drewn

Hi guys, 

I'm trying to scource 2mm lighthouse type, flashing led's , suitable for 3volts

Any one help?/

Drew

Yes, It's a  resin cast but not too heavy and the wagon runs fine.

 

VDA & OBA at Springburn Yard 001.JPG

Alcanman,

Thanks for the info

DREW

Hi there,

Can anyone tell me what the actual timber load is made from?  The reason I ask is that I once bought a Hornby timber carrier and had to use a Ten Commandments load, made of resin.  This was  much too heavy and rendered the wagon too top-heavy 

Is the load on the Bachmann model the same material ???

Had the very same problem with my Bachmann 101's.  They were picking ip juice from the power bogie wheels but only intermittently from the trailing bogie.

 

See my solution here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/70508-Bachmann-dmu-pick-ups/?p=1947576 which has cured it.

cravensdmufan,

Thanks , I read your piece and looks to be exactly what I need.. The main problem I've got is when the dmu crosses the diamond crossing. I had shorting issues in the past, and ended up coating much of the crossings with nail varnish.

This cures the shorting but I need to have two bogies effectively picking up power.

So, while I don't necessarily need the trailer car to pick up power  ( it would be nice if it did) I definitely need the power car bogies to perform better.

Thanks 

Drew

You're right, I hadn't noticed that before because the trailer lights don't work if not connected to the power car.

 

However, as the connector between the two cars only has two poles it doesn't appear to be able to feed power back to the motor.

giz,

I agree with your last point. Unfortunately, it means that pickups are only effective on the power car, ideally on 4 axles, but with mine, two of them are intermittent which leads us back to the earlier point that some bedding-in, or polishing-up might be the solution!

Drew

As far as I know the electrical connection between the two cars only powers the trailer lights allowing for only one dcc decoder in the power car. There are no pickups on the trailer.gGiiz,

giz,

Sorry but there ARE pickups on all 4 axles on the trailer. The trailer lights, I assume, are fed via the tow bar wiring

Drew

There's no electrical connection between cars on the very similar 105, 108 and lightweight DMU sets that I have seen.

 

Does new mean a very recent purchase that has had little running? If so, just give them an hour or two of running to polish up all the contact surfaces in the conduction paths.

 

I have soldered on thin wire connections to the pick ups (that's personal preference over rubbing connections for long term reliability).

 

The pick up from the pinpoints has given no trouble at all, and that applies to both the MU's and the Pullman cars which share the same arrangement. I haven't lubricated them either, since they are very free rolling as supplied. Check for accumulations of dirt or fibres.

The loco is recently purchased and has NOT run too much , so you may be right about the "polishing up"  aspect. 

I might just leave it for a while and see if it improves

Thanks

Drew

Hi guys,  

As an owner of many Bachmann locos I am becoming more and more disappointed with certain aspects of their performance.

I have a new class 101 DMU which tends to stutter badly over points, etc.  Having checked continuity with a meter I find that there is next to none between the two bogies on the power car.  One problem seems to be the rubbing contacts between the brass pickups and the PCB  ( I see that in previous posts this was overcome by inserting a small spacer which increases pressure between the two, or by soldering wires between the pickup and the pcb)

Also, the continuity between the brass pickups and the axle bushes is extremely poor. - Not sure how to overcome this!!

All things considered, I find the whole pickup design poor and find it strange that something more robust has not been designed by Bachmann.  

By the way, there is no continuity between the powercar and the trailing car.   Haven't opened the trailing car up yet but I'm assuming its wheels should be electrically connected to the power car.

Any suggestions guys

Drew

Here' s an update on what I've found!

1. It was a SHORTING problem, not an OPEN CIRCUIT problem.

2. I proved this by applying insulating tape over the complete middle section of the diamond, the loco traversed it without stopping.

3.I ended up applying nail varnish to that area and left to dry.

The loco now travels over the crossing with only a slight hesitation, no shorting apparently.

This fix works perfectly for my two sound chipped CO- cO locos, but only 90% successful on my  Bo-Bo loco.

The hesitation I can live with as the crossing is situated behind a backscene and so out of sight.

So basically, I'm going to leave it as it now stands, rather than replace track, etc.

Thanks to everyone for their help

Drew

Guys,

 

Still having problems with peco crossings. Not short circuits, as I thought, but at the centre of the crossing there is a space of approximately 20mm where the loco wheels cease to make contact with the rails and instead, run on the plastic inserts.

 

Obviously, causing an open circuit. 

 

Only the momentum of the loco helps it to traverse this area but a slow moving loco just stops.

 

With sound fitted locos, the sound obviously shuts down for a second or so.

 

I do not want to fit electrofrogs if I can help it, but surely this is a serious design flaw????

 

Any cures in mind?

 

Drew

Just had an afterthought, I have NOT yet checked that ALL pickups are working !

Obviously, if they  are, that should overcome the fact that other wheels are not in contact with the rails.

Must check that out next

Drew

Guys,

Still having problems with peco crossings. Not short circuits, as I thought, but at the centre of the crossing there is a space of approximately 20mm where the loco wheels cease to make contact with the rails and instead, run on the plastic inserts.

Obviously, causing an open circuit. 

Only the momentum of the loco helps it to traverse this area but a slow moving loco just stops.

