Bachmann 10001 Noisy Runner

[drgj]

I have owned this loco from new and ran it in carefully but it is quite noisy at a certain speed. If I take the body off the chassis is  very much quieter. I am thinking that the body is amplifying the noise  which sounds like a loose,  dry bearing, or some kind of vibration  that suddenly comes on at a certain speed. I have been right through this loco and lubricated everything.  I refitted the body and tried gripping it to try and damp the vibration as the loco went along but this made no difference.

 

I wonder if anyone has had a similar experience with a Bachmann centre motor loco? They are all quite similar.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

 

 

[Monkey28]

Just got a brand new 10001 and it runs very quietly straight from the box and very smoothly .Is yours a new model or the previous release? 

 

Maybe it's a bearing that you have missed with the oil .

 

have you put a very small amount of lubricant on the motor bearings? 

 

I don't usually have any trouble with Bachmann locos but did have a Hornby class 56 with a similar issue to what you describe. Despite oiling the bearings and everything I could not find the problem sent it to Hornby and they said that it was a dry bearing somewhere .

Edited January 1, 2021 by Monkey28

[drgj]

Thanks for the reply.

 

Mine is a Green with small yellow panel. I bought it a few years ago. I  did put some oil on the motor bearings but this wasn't easy unless I missed something. The class 40 I  own has some holes underneath for this purpose but with the  10001 I had to dismantle the whole thing (and it made no difference).  I examined everything and couldn't find any damaged gears, etc.  It actually runs very smoothly, funnily enough.

 

Dave

Edited January 2, 2021 by drgj

[Monkey28]

maybe ask Bachmann if they have any ideas or send it to the service department if its that bad 

[drgj]

I suppose that is the only option now. 

Dave

[peterfgf]

Most probably a dry bearing. 
Plastic body shells are very good amplifiers of noise and anything you do to it with it will not attenuate the noise.  If you want to reduce the noise that way you have to add lots of mass (think of cast metal body shells or something akin to lead sheets for walls) and block up absolutely every hole around the motor.  Far better to reduce the noise at source (i.e. the bearings or maybe the gears).

Peterfgf

 

[Barry Ten]

One of my LMS twins is noisier than the other. I tried lubricating where I could access without major disassembly but it didn't make much difference.

[drgj]

Thanks for the new replies from Barry and Peter.  I thought of putting foam inside the body but because gripping the body when running didn't dampen the noise I thought it would make no difference.