. It has miserable pulling power, though. Also, do NOT trust the DCC instructions. In particular, if you hook up the head light function to the supplied PC circuit board without first isolating the mounting screws for the board, then you will find that it does not work. Also, on my engine the motor wires were reversed.
I agree with everyone and everything above!! However, I took some double sided sticky tape and applied a very thin strip to the last set of drivers and now the pulling power is great. This changed my outlook on this engine. I’ve added sound/DCC to it. I love it…now
This Bachmann 2-6-6-2 looks very impressive; however of the 10 that I purchased 6 had to go back with one type of drive train problem or another. For the price Bachmann charges, these should have worked flawlessly. But then this is not a Kato nor a Life Like Heritage loco. My N scale Life Like Heritage Berkshire runs smoothly at any speed and is nearly silent. Now that Kato is building a SP GS-4 4-8-4 Daylight loco, and probably will soon do other US railroad locos, Bachmann will have to improve their quality control or leave the N scale business. Too bad, as the 4 Bachmann’s I kept are beautifully detailed, but need a smoother/reliable drive train.
I have bought one and I have kitbashed it into a Weyerhaeurser logger. Although not an ideal match, it’s tight turning ability works well on my logging operation, where it pushes and pulls skeleton cars around quite easily.
I just applied Bullfrog Snot to the rear 2 drivers on each truck and she pulls great now. I have a run of about 30 hoppers going up a 2.5% grade!
I have had the same problem the engine runs but hardly moves. I have never had this problem before
well I agree with Mark Skillen:very beautyfull engine but very noisy
Sent mine back had same problem Wheels turned but wouldn’t move.