I am seeking assistance with a puzzling development concerning my A-B-A set of Bachmann DCC on board RF16 sharks and incidentally my avatar. I have run them regularly on my DC layout with no problems until yesterday when they started making intermittent grinding noises. I took them apart, lubed and replaced on the tracks. At this point I noticed that the headlights on the A units worked at start up but would go out after about 20 feet. This happened in either direction. After taking them apart again I found no obvious causes and tried them again. After awhile I switched power packs and the problem of the intermittent noises and headlight failure went away. I then powered an A-B-A set of Bachmann F7s with this suspect power pack and they ran fine in both directions with no noise or headlight issues. The power packs are MRC Tech II 2500s. So right now the A-B-A sharks are running fine on track #2 and the A-B-A F7s are running fine on track #1 and ol’ Johnny just scratching his head.
If you’re not going to run the locomotives on DCC, you should remove the decoders and install the dummy plug for DC operation only that should have been provided with the engines.
Despite advertising hype to the contrary, it is not good practice to continually run a DCC equipped locomotive only on DC power; especially not the cheap Bachmann decoders. The decoders are probably overheating and turning the lights off to conserve power.
Clean your locomotive wheels and track. The electrical interruptions and pulses caused by dirty wheels and track cause even more heat buildup in the decoders.
If you decide to run the locomotives on DCC at a later date, you should then install a better quality decoder instead of those provided by Bachmann.
The Bachmann “DCC On-Board” decoders are a very watered-down, cheap Lenz product for which Bachmann is probably not paying more than $1 or $2 each.