I am very new to model railroading and have a question. I recently purchased the Bachman EZ command DCC system with the locomotive. The first week that I ran the locomotive, I had no problems. Now when I run it, the locomotive goes for a while and then suddenly hesitates (as if the brakes are being applied) and then resumes the speed that it was going. This happens about every 30 seconds and is obviously frustrating. The location along the track is random. Does anyone know what might be causing this? Thanks for your help.
Check for dirty wheels and/or track. While one week isn’t very long, if you used it alot or have a dusty area thats all it could be. Try a little Goof Off (found at Home Depot/ Menards, etc.) on a rag & wipe the tracks. Get an I Dropper & place a drop on each wheel & run it, then rewipe the track. This is what I do & my stuff runs great.
I don’t know much about DCC,but for your track cleaning, You can buy a little item that looks like a erasure its called a abrasive rubber rail cleaner made by PECO . To use it you just run it along the top surface of your tracks. It will remove gunk and dirt from your rails and improve eletrical contact , follow up with a wipe of alcohol. You can pick ,one up at your hobby shop for $3.00 . I haven’t switched to DCC yet. I plan to in the future. For cleaning my old engines, I built wheel cleaner. I took a piece of 1"x6" pine wood, cut it about 18". cut a piece of atlas track to fit. Get an old power pack from an old starter set. Sodar your wires to the track (+) and (-). Just like you would on your layout. Fasten the power pack down. I put a little light on the other end of the of track.To show , if the pack is on or off. What you do after that is find a cloth , like a piece of old pillow case .Cut it big enough to cover one set of trucks on the engine and long enough to overlap the tracks. Spray the cloth wth alcohol. Turn powerpack on hold engine to the track. The wheels turn and therefore are cleaned repeat the other side well have a good one and “getter done”.
I can’t believe that your track has gotten so dirty so fast. I would be more inclined to suspect continuity in either the loco pickups or the power supply wires to the track, including joiners if you are using EZ-Track. Take your track apart into five or six sections of two to three pieces, and see if one of the pieces sags a bit. There-in lies your problem. The joiners will splay at the point where they snug onto each rail, and they may break contact. Otherwise, invert the loco and have a close, full-light and magnified, view of the undercarriage. Check to see that the power pickups are clean, lie against where they are meant to, and that they are not broken. If they look okay, remove the cover and inspect the wiring for proper contact.
Some of this has already been said but is important to list:
DCC needs clean wheels and track. get yourself a Bright Boy track Cleaner (gritty eraser) and rubbing alcohol. Some other cleaners can leave a residue that will collect dirt quicker.
Bad joints where the rails join. If the train stalls at a spot consistantly then there is a problem with your connectors. All my joints are soldered and I have the power wires going to several sections of track.
Environment: Humidity can amplify the two above conditions
Cats, Dogs and Carpet: If you are running your train on the carpet, like around the Christmas Tree the train will pick up animal dander and capret fibres and trains don’t like that!
Loose wire in loco or between Loco and tender: If your the “techy” type and don’t mind hauling things apart then pull the shell off and check the wires. Saying that you may null and void your warranty.
On a Final Note: talk to the place you bought it and explain the problem as they might have insight or are willing to take it back under warranty. If they won’t take it back call Bachmann and talk to their service department, They can be hard to get through to at times but they are a really good bunch to deal with and I can’t say enough about there response to a problem I had a couple of years ago, which they remedied.
not too familiar with DCC But might it be a faulty decoder?..after running 30 secs or so …heats up… causes higher resistance in voltage controller on the decoder…passing less voltage… thus slowing down motor?