With sound fitted locos, the sound obviously shuts down for a second or so.

I do not want to fit electrofrogs if I can help it, but surely this is a serious design flaw????

Any cures in mind?

Drew

Is the loco set to shunting mode - ie F7? selected?  The appropriate F key depends on the decoder model and will be identified in the decoder manual.  Shunting mode reduces the running speed to about 50% and also affects CVs 3 and 4 (accelleration/deceleration)

Guys,

I tried a factory reset on the decoder to no avail. But I then found a spare decoder in my "yad" box and fitted it.

Lo and behold, the loco now performs well, pulling a 20 wagon freight train at setting 12, at a scale speed of 60mph.

So it looks like it was a dodgy decoder which has now been relegated ( and labelled) in the "yad" box!

Thanks for your help as always

Drew 

Hi guys,

I have a Bachmann class 25 which seems to run extremely slowly! I have to run it at setting 28 on my NCE Powercab controller, where othere locos run at anything from 4 to 12!

I have checked CV5 and found that it is 255 which I understand to be the max. setting.

Given that it is the max setting, is there any way I can increase the running speed of the loco?

No need because you have already done it.

 

a 75' Mk3 would have to move faster than a 57' LMS coach to pass the same point in 1 second.

Using 1 coach is also a little short to get any accuracy.

I just selected a fixed length of track,  6ft to be exact, measured the time  taken to travel over it in seconds then extrapolated into  12in.: 1ft speed.  

(Thanks for giving me the chance to use the word "extrapolated")

I don't have any IRDOT-P units installed but I do have around 80 other IRDOT units installed and working, plus my first Heathcote uncoupler unit and I can happily recommend their products (no connection etc). I have a semi-automated fiddle yard in which the rear trains move up when the front ones are released; about 20 of these roads are just 2 trains long, but I have recently converted 2 roads to "light engine" roads and one holds 6 locos whilst the other holds 9. Once the first loco is released the others each move up in turn after a short delay (these are based on IRDOT-2D units); it all works very well.

 

I have solved the problem that Matt mentions, in that I have two fiddle yards that are underneath other structures and in these cases I have painted the underside of the boards above with dark brown matt emulsion paint which does not reflect, and so the IRDOT units work perfectly.

 

I can't see any reason why an IRDOT-P would not work as well as their other units do.

 

Tony

Thanks guys,

I might just go ahead and invest

Drew

An alternative to this is to make your own speed trap.

Measure a section of your layout & use the formula for speed: distance/time. The distance will not change so you can compile a lookup table to measure the speed at different throttle settings.

Actually guys, 

I've measured the scale speed of this loco and it manages about 20mph. Which of course is pretty good.

So I'll leave it at that.

Thanks for replies

Drew

Hi guys,

Has anyone out there installed and used the Heathcote Electronics IRDOT-P unit?

Seems a good way to alternate train running but I'm wondering if there are any down sides .

Drew

I've got a Bachie 08 which I feel needs to run a little  faster.  I have a Powercab controller and when I tried to adjust CV5, the max voltage Cv, I was told it could not read the value.

  I can read and adjust others, like CV3 &CV4.

So why does it  only read certain CV's ?

Secondly, I've read about "yard" running  but I can't find the bit in the manual to check if indeed it is on yard running!

Am I missing something obvious ?

Good news guys,   PROBLEM SOLVED !

I ordered a new curly lead from DCC Concepts, received it within 24 hrs, and everything is working just fine 

Thanks for all your help 

DREW

Bit of an update guys.

I had an intermittent problem with my Powercab and replaced the lead earlier today.

Lo and behold, I can now increase the CV63 value no problem.

So the problem was the controller lead and not the soundchip

Thanks for comments

Drew

Have you spoken to or contacted SWD? I'd call this fairly basic product support.

Olddudders,

I've sent an email off to them this morning.  THanks

Drew

Hi guys,

I have a loco with a SWD ESU Loksound chip.  The volume is very low, and having read various reports, I thought that adjustment of CV63 would solve the problem. BUT IT DOESN'T!

When I look at the current setting of CV63 - it's at 007.

I tried to input a new , higher setting but it always defaults to 007 ! As if that is the maximum setting.

Any ideas chaps?

Hi there,

I'm having a few problems with my NCE Powercab.  As I move around with the controller, there seems to be intermittent breaks in the supply. ie. the Powercab display goes completely blank until I "jiggle" it about a bit. Obviously during such breaks, everything stops! 

 I suspect it is a fault where the cable goes into the connector at the base of the Powercab. (It's not particularly well strengthened)

Is this a common problem?

Is it worth my replacing the cable ?

Any ideas guys?

Thank Goodness it's not just my layout this happens on. My Bachmann coaches are trained , not to follow the loco, but to run backwards, usually to a point in a tunnel or to somewhere with limited accessibility.   Certainly can't criticise the low friction aspects of Bachie coaches!!!

Guys,

I've applied a small dollop of nail varnish to the crossing ( bright purple , would you believe. It's ok , the crossing is behind the backscene)

The offending loco now runs over the crossing without a blip, although at very slow speed it still tends to short. But for normal running speed, it seems ok.

An added bonus is - I might start wearing purple nail varnish - - -  then again maybe not!!!!!

Thanks for advice

Drew