After much discussion we got my train loving son (4 1/2) his first electric train for Christmas. Despite my misgivings (I really like O gauge) we went with HO because my brother had gifted us with what was left of his old Tyco Santa fe set and my husband also had an old Tyco Chattanooga set in his parents attic. We collected all the pieces, purchased all new Bachmann nickel silver ez track (to set up on carpet), and a new Thomas the tank engine “Henry” to pull the Tyco cars. I modified one of the old Tyco trucks to use the coupler on Henry because his original coupler was in essence not compatible with the Tyco horn couplers. Now we have a couple problems. 1 Henry didn’t seem to have problems at first but now his front wheel set seems looser to me and they keep derailing. I suspected our 18inch curves may be to much for him. I think I could remove his front wheel set but I hate to have to seriously modify our only brand new engine. Is there another fix for this issue without investing in all new track? 2 partially because of Henry’s issues my son really wants to run the old Tyco Chattanooga, it’s probably from the 80s, tender drive, all black has the number 638 on the side equipped with a light and smoke. The problem is the chattanooga just doesn’t want to run. I scrubbed the wheels with alcohol. Disassembled the thing to check for debris, it was actually pretty clean, I oiled the oil spot with my sewing machine oil, and reassembled it. But it is still running super rough and I’m really just shooting in the dark trying to fix it. Disassembly to look for debris or obvious issues was my last hope, so now I need advise. It has two main problems 1) it only runs intermittently it just randomly completely stops, and light goes out, dead. A little nudge will normally get it started again where it will go for a foot then stop again. Murphy dictates that this will be behind the christmas tree (lol) Sometimes after you get it going it will circle the track a few times that is when the
The “whine”, it slows the locomotive when it occurs correct? Sounds (no pun intended) like motor brushes/bearings. Oil may help, may just mask the issue.
On “Henry”, if he did not always derail, the curve radii is not the issue. It sounds, one of a few things, most likely he has a issue of either the wheelset is out of gauge slightly (first thing to check), or it is too tightly or too loosely attatched.
If Henry derails in the same exact spot every time, check to see if the track is misaligned, such as a joiner not seated correctly.
Now, we can’t have the little guy stay disappointed, can we?
I do not have either of these models. If this is the Bachmann HO Henry, I note that it is advertized as being compatable with Bachmann EZ track, but is not recommended for anything tighter than 18" radius curves. It was a good move on your part to go with the nickle silver track, as this will cause less frustration in the future. But, on to the derailment problem.
First, check that the track doesn’t have any kinks. With your son so young, he may well push at the track or bump it with a knee. The smoothness of the curve can then take on kinks at the joints of the track pieces, and this can cause that lead truck to derail. Get down low and sight down the track to inspect for these.
Second, I suspect that the wheel sets of the engine’s lead truck can slide slightly left or right. Make sure that they do so freely. If you have access to a HO standards gauge, check the gauge of those front wheels as well - perhaps you have a hobby shop in the area that would do this for you. On many models (again, I don’t have one like yours nor did I find a photo of the underside in a quick look online) the front truck swivels and that is based on a screw mount, sometimes with a spring for centering. With the model upside-down, make sure that the entire front truck moves easily left and right.
Caution on continued running on the carpet! The electric motors create some static electricity and the little fibers from the carpet get drawn up into all phases of the mechanism. Those are usually man-made fibers that really add to friction and can lead to all sorts of problems.
As to the old Tyco tender-drive, that certainly falls into the toy train category that was not noted for quality. It sounds like you did an admirable job of checking for dirty wheels and such. You have likely tried this, but I would hold the locom
I’m not familiar with Henry. Since he’s new, he’s probably still under warranty. I’d contact Bachmann Customer Service and see what they say about it if none of the quick fix advice helps.
A good place for information on the tycos would be the Tyco forum. www.tycoforums.com There are a lot of people there who specialize in Tyco, and there are a lot of posts about the chatanooga locomotive.
Welcome, mom and son to the forum here.
I’ve had several Chatanooga and other locomotives with that same drive system. Honestly, their life expectancy is measured in hours.
As a “noob”, you speak the language pretty well, so are you familiar enough with model RRing to know what Athearn and Atlas (blue box and yellow box respectively) engines are? They can still found on eBay for bargain prices. (ask here what to look for specifically) Atlas will be more fragile.
