Bachmann Class 40 32-475DC and 32-480DS

[andyman7]

On 25/02/2014 at 18:59, andyman7 said:

I've actually bought 2 which are at the moment in out of the box condition with factory fitted decoders in place and untweaked. They actually work satisfactorily on a fairly simple layout (my son's, which doubles as the test track...). I may have been lucky but I wanted to flag it here just in case the impression was that they were all duds, on first use at least.  

The above was comment on my original 32-475DC BR Blue spilt headcode 40 141. I had two, both of which were initially fine. They were packed away and one was later sold. A couple of years ago I dug the other one out and it wouldn't run properly so I cleaned the grease from the bearings and it was OK. There followed another period in storage, and on it's most recent outing it was very sluggish with poor pickup. 
Therefore, being well beyond the warranty period and indeed the 'brand new' period, and with subsequent releases having had the pickups modified, I finally bit the bullet with 40 141 which is having the bogie gear towers completely dismantled, degreased and relubricated plus wiper pickups soldered to the brass contacts. Having re-read this entire thread it's been slightly amusing given current prices at people fulminating at the failings in a loco costing a whole £90...anyway for me it's fully depreciated so I'm happy to sort it out myself.

[andyman7]

The job's done and the model reassembled, those wiper pickups really do make the difference (hence the modification to subsequent Bachmann 40s). You'll see I just did the front pair of driven axles; this replicates what the original (8-pin no lights) version had, which ran fine, with the benefit that the original axle bearing pickups on the final driven axle are still in place to supplement the extra current collection.

I left the other electrics alone - re-reading this thread I see that when the problem was first identified a number of people added all-wheel wiper pickups and hardwired them to the main PCB. Whilst I've no doubt this gives a belt and braces approach, for me it's clear that having eight reliable wiper pickups across the wheelbase is the gamechanger between an unreliable and a reliable mechanism.