HO Scale 4-4-0 possibilities

[Tinplate_Toddler]

As I said before, Bachmann UK products both in N scale and OO scale are premium products and apparently of much better quality than what is offered in the US.

However, given the more positive experience with Bachmann engines by some of the members here, I sense a strong and unjustified bias against Bachmann products. In the rare case an engine of newer design fails, Bachmann´s service department is top notch and they will go through great lengths in helping you.

[Water_Level_Route]

Yeah I’ve seen Branchlines from Sam’s Trains videos, but how long are they going to last? Well that’s probably back when Bachmann had a better grade of plastic gears or did they use metal back in the late 2000’s? I don’t want to buy a $200 plastic locomotive just to have its gears split, even today an empoyee to my local train shop was bringing up the topic.

I would like to hear what your specific issue with a Bachmann locomotive was. While I don’t have tons of them, the Bachmann locos I do own haven’t disappointed mechanically. The cheap-o DCC decoders installed in them have been the only disappointment and were easily replaced. What happened that turned you off from Bachmann?

[Bernd]

I gave that a shot several years ago, my thing is restoring clunkers. Motorman gave me a sack full of can motors to experiment with, several small enough to fit in an American or Jupiter. I almost succeeded but the only motors small enough to fit in the boiler were 12K RPM and higher.

I believe it’s possible if one could find a mini motor at 5 or 6K.

I pulled one apart and reversed the driver assembly so that the drive line was to the front where a small motor will fit.

Motorman (Eldon) tried to find a 4K to 6K motor that would fit but Father Time beat him to it.

Mel

I have a Bowker 2-4-0 and the Inyo 4-4-0 both with old tender drive motors. I’m looking at replacing them at some point to small can motors with gear boxes. I don’t plan on totaly eliminating the tender drive though.

One way to slow down those small high RPM motors is with a gearbox to reduce output RPM and a gearbox will also multiply torque using those small motors. An example is the motors sold by Pololu at pololu.com. Similar motors are also sold on Ebay.

[SeeYou190]

There are a good variety of brass HO scale 4-4-0 models available with the motor in the boiler. They mostly seem to be older models from the 60s and 70s, but they would be a good starting point for your civil war fleet.

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The only more modern models seem to be of Jupiter and 119.

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The prices range from $200.00 to $400.00 for a lot of the models in good condition.

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-Kevin

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[Darth_Santa_Fe]

Yes, but I have blacklisted Bachmann, they are overpriced plastic garbage.

I have had numorous Bachmann models break down on me and it came from mainly one thing awful gears that split.

Bachmann’s solved the gear issues at this point. The last one I know of to have any real problems was the first run of the Climax.

So far, essentially all post-2000 Bachmann models I’ve owned from standard to Spectrum have been some of my most dependable runners. This is working next to Kato, Athearn, Atlas, BLI, Proto, and other well regarded brands for both steam and diesel. The updated 4-4-0 uses a small coreless motor and high torque gearing, all contained within the firebox. A bad one gets out every now and then, but most of what I’ve heard has been good things. Just don’t pay full MSRP.[:)]

I used to get some ridicule for using Bachmann products. It mostly came from people who had a bad experience in the 80’s and 90’s. Some of those people eventually ended up with a newer model and didn’t have such a bad opinion afterward.