No sound on Rocky Mountain Express

[kmd45heels]

My Wife has a Bachmann Big Haulers Rocky Mountain Express that has not been set up for quite a few years. We took it out for Christmas and I put it around the tree, but when I tried it out the sound was not working. The engine is a 4-6-0 with 25 on the cab, and the tender has Rio Grande Southern on it, I made sure the cable between the 2 was plugged in, and that the switch was on and I put in a new battery. Still no sound, can anyone give me any thing else to try?

[altterrain]

Volume dial on the bottom of the tender turned up?
Try wiggling the switch up and down in case it may be a bit corroded inside. You may want to add a drop of WD40 to it.
Down is on for the switch.
Otherwise it could be a broken wire inside.

-Brian

[Jon D. Miller]

Depending on the vintage of your Big Hauler there may not be a volume/on-off switch on the bottom of the tender.

One way to check the chuff in the tender is as follows.

Make sure the 9 volt battery is installed correctly and making contact.  If equipped, turn on the volume/on-off switch.

Now, take a very small diameter piece of wire.  Bend it into a "U" shape.
Place each end of the bent "U" shaped wire into the plug mounted on the wire coming from the tender.  Each time the wire is inserted in to the plug you should hear a chuff.  No chuff then the problem is with the sound board or wiring in the tender.

If you get a chuff using the above method then the problem is in the lcomotive.  As mentioned above, it could be the switch contacts on the back of the locomotive.  Or, a wire has come loose at the switch or at the sound drum contacts located at the front driver.  It will take a little detective work if the problem is in the locomotive. 

JD