I know I usually praise Bachmann, but…I just can’t do it in this case.
I have an older N scale 4-8-4 Northern locomotive. It popped its valve gears the first day I had it. Since I bought it from a friend, the warrenty was void. So, last night for some odd reason…I decided to try to fix it and make it run better.
Well…This has consumed over 6 hours of my time; and what have I accomplished? Nothing to speak of. I did reassemble the valve gear using a piece of a staple to replace the missing pin. So at least all the side rods (will) work.
I have no idea how many times I am going to take apart the drive train. What was Bachmann thinking when they designed this locomotive??? Three piece axles??? If one wheel isn’t loose, then another one is. And there is so much play in the gear box that the wheels bind for no real reason.
At this very moment in time, I think I may have the wheels to the point where they will run, but not perfectly. Now I just need to put everything back together and go test. Maybe when I get around to doing so, it won’t loose another wheel or side rod…
This small little puzzle of a loco has proven to be quite a nusance, and so far my greatest challenge.
What is (or was) yours?
(A quick question for anyone who knows; how does the new series of Bachmann N scale 4-8-4 Northerns differ from the original runs?)
After a total of 10 hours invested into my Bachmann project, the locomotive is once again running.
It is running better than it had been since I have had it in my possession. Whether or not it is at the peak of its lifespan, I’m uncertain.
I am really happy with myself right now. The locomotive’s drivers are quartered, and have been tightened using a small bit of CA on the axle stubs that needed it. The side rods run fine. The motor is sort of cheap, but that’s expected from an older model. It doesn’t run all that bad on clean track. Every now and then it may need a little push, but other than that…I believe I have accomplished what I set out to do.[:D]
Wanna place a small bet the CA doesn’t hold all that long? The old 3 piece axles were a disaster in any scale. The only thing that ever came close to fixing them for any length of time that I am aware of was sanding some flats on the male ends and using 2 part epoxy to hold everything together, and you better have the quarter right to start with or it was a definite no go.
Congratulations on getting the hard part done, figuring out the basic problems and what is required for a fix. If you have to redo it now it will be easier, take heart.
They use those axles in HO/OO too, with similar results. The two Bachmann steamers I have (GWR 66xx 0-6-2 and LMS “Jubilee” class 4-6-0) both had quartering problems from new, the Jubilee had all three drive wheelsets out of gauge too. It would seem that quality control is not what it should be on a £60 loco…
Hey, thanks for the tip Virginian. I’ll have to remember that and apply it if the CA breaks loose in the near future. Hopefully, I’ll get a new chassis soon from one of the newer runs of 4-8-4s, so I’ll have a better quality loco. I was surprised however, that the CA has held quite nicely during my tests. The locomotive hit a bad piece of track (or just stalled, I don’t know), and then took off with wheels spinning at full throttle. Last time that happened, the wheels jammed, unquartered, and the one popped off. Not this time though.[:D] Maybe I’ll get a few months out of it.[:p]