So I bought momma a steamer, a Spectrum 2-8-0 and have been quite pleased with the little thing. Good sound, good pull and nice slow speed op. But as with any steamer I’ve ever had there is a problem. Actually not the loco itself, it tracks nicely, but the front truck of the tender. For some reason it keeps derailing and some inspection shows that it actually picks up off the tracks from time to time. Snugging the screw that holds on the drawbar seemed to help. So, I’m fairly sure some fine tuning will help cure the problem but I’m not sure what the next step should be. Things I’ve considered: add weight to the tender particularily over the front truck, maybe ream the hole in the drawbar but theres not much material there. Also I’m not positive that the wiring between tender and engine is flexible enough, mainly the larger bundle. Anyone else play this game and have an idea?
It’s probably the wires between the tender and back of the loco that are causing the problem. Sometimes the easiest cure is to disconnect the tender and reroute the wires around the drawbar.
I assume the wires between the engine and the tender lift up the tender.
There are two possible solutions.
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The first and easy is to reroute the wires and make sure they press the tender down instead of lifting the tender up.
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The second one takes some minutes to do. Open the tender and glue weight into it. You will find plenty of free space. The tender needs weight to fight the wires successful.
I have that same problem with my Spectrum J class 4-8-4’s but they employ a different type of draw bar. I choose to make my won draw bars as I posted the same question you did on the Bachmann site and was advised by a member to use PCS draw bars. I had some scrap pieces of delran laying around and just copied the one I saw on their website. I also added weight to the front of the tender and the pilot truck. You’ll be surprised at how much a difference a little bit of weight will make. If memory serves me correctly I think I added only 1oz. to the front of the tender and .25oz to the pilot truck.
This is a very common problem with many of the Spectrum steamers.
Thankfully the cure is relatively easy.
As mentioned the wiring between the engine and tender is usually the main fault. It is unfortunately more of a trial and error exercise of removing/loosing the tender body from its frame and lengthening the wires and/or rerouting the wiring. Also adding weight to the front tender truck is also a good practice…
Another common problem of the tender derailing is when/if the wiring is too long and catches on the track.
I would advise that you check the Bachmann site, lot of discussion and information there.
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,3118.0.html
Note too that the Spectrum engines have an apron that folds down from the rear of the cab to connect to the deck of the tender. If you’re not careful the apron can get caught under the lip in front of the tender deck and lift up the front of the tender. I always try to fold up the apron, put the engine on the track, then reach in with a screwdriver or pencil and lower the apron so it’s laying flat on top of the deck.
I have a 2-6-6-2 and the front truck of the tender lifts. For me, after much looking, I found that the draw bar hit the flange where the axel entered the wheels. I bent a hook in the draw bar and that solved the problem, but now the draw bar is too short. I will fabricate a new draw bar and hope that is enough.
Hi!
This problem has been discussed before, and I had the same problem with my Spectrum. All of the above advice is good, and will help fix the problem. There is one other thing that worked for me. The drawbar kept wanting to slip down on the loco pin, thus attempting to pivot the front of the tender upwards. It was suggested to take a piece - a very small piece - of wire spaghetti (wire insulation) and snug it over the end of the pin, after of course the drawbar has been placed. You still want play in it, but this will keep it on the upper end of the pin.
Mobilman44
That is what I have done on my Spectrums, I also weighed the tender a bit as it is way too light.
Note too that for whatever reason, which hole you use to connect the tender and engine can make a difference, even if you’re running a large enough min radius that it shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve had Spectrum engines that regularly derailed over 30" R curves when close-coupled, possible because of the wire connection being too stiff or something. Switching to the farther hole (generally required for tight curves) seems to eliminate the problem, so I just go with the wider spacing.