please keep this civilized. This post is not to bash Bachmann, but instead I would like to know how to make the Bachmann MOW vehicles, 44 tonner-1 motor version- and 70 tonner-1 motor version- run smooth and quiet. I find that these locomotives run rough and noisy and would like to ask other members of this great forum if they managed to get these engines to run like a P2K or Atlas engine.
Please note that I like these particular Bachmann products and that they fill a niche in the HO market. I am not complaining about these locomotives but would like some advice. I have noticed that by running them for about 15 minutes at different speeds in each direction improves the performance some.
Hmm, I have one of the newer single motor 44-tonners, and so far I only did a little test run as address 0 on my DCC system (it does not have a decoder in it) and it didn;t seem excessively noisy. I haven’t done anything to it yet, such as clean out the excessive grease (like many Bachmanns it has enough grease to lube a dozen locos). I will take care of things liek that when I have it open to put in a decoder. I also plan to paint over the roadname and decal it for my cement plant, and then apply lots of cement colored weathering (over the stock black color). That may take a while,. although I will probably work on the decoder soon and line out the PRR roadname. building up a custom decal will have to wait, that’s something I haven’t tried.
That’s the only Bachmann of the ones you listed that I have. Others I’ve messed with include the E33 electric, another one that came overgreased, but once I cleaned it up it ran fine, not noisy at all.
The little MOW vechicles, I really doubt there’s much hope for those. I had one of the really old ones from years ago, basically 2 wheel pickup and some sort of slot car type motor with lots of very loose plastic gears to keep the speed down. Between being absolutely fussy about clean track because of only 2 pickup wheels, it was extremely noise and I think the only cure for that would have been a complete replacement power unit like a Flea. Some sliders might help pickup issues, but all those little gears that wobble like crazy are goign to be noisy no matter what.
The only Bachmann locos that need bashing are the ones with pancake motors in them. Any brand of loco with a pancake motor is not worth the trouble. If you like the shell but hate the drivetrain, the best thing to do is rip the drivetrain out and repower the loco completely.
Indeed.Before the P2K GP30 many of us repowered the Bachmann Spectrum GP30 shell with a Athearn BB GP35 drive which in turn gave us a decent GP30.
Now to the question at hand.
(Leaning back in my computer chair and thinking.)
My thoughts.
My GE 70 Tonner started life running smooth and quite but,develop a “growl” at slow speed…Understanding I paid $29.95 for this locomotive I never expected it to run like a P2K,Kato or Atlas…One of my future HO projects is to check the drive and see why it develop that “growl”.
Are you running them on DC or DCC? If you are running them on DC, you need to disable the decoder portion of the circuit board as the dual mode operation is poor and noisy. Everyone I know running them on DCC says they run fine.
After removing the “decoder” my 70 tonners run very nice. As does my 44 tonner which is a single motor DC version from a few years ago. If you need help converting the imbeded decoder versions to DC only, let me know.
Clean and relube them, sometimes Bachmann is guilty of too much or too little lube. Then give them a good break in run - 3/4 throttle on a loop for about two hours in each direction.
Their slowest speed may never quite equal a P2K or Atlas, but smoothness sure should. As for noise, I don’t bother to “test” the level, but mine don’t make an unreasonable amount of noise.
DISCLAIMER - I operate DC and do not use sound, I use pluse width modulated radio throttles from Aristo Craft - most of my observations are based on my operating conditions.
I have two 44 tonners and one 70 tonner. They run nice and quiet. I lubricated the gears with a light coating of LaBelle 102 gear oil and a couple puffs of LaBelle lubricating powder, Micro-Fine Teflon Non-Staining Dry Lubricant.
I believe LaBelle now sells a product with both in one bottle.
Even if they made a little noise, I would never notice as they are now sound equipped. They both crawl at about 1 mph at minimum throttle.
A little grinding on the rear, and it fits fairly well. The Bachman GP30 shell is decent, but the P2K shell and drive are much better. If you can, hold out for the P2K GP30.
Unfortunately, I can’t help on the smaller engines. Don’t have any, although a 45-tonner might be a possible acquisition someday.
BTW without a decoder my 44 tonner was a dead short on DCC track until I cut off those unecessary capacitors. If you are usign a decent DCC decoder, or a fancier DC system like Sheldon’s Aristo that uses PWM, they will run MUCH better once the capacitors are removed. They are two beige/yellowish blobs on top of the circuit board in the 44 tonner. Clip them off with wire cutters.
Thank you for this advice. Will find out what the resistance is from farad rating is from the capacitors before I do any cutting.
Thank you for all the responses as well. Greatly appreciated.
Also in the process of putting maximum length of train behind them that they can pull up my helix and letting them run a few laps of the entire layout at different speeds to break them in more yet.
I think they are .01uF, I tossed them don;t have a way to look anymore. They shorted my PM42, but not the Zephyr directly. Just remove them and don;t look back.
I have some Spectrum locos and I cut the capacitors.
I have never had a short with these capacitors still in place and never heard of anyone who had a short when the capacitors were still in place.
It is possible these capacitors can short as some years ago I had a machine processor with the same value and style case short and it did take down the whole system but that has been rare in my experience.
Some PC boards have two capacitors in series with each other and some PC boards have only one capacitor.
I have one PC board that had three capacitors but one capacitor was for the LED headlight. No idea why.
I and many others just cut all the capacitors.
If the capacitors are surface mount type, I clip them off with a small pair of wire cutters. No big deal.
