I had several older Bachmann trainset locos with pancake motors, they all were poor runners with jerky starts, stalls, etc., mostly due to 4-wheel pickup dropping out over frogs. I really hoped to use them on my layout. First I tried just coupling two similar ones together - this resulted in erratic tug-of-war operation. Then I tried running a pair of wires between the locos, jumping the motors together. What a difference! Now I really had created a 2-motor locomotive with 8-wheel pickup and 8-wheel drive - multiple unit style sort of like the prototype - and it ran 100% better. Smooth starts and no stalls over frogs, since the pickup trucks were now about 12" apart. I went on a frenzy and jumped two more pairs together with the same results. These locos are now “permanently” connected by the jumper wires but they are all giving service again.
That’s an old trick I’ve been using for years. I have two Atlas diesels. One runs fine but the other has pickup issues for some reason. Had it apart several times but can’t seem to correct it. So I permanently mu’d them and they run fine together.
Good to know someone’s willing to make these run well! I have some Bachmann pancake drives that are smooth runners, but I’ve also had some that I just couldn’t save. One of the pancake motors became more of a french toast motor when it caught on fire one day…
The oldest ones had heavier duty black plastic gears and motor windings, giving them more power and better reliability. I have a U36B that’s 40 years old, and still runs like new!
Thanks for the reply. I also have a pair of AHM FM-A C-liners, one powered and one dummy. The dummy has pickups on the wheels to power the headlight (a bit unusual for a dummy, but I guess AHM saved some bucks by using the same trucks in both versions). So I mu’d the two together to make it a 8-wheel pickup loco which improved its performance too. So I call this one my “cow and calf”.
I have done that with some powered and dummy locomotives owned by fellow club members. I have even installed sound decoders into the dummy units that had power pickups and ran wires to the A units with pancake motors and headlights.
No matter what kinds of tricks used, those pancake motor units will never be as smooth as a newer model with all-wheel pickup and can motors with flywheels, though.
LION MU’d F7s A-B-A and PA-1s A-A mostly to get the units closer together, but also because of the way my layout works, I needed them wired together as well. I use gaps to position trains on holding tracks, and of course you want both units to cross the gap and then shut down.
On My present railroad, I am using Proto-1000 subway cars, and I am running 6 car sets, so some trains have two power cars and others only one. Again, the driving reason for replacing the couplers with drawbars as to get the cars closer together. Indeed, each car comes with a drawbar in the package. But having done so, I also wired them all together. Can you say 48 wheel pickup.
The big problem is of course moving the train to and from the layout and the workbench. I made a pair of 4’ long foam cradles from 1/4" extruded fan fold foam sheets. They nest one inside of the other, thus not only can I carry trains to and from the bench, but I can also turn them over as a complete unit, and can slide the unit back and forth across the work bench as I work on each car. This makes management of multiple units a breeze and I recommend it to anyone who had decided to work with multiple units.
ROAR
The pancake motors are 3 pole motors. Most open frame motors used in model railroading are 5 pole. Under the best of conditions they will not run well.
Ummm…pancake motors. I can smell the ozone. Maple syrup, please.