Slow Bachmann Voyager?

[Houndog1372]

Hey guys,

I have two Bachmann Voyagers,a 4 car Cross Country Voyager and a 5 car Virgin Tilting Super Voyager.

My Cross Country Voyager is brilliant, it's smooth and fast. However,My Super Voyager is really slow. It crawls around the layout at full speed, nothing like the cross country voyager.

Does anyone know any ways of fixing this? My layout is dc powered.

[amdaley]

Check that the wheels are clean & don't forget the backs of the wheels.

Also insure that the pickups are making good contact.

Edited January 1, 2017 by amdaley

[Houndog1372]

I have done, and the track is clean, it's just this one Voyager that is slow.

Seams I have no luck with models, I've already had to send a 8 back to manufactures this year

[RJS1977]

I picked one up secondhand a few years ago which has similar performance 'issues'. Again, usual checks such as wheel cleaning etc don't seem to have made much of a difference, so any other suggestions anyone can come up with would be much appreciated.

[Houndog1372]

I don't want to send mine back to Bachmann as I have a feeling they'll say it's fine and send it back. I've had poor service from there repairs department before when my FL 66 came back still not working.

[The Johnster]

Hey guys,

I have two Bachmann Voyagers,a 4 car Cross Country Voyager and a 5 car Virgin Tilting Super Voyager.

My Cross Country Voyager is brilliant, it's smooth and fast. However,My Super Voyager is really slow. It crawls around the layout at full speed, nothing like the cross country voyager.

Does anyone know any ways of fixing this? My layout is dc powered.

 

Think I've travelled on one of those...

[amdaley]

I don't want to send mine back to Bachmann as I have a feeling they'll say it's fine and send it back. I've had poor service from there repairs department before when my FL 66 came back still not working.

 

Lay it on its side on a table or work bench & apply voltage from your controller to each set of wheels & see if the motor runs any faster that way.

I don't have a model like it so I don't know how many motors are in it or how the various units are coupled together.

Maybe someone who has a similar set might enlighten us.

[laurenceb]

Duff motor?

[Houndog1372]

I have packaged the motorcar up to send it to Bachmann,hopefully it comes back better.

[loickebros]

Hey guys,

I have two Bachmann Voyagers,a 4 car Cross Country Voyager and a 5 car Virgin Tilting Super Voyager.

My Cross Country Voyager is brilliant, it's smooth and fast. However,My Super Voyager is really slow. It crawls around the layout at full speed, nothing like the cross country voyager.

Does anyone know any ways of fixing this? My layout is dc powered.

Motor failure is quite common on the Bachmann 221

Dave

[RJS1977]

Any tips on how to get the body off?

[srihaggis]

As far as I remember it's just 4 screws and the body pops off.

 

I have a class 220, I believe the motor is the same as the 221 & I always thought the model runs very slow indeed, but not having another to compare with I have left it as it is. Let us know how you get on performance wise in the future.

[TRAILRAGE]

My original release 220 is the same whereas my 221 is fine. Remember chatting to Rob Cooper of New Mills one day who said he stripped the motor on his to find out what he problem was and discovered the brushes were to tight causing to much friction.

 

Bearing in mind that these are probably ten year old models now and am unsure if the Bueler motors are still used as I believe they were replaced due to emissions.

 

hope any of this s helpful

 

Cheers Trailrage  

[newbryford]

Any tips on how to get the body off?

 

Four screws and sharp finger nails to get under the body clips - inserting pieces of thin card as you go

Two pairs of hands is also a useful implement..........................

[Daddyman]

I've had the same issue for years. Oddly, the model does get faster after a few laps. I wonder if that confirms or disconfirms the tight brushes diagnosis. 

[Sir TophamHatt]

I'll have to remember this.

Bought mine over 10 years ago - never been run.

Edited January 13, 2017 by anotheruser

[bensanchez43310]

Got the same problem with mine aswell, it runs slow, unlike my original release voyager... is yours the later release, i got doctor who and it runs slow as well as gradually getting slower until it gives up after 5 minutes, any known cures to this?

[Jack374]

I had this problem too with my Virgin 220, and tried everything I could, but nothing cured it. In the end I shoved in a motor taken from a Hornby class 20, cut and shut one driveshaft and took the worm gear out of the bogie without a motor connection, and it now runs round at about 150 mph quite happily! A bit extreme I know but it's worked and I can now use it properly.

 

Thanks,

Jack.

[bensanchez43310]

Any can motors people recommend to replace my Bachmann issue one with?

 

Ben

[SouthernMafia]

Sorry to dig up old threads but this seemed the most suitable.