When I was in my teens, it was an Athearn locomotive that kept me in the game after I gave up on tycos and other toy set brands. With reasonable maintanence, they will run a very long time.
Any locomotive that is going to deliver decent performance over a period of time will be those more directed at the model market, not the toy-train set market, and unless your son is exceptionally careful with his toys, these will not stand up to the naturally rough handling toys are expected to get. I’m speaking about HO scale here, I don’t know what may be available in other scales for kids.
You’d think manufactirers would come up with a sturdier drive for a toy train to make kids want to stay in the hobby rather than frusterate them out of it. This too has also been a much discussed topic over the years.
The blue box Athearns I mentioned above, are about as sturdy as you’re going to find. For a child, I wouldn’t add the details like the hand rails and such if it is a type that requires them. An F-7 type engine will not have any hand rails. If I was buying for a child, and Athearn F-7 with flywheel drive (again, in the blue box) is probably what I’d get.
These are just suggestions. Dan
Henry and Gordon are the (basically) same engine.
I don’t have Henry but I do have Gordon. Two years ago I used the 18" curve radius instead of 22" that came in the set. He was struggling to turn at a sharp angle and almost derailed. The speed was slow and not fast.
It’s recommend 22" or larger radius and Henry wouldn’t give you any problems.
Thank you so much for all your help! My rambunctious little boy has made me proud, being so careful with his new train. (relatively of course, he is still a four year old boy! We keep him under close supervision with it but I expected to be boxing this set up right away “until he’s older” but he proved me wrong) so I really want to help him get all the enjoyment out of it he can. We went to a few model railroading shows with him and he would never have left! I like how it is a hobby that can grow with him.
About Henry, Henry is the Bachmann Thomas and friends HO gauge, with eyes that move side to side. Sometimes he will make several laps around the oval at a slow to mid speed, sometimes he will barely go half way before his front wheel truck comes partially or fully off the track and cocks to one side. The pictures are of his under side, front wheel truck. You can see it has a lot of movement and swings quite freely. You can’t see it, but it has a second pivot screw on the top side of the truck (between the truck and the engine “belly”) so it will move from side to side but stay straight as well (if that makes any sense) I suppose this is probably a relatively common way to attach the front but I have very little experience so I’m not sure.
I took the front wheel truck off so I could tighten both screws and it seemed to help a little and cut down on some front end vibration he seemed to have but the derailing problem persists. The screws can’t be tightened any more they have a very loose joint intentionally, or so it seems. I don&
yes, when the whine occurs it slows the locomotive and the front light dims. The oil I put in the place marked oil near the gears did seem to help, but didn’t totally fix the problem. Is there another place that can be oiled? Or is there anything else to do about bad motor brushes/bearings?
thank you for your help. At the bottom of the thread. I’ve posted a couple pictures of “Henry’s” underside I see no spring but the front truck does move freely from side to side. I have tried running the Chattanooga, upside down, off the tracks just holding the wire to his wheels. Ever since I oiled him he is running much more smoothly this way, better than on the rails, the “stalling” stops and the whine is less frequent. Hmm thanks I didn’t know about the carpet concern I just figured it was less room to fall in the case of inevitable drops. Maybe we can lay down a cotton sheet or something. Would an indoor outdoor carpet have the same issue my son might get a kick out of the “grass”… I’ll have to think about it plywood would be a little unwieldy in our small house. Thanks again! p.s. sorry about the delay apparently because I’m new all my posts and replies are being delayed for up to 24 hours for moderation.
Thanks for all the links. I’m sure those will be very helpful.
Thanks for the engine suggestions. I know very little about model railroading right now, but I like to learn new things. I don’t know anything about the trains you mentioned but I really appreciate the suggestions and I can certainly look them up 
I really want him to be able to enjoy his trains with out the constant fuss over them if possible. Thanks again p.s. sorry for the delay because I am new my post and replies are being delayed for up to 24 hours for moderation.
For the OP. These forums are very good but you might consider looking in the Bachmann site. I am including a link to the Thomas forum. There are company reps there, a page on how to get repairs, replacing a loco, parts list, products list, etc.
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/board,4.0.html
Rich
Sounds like dirty track or dirty wheels or both, or else the track is coming loose.
