stmartins

Silver Sidelines

I hate criticising Manufacturers too but they do have a duty to accept things do go wrong.My friend who has had 2 with the same problem spoke to their service people and there was an admission "some had gone out with oversize wheels" 

I feel if they get a complaint they should react to it and rectify it with the correct wheels especially if they do not have the labour content to pay for

Like you I am a bit of a succour for punishment as I am awaiting delivery of the new compound which I hope will restore Bachmann up the pecking order on quality

Well after a week of good running a friend came over to have a couple of DCC locos tweaked and see the mighty Pullman in action with sound.All ran well then after around 6 runs the lights flickered and the loco stalled, then off it went again. I then noticed it had no tail lights so parked it in the sidings. I tried all the normal buttons on my controller to see if it was a chip problem . On removing the loco ( those who have this model will know what fun it is) I could hear a rattle in the body.On removing the body ( now the 6th time) I could see the fault as the cradle that holds the 3 L.E.D.S. had come unglued from the body. On closer examination the amount of glue on this fitment would not have held a fairy onto the body let alone a plastic moulding. Bachmann really have disappointed me with this model as I have over 20 locos of theirs and this is the most expensive and sadly the most troublesome. I hope they feed back to the factory as I know 2 people who have now returned this model due to inability to run properly

Incidently you may be/or not  aware Bachmann had a recall on Aberdonian and it went back to China for a upgraded motor. I sent mine back and it came back worse with bits missing so one reason for doing it yourself!!

I have cheated for a long time as my layout, due to the size has a sharp incline and 3 years ago I came up with a powered brake coach. It is composed of a Bachmann chassis dropped into a 57ft Hornby brake coach so with DCC I was able to recode the coach to the Loco pulling its number and operate with a 12 coach load with minimum effort. Cheating but saves double heading and also looks good

What a good article and it mirrors my findings.I too have had problems with my Pullman and a friend has had the same. On mine the table lights on the the last car did not work and the roof light did not work on car A. As I was putting a sound chip and passengers in the coaches I was not unduly bothered. On stripping the offending coaches the roof light fault was caused by the reflective material not being cut properly and insulating the the copper contact from the pick up. This was cut back and the roof lights burst into life. The table light fault was traced to a broken wire that was trapped under one of the body securing screws and had twisted and broke. Again an easy job to rectify. On running the loco on the test bed car A was quiet but the rear power car was very noisy and did not require a sound chip!!

After a good hours run and coupling the beast ( those who have one will know what I mean)  I started to run it on the main line. 1st left hand point, off it came and then every left hand point. I spoke to my colleague who also had just bought one and his was identical. We took both units to a friends layout  and the same happened, on each left hand point off it came.

On taking it home and with a strong light and patience I watch it creep over the point and it looked as if the rods in front of the wheel were riding over the diamond and de-railing the loco. On checking the back to back the front leading bogies were 15. and the trailing 14.95 and the same on the rear drive car.Thinking to would be a simple matter of pushing the wheels onto the axle I stripped the loco wheels out and tried. Well they are either pressed on or glued as I could not move them even in a vice. The axles are as described in 2 pieces and the only way I could improve them was to pull them out of the plastic worm and gently grind down the part that went into the worm. After much care I have ended up at 14.5 and It runs like a dream and floats over the points. I did write to Bachmann asking them if they were aware of any issues as 2 out of 2 locally  rings bells on quality, but they have not replied. My friend is sending his back to Liverpool as his view is you should not have to self repair and if the same happens on the replacement he is going to cancel the order.

With these units costing