Old Big Hauler, need Big Help w/Batt.-R/C

Garden Railroading
1

Hello all,

This is my official plea for “HELP”![8)]

My 10-year-old son was given an old Bachmann R/C Big Hauler (love at first sight). It must be an original with plastic everything (even wheels), but aside from the dust it is in really good shape. But I have no idea what I am looking at, never ever having worked G-scale before…! (Although it is a pretty nice looking train!) I’ve never even worked with R/C…

It is marked as a 49mhz R/C unit, but did not come with a R/C transmitter. With fresh batteries (6-D) it runs fine - light, sound - and it is not set up for smoke…

These are my three (for now…[%-)]) questions. (Any and all help would be appreciated…)

  • Inside the front smoke chamber plate, there is a place for an on/off switch, but no switch. What is this switch for? Is it for turning on/off the RC? (The on/off switch on the back of the cab makes it run from the batteries.)

  • There is a full circuit board inside the steam chamber; if it isn’t for R/C, what is it for? I see the batteries, motor, and light are hooked to it, and it probably controls the sound, but does it control the R/C also? (As I said, it is a full board so it must be doing more than making a ‘chuf’ sound…)

2

http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips1/big_hauler_tips.html#rc

this site has some information which may help

3

  1. Sometimes smoke, but best guess on that one is a replacement smokebox front.

  2. Sound board was often in the smokebox, radio boards on main chassis.

  3. no.

Problem is, there were variations, and the last ones, done under contract, were track-powered units with battery chassis. Sound in the tender and all.

I have seen all sorts of wiring variations, placement changes in ones I have SCRAPPED for parts.

There are NO PARTS at Bachmann for these, so anything you find will be in someone’s junk-box.

I am trying to think if I’ve ever seen one with smoke…probably, but don’t recall. Would absolutely kill the batteries.

4

I am trying to think if I’ve ever seen one with smoke…

I’ve got one, it’s quite old. I know I’ve had it from at least 1990, probably earlier. I don’t recall if I ever used the smoke unit, but I seem to recall seeing it and not being overly impressed. I think the smoke should come out in chuffs, and this one simply came out like smoke out of a chimmney.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a similiar question. Can you rebuild these? I seem to recall somebody one the net was selling parts, anyone know the URL for that site? Mine is r/c and while I have the transmitter, it no longer works. The engine doesn’t run that well either, starting and stopping in fits and spurts.

Still, I like the blue and green color scheme, and would like to return this one to operation. Is there any other option beside picking up a new one?