 

Recently I've been working on my 3 Voyagers (2x220 and 1x221), DCC fitting, upgrading the lighting, and trying to run an 8-car. After a false start with trying to create a dummy 4-car set (as has been noted on RMWeb before, it seems Voyagers cannot handle more than their own weight), I now have 2 motors, chipped with the same DCC Concepts z218 chip, and after fiddling about with CVs an 8-car seems to run ok round the club layout:

 

 

After 20 minutes or so of running, all seemed well but I noted both motor coach bodies were very very warm. I whipped the body off one and found the motor, fly wheels and metal chassis were hot, the motor in particular very hot.

 

Having not run these for a long time I'm wondering if running them back in might help, but then I saw the numerous threads on here about dodgy motors, and cleaning the brushes. I might yet give this a go but I was wondering if anyone else has had similar problems, and indeed a diagnosis. Perhaps a new motor from Bachmann but at £25 or so each I'm a bit loathed to.

 

I didn't test my 221 as much as this was giving me other problems at the time.

 

[Graham Radish]

There is a cure for this, its getting slower because the protective windings in the motor are burning hot, if its 60c outside it will be 80c inside.

 

The overheating motor problem is something Bachmann or Hornby have never sorted out, but there is a cure, what you need to do is get this from ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Arctic-Thermal-Pad-6-W-mK-120-x-20-x-1-5mm-for-Intel-AMD-CPUs-No-Silver/114255283628?epid=16038982004&hash=item1a9a2545ac:g:CloAAOSwGD9e4Qpp

 

This is the only advantage ringfield motors have over sealed types, with a ringfield the movement alone cools it.

 

Theres nothing actually wrong with the motor itself but there will be very quick if you dont sort it. you need 1mm thermal pads or 2 part thermal epoxy.

 

attach a cm square of it to each side of the motor between the motor and the metal chassis, the heat will drop from about 65c right down to 30c as then the chassis becomes a very good heatsink, the motors arent heastsunk, this is a very stupid thing to do in a high speed train, in the end the stator of the motor will burn out if you dont do this. The heat just builds up until as i say, bye bye motor, this would cost Bachmann or Hornby literally pence per model to fix but theyre too lazy to do it

 

This problem lies in all farish models too. if there is no air cooling to a motor you need to add a compound/heatsink

 

or this could be planned obsolescence at it's finest.

 

regards.

Edited July 2, 2020 by Graham Radish

[wandering blue]

3 hours ago, Graham Radish said:

There is a cure for this, its getting slower because the protective windings in the motor are burning hot, if its 60c outside it will be 80c inside.

 

The overheating motor problem is something Bachmann or Hornby have never sorted out, but there is a cure, what you need to do is get this from ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Arctic-Thermal-Pad-6-W-mK-120-x-20-x-1-5mm-for-Intel-AMD-CPUs-No-Silver/114255283628?epid=16038982004&hash=item1a9a2545ac:g:CloAAOSwGD9e4Qpp

 

This is the only advantage ringfield motors have over sealed types, with a ringfield the movement alone cools it.

 

Theres nothing actually wrong with the motor itself but there will be very quick if you dont sort it. you need 1mm thermal pads or 2 part thermal epoxy.

 

attach a cm square of it to each side of the motor between the motor and the metal chassis, the heat will drop from about 65c right down to 30c as then the chassis becomes a very good heatsink, the motors arent heastsunk, this is a very stupid thing to do in a high speed train, in the end the stator of the motor will burn out if you dont do this. The heat just builds up until as i say, bye bye motor, this would cost Bachmann or Hornby literally pence per model to fix but theyre too lazy to do it

 

This problem lies in all farish models too. if there is no air cooling to a motor you need to add a compound/heatsink

 

or this could be planned obsolescence at it's finest.

 

regards.

 

Hi Graham. Any chance of a photo of the inside of your voyager to see how the heat sink is arranged? Have you glued the pad into place with 2 part thermal epoxy?

 

[Graham Radish]

Hello, the thermal pad just goes between the motor and the metal chassis of the loco, or you can use a 2 part thermal epoxy to do the same thing, the pad doesnt need to be glued as such its a gap filler, it transfers heat directly from the motors shell to the chassis.

[Pete the Elaner]

I have a 5 car 220 (I didn't know such a model existed until I saw it on sale S/H).

The train is slow, managing around a scale 60-65mph, but I noticed the coaches did not roll very freely, so I tried the motor vehicle on its own.

A centre car running around with no driving ends looks a bit strange but its speed increased to something like 100-110.

60-65 would be fine for my layout, but I am not happy that the trailer coaches are making the motor work so hard.

 

That was a few years ago & because the model is not typically what I would run, it has not been on the layout for a few years (& to be honest, I don't even know where it is).

When I do run it again, I will see what I can do to lessen the rolling resistance of the trailer vehicles.

[tarifa]

The voyager motor is hung in a dedicated plastic housing and does not touch the metal chassis.  I have 2x221 voyagers with Express lighting kits and sound fitted and both run better than scale speed.  Perhaps you could check the the collet in the flywheels as they can slip in the recess.  I have experienced this with other Bachmann motors, fixed with a drop of Locktite.

 

Mike