Anyway,
4 year olds want to touch things. Electric trains are not really hands on. Get him the toy trains that you push with your hands on plastic or wooden track. He will love those a lot more. Wait until he is 8 to give him electric trains. When I was 4 I had the trains with the gray and the red track. I loved them. I think they make them now with Thomas locomotives.
When I was 8 my mom bought me a Lionel 0-27 electric train set for Christmas. The same year my friends all got Tyco or other cheap toy brands. They broke theirs in just a few months. My Lionel trains were built 100 times better and ran without ever a problem for several years. They held up to being played with and touched by kids constantly. HO scale is more for adults or teenagers because it requires adult patience and trouble shooting to make things run smoothly.
I have Bachmann EZ track that came with an Athearn RTR trainset (iron horse?). While it is great track to temporarily lay down, you have to be careful putting it together. The rail joiners do not always slip onto the rails and will push up the rail at the joint this creates a bump that can lead to derailments. To prevent this issue I take my time assembling the track and carefully align the rail joiners. After I set all the track up I run my finger nail along the tops of the rails to ensure it is smooth.
For a locomotive I would suggest an Athearn RTR GP40-2 or GP38-2 if your son likes diesels. They have solid metal frames and almost no delicate details. Note that Athearn recently redid their product lines, and their website reflects this. These locomotives are now listed under the roundhouse series.
Here is a link to trainworld which has some great prices. The GP40-2s they currently have are listed under Athearn RTR. I would recommend staying away from the newer RTR locomotives. Athearn has recently redesigned many with good quality details that are fragile.
You can buy pretty much everything mentionedd in the Thomas videos.
Dave
Hi there. I looked at some pictures of the Henry engine and i suspect that there is not enough weight on the front pilot wheels. Do you live near a good hobby shop? If yes, you could get weights there and some advice. You would need to super glue a piece of metal on it. For the Tyco steamer, I agree with the others, it is not worth the effort to try to fix. You could disconnect the tender, make a “dummy” engine out of it and connect it somehow on another engine. Maybe your son will enjoy pushing it around without a motor. Anyway, I hope you find a solution. Most of us here started the hobby with the support of a Train Mom or Dad, and that was the beginning of lifelong rewarding hobby… Simon
Norfolk Southern started doing steam excursions again about two years ago. They have the steam engine on the front of the train, but there are two freshly painted diesel locomotives directly behind it to provide extra power up steep grades and provide braking effort. I would suggest just getting an Athearn blue box or older RTR locomotive to put behind the Tyco steamer and take the gears out of the Tyco so it will roll freely.
I forgot to mention in my earlier post that the shells on the Athearn RTR GP38-2s and GP40-2s are easily removed and swappable. You lightly squeeze the sills and lift up on the shell. Don’t remove the four screws under the fuel tank, they hold the motor in place. New shells can be bought on eBay or at train shows for under $10.
Thanks for the link I will check it out.
Ps sorry for the delay apparently because I am new all of my posts/replies are delayed 24 hours for moderation
Thanks for your suggestions, another cleaning of the wheels did seem to help with the stopping. But the whine persists.
I do really like the “O” I was pushing for it lol, but my husband really wanted “HO” and I couldn’t argue with all the stuff we had basically for free. I’m still holding out hope to someday switch to “O” though, there is just something about the bigger engines that I really like. I have resently learned about On30 and I wonder if that could be a compromise, although it’s not an investment I’m ready to make at this time.
I don’t altogether disagree with you about his age it was something I was really hesitant about too. He does have a large wooden train and track collection that he loves to push and play with. But we thought that he might be ready to start learning how to handle more precious and delicate things. Its not really a “take it to your room” sort of “toy” more of a family thing and something I’m hoping we can all enjoy together. His age is one of the reasons I’m holding back on investing a lot on new pieces, I’m really just trying to replace what ever we really need, because it is pretty much inevitable that something will get broken, even if he’s careful he is still young, and I would rather the lesson be learned on an old Tyco box car. “Henry” was the exception because of his love and loyalty to “the big green engine” and the track was a no brainer. The old tracks my husband and brother had are already smashed up and would never have held up to jostling without being mounted which is a step I’m just not quite ready to take yet. Lets see if it is something he really gets into first.
Thanks again
Ps sorry for the delay because I am new all of my posts/replies are delayed 24 hours for moderation