HelloÑ My son and I are new to this hobby and I got him an HO Bachman set. Started to build a 4x8 layout in his room. It ran fine until about one month ago . It kind of strarts and stops, runs irregularly. what could be wrong? Help
Sounds like the track is dirty. There are a lot of cleaning threads here at the forum, I’d recommend you look one up using ‘polish’ as a search word. Don’t have a lot of time right now to go into it. Good luck and Welcome to the forum…
Dirty track and dirty locomotive wheels. Clean the track with a rag soaked with rubbing alcohol if you don’t have a track cleaning block. Then stretch the cloth across the track, turn the throttle up to full power, and let the locomotive spin its wheels on the rag. You may need to pull the locomotive off of the rag to let the wheels start spinning again, and then let it run onto the cloth. Keep doing this until the wheels appear to be clean.
Welcome to the forum! I would try cleaning your tracks. Take an old t-shirt or dish towel and put a little rubbing alcohol on it. Now wipe down the rails. You don’t need to use too much alcohol. You will probably see a dark mark on the towel when you are done. This should help with the jerky running.
Edit: I guess I didn’t type fast enough!
If this particular loco doesn’t have all wheel pick up or just won’t spin the wheels on the paper towel, you may have to clean the wheels with a Q-tip and alcohol. 91% isopropyl alcohol is what you want.
The dirty wheels should be the problem but a loose connection may also be the trouble. These newer Bachman starter sets are much better than the ones of 15-20 years ago, but they are only starter sets. If you continue to have trouble with this engine I would suggest you look into a BB (blue box) Athearn or RTR (ready to run). These are relatively inexpensive but run very good.
Thanks for the info. I cleaned the track and locomotive wheels with alcohol and it still runs jerky, if I hold the locomotive on the tracks just so the wheels turn they seem to run ok, any other ideas?
Yhanks again
Which Bachmann train set is it? They vary in quality.
David B
What track did you use to build your layout? Are the rail connections all tight? Are the power feed wires connected tight? Please give us more specifics on what you have.
I was going to mention connectors, but you beat me to it Loathar [:D] …is the jerking continuous or intermitant? The loco might need lubrication. or the frame contacts might need cleaning.
I suggest getting a new engine. Life like’s ho scale 0-4-0 dockside would work.
How about some loco details?
You can join the Bach Man forums. They might have an answer if it is the loco.
Bachmann has a very good exchange policy for locomotives.
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/
Rich
It would be better to replace (if nessesary) his locomotive with something of quality. Like like’s 0-4-0 dockside is not of any quality. His issue right now has to do with electrical pickup. The 0-4-0 has very poor pickup.
David B
Okay, then get a 0-6-0 from bachmann.
That would be pretty much the same, I-5. I’d go with a good Athearn Blue Box.[2c]
Nope, the athearn blue box is only slightly better. He should go with an Atlas.
Well, if he is under 8, a Blue box with all parts probably wouldn’t work. You know, he could swallow something. What about Bachmann’s Thomas & Friends line if he is under 8?
[#ditto]
Now that’s good advice. The BB locos are rugged, reliable, easy to maintain and cheap. For the money, they’re hard to beat.
Its a Bachman Chattanooga starter set, witha E Z track system(the black one). I also bought some more track and two turnouts seperately. It´s a pretty basic layout. 4x8 ply wood with a few accesories. We have not used it that much so it seems strange to me that in such a short time it would start too run that way cause the tracks and wheels werent that dirty, so I´m guessing locomotive problems.
Very true, but that advice would work better for an older modeler. Atlas locomotives aren’t cheap, especially for someone starting out with model railroading.
How old is your son. That info could help us figure out what suits his needs. Hope you get that train runnin!