I purchased my first n scale trains the other day, a plymouth diesel and an 0-6-0 pennsylvania switcher with slope tender, both from bachmann. the plymouth has already proved to be perfect;runs nice at slow speeds, has a headlight, and pulls all the boxcars that is asked of it. the 0-6-0, on the other hand, has been trouble as soon as i opened the box. it was extremely hard to change the couplers, it stops on most of the turnouts, and wont even pull 3 boxcars up the gradients on my layout.
long story short, is there any good,cheap,small(0-6-0 or smaller, with or without tender) steam locos that you would recommened? something good on gradients. thanks for the help.
Without going into specific brands, my recommendation is to look for steam locos that have BOTH driver and tender electrical pick-up. You steamer is stalling on the turnouts (I’m guessing you use Atlas ones with a plastic frog) because the loco driver wheelbase is too short to span the short dead section of the turnout’s plastic frog. A tender pick-up will power the loco past the frog and the loco drivers will power it the rest of the way. Using another company’s turnout that doesn’t have a dead section at the frog may eliminate the problem. Peco turnouts are good.
As to pulling power, some are better than others. Check yours to see if it has a rubber traction tire on one axle of the drivers. If it has one, the rubber tire may not be doing it’s job and may need replacement. Also view the loco from low on one side to see if it sits fairly level on all drivers. Sometimes, there is a little too much wieght on one end of the loco and it causes one of the loco axles to lift up enough to lose traction. Sometimes it’s the drawbar to the tender putting pressure on the back of the loco. Correct the problem by adding weight to the high end and the loco should pull better.
Without traction tires on at least one axle, the only good way to increase traction (after making sure the loco wheels are really CLEAN and level) is to add weight somehow. But be careful that you don’t put too much weight too far forward or back, as that might be enough to lift one of the driver axles again.
I have one 0-4-0 slope tender loco, without traction tires. It is one of the BETTER pulling locos I have! I can always count on it in helper service, but it sure looks funny with a little 0-4-0 pulling a big 4-8-4 up the grade! LOL I don’t know who made it. I think it’s an old Rapido, maybe Model Power (?) although I don’t think Model Power made a little switcher like that. It’s so small that when I conv
my 0-6-0 HAS got tender and driver pickup! i geuss that means something is not working right, maybe putting a dime or two in the tender for weight might help it.ill keep an eye out for 0-4-0s though… you never can have too many steam engines [:)]
It would seem that you have dirty wipers, wheels, or a broken wire from the wipers to the motor, and probably in the tender. If your track is clean, then those are the most likely faults.
corksean12: My first comment is the fact that eventhough it is new it sound like the
Bachman is still that early version that was produced years ago. Not a good drive mechanism with little or no pulling power. In fact they will burn out in about two years. Most of my early Bachman N scale was’t very good. I tried N scale during professional school because of time space and money twenty five years ago, left HO because of space. I did purchase some Riverrossi diseals and Con-Cor diseals and steamers and what a difference. Atlas, Kato, same thing, the running and pulling power was truly magnificent compared to Bachman.
It costs more but the invesment is worth it. No frustrations, good smooth running, and power to pull trains.
By the way, every Bachman engine has burned out, and won’t even run, just sittling on the shelf.
Gandy Dancer
WTRR