Bought an older Bachman 2-8-0 on ebay, and I figure its older because it was the original spectrum edition. I added a decoder to get it running. However it’s quit noisy, lots of motor hum, and what sounds like gear noise.
Question is are the older bachmans normaly noisey? Or will a good lube job help this out? Also the motor hum is pretty loud, can I remotor this for a quiter one?? The slow speed contrl seems to be pretty jerkey, is this typical?
I ask all these questions because I have a bachman berkshire and the motor is quiet and low speed control is excellent. Did bachman change the drive train components recently or is this just a sign of age and need of a tune up? I hear people talking about what a great little engine the 2-8-0 is. Just trying to get a base line of where I need to start.
The original Spectrum model came in a large blackbox - It is really no different than the current ‘DCC On Board’ and ‘Sound On Board’ engines. I have a pair of the original ones and they have the older ‘DCC Only’ Sountraxx decoders in them - Very good runners. Idid have one start to make some noise - It was the cog belt. It had taken a ‘set’ from being in the box for over a year. I contacted Bachmann and ordered 3 belts(future use…)
Remove the decoder and run it on DC - Does it still operate ‘jerky’? If so, the cog belt may have taken a ‘set’ like mine. If the problem goes away:
Bad Decoder
The C1 capacitor for noise supression is causing the problem. Remove it.
No! It should not be noisy! Is it original DCC equipped? If it is, or have some other equally crappy decoder, then you have your humming, gear sound etc. explained!
Its the older in a big black box and it ran ok in dc, but took alot of juice to get it going. I have a esu lokopilot 54611 v4.0, the hum is noticably less than with a digitrax decoder. The engine was in mint with little to no signs of use. It looks like it has set in a box a long time so the cog belt sounds like a good place to start. I was planning on giving the drive train a good clean/lube. This is my first fix up as most of my locos are mostly new so I haven’t dived this far into a loco yet.
It sounds like Labelle oil is good for this. Would a medium plastic compatible oil be enough for most of my uses??
Thanks for the links on the capacitor, looks like that might be a culprit as well! Mine appears to be the older version that requires it to be cut as I’m using a modern esu decoder.
I went online to bachman but they are out of drive belts. Does anyone know if this is a standard item or are there aftermarket sources?
Thanks again for the help. I’m on the road for business but looks like I have a couple good ideas to get working on when I get home.