Bachmann S-Stock couplers

[Signalist]

As many of you will have seen the Bachmann S-stock is a bit tricky to get running reliably as supplied when fitted with ESU sound. Having to fit traction tyres to the driven wheels rather limits pickup on the powered cars to just four wheels somewhat making the train pretty undriveable with a sound decoder in unless the track, wheels and remaining pickups are spotless.

 

Since all eight cars in an S-8 set have pickups I thought it might be a good idea to link the pickups of the intermediate cars to the power cars to provide improved current collection. The couplers appear to be similar to those fitted to the Blue Pullman - but without the electrical connections. Is it possible to get contacts for these couplers or get replacement conducting couplers? 

[Patrick Blake]

As many of you will have seen the Bachmann S-stock is a bit tricky to get running reliably as supplied when fitted with ESU sound. Having to fit traction tyres to the driven wheels rather limits pickup on the powered cars to just four wheels somewhat making the train pretty undriveable with a sound decoder in unless the track, wheels and remaining pickups are spotless.

 

Since all eight cars in an S-8 set have pickups I thought it might be a good idea to link the pickups of the intermediate cars to the power cars to provide improved current collection. The couplers appear to be similar to those fitted to the Blue Pullman - but without the electrical connections. Is it possible to get contacts for these couplers or get replacement conducting couplers? 

 

I own two 4 Car sets and have carried out modifications to both to improve performance. The contacts on the trailing cars are causing excessive drag so I removed them and I added the traction tyres. I would like to install my own interior lights and sound but the problem as you pointed out is that you can not feed electrical wires through a conductor coupling and power everything through a DCC Chip from one end.

 

Bachmann cheaped out on the option of adding more interior detailing and lighting that would be compatible with DCC with Conductor Couplings. I asked them if the same couplings with contacts could be supplied and the refused to answer. These couplings were already use before for the Bachmann Windhoff MPV. For the S Stock, they used dummy versions. I was quite annoyed when Bachmann released the Blue Pullman with the conductive couplings and DCC powered lights.

 

I can never seem to get an answer as to whether these couplings can come available as spare or be purchased separately.

[Signalist]

At the moment I am tempted to hard wire the driving and adjacent cars together in order to improve the pickups.

 

I will have to dig out the MPV and see what the contacts look like and see if something can be improvised.

[Patrick Blake]

At the moment I am tempted to hard wire the driving and adjacent cars together in order to improve the pickups.

 

I will have to dig out the MPV and see what the contacts look like and see if something can be improvised.

 

Good luck . I was tempted to buy a MPV myself to do the very same. I believe the couplings are designed to split open in the middle and the contacts sit inside. If you do attempt to have a look, feel free to post any pictures, as I will be very intrigued.

 

I may just do the very same with the dummy versions to see if I can suss out where the contacts are meant to be.