Substituting Bachmann tenders

[OLYHI]

Is a Bachmann #89842 long vanderbilt tender compatible with a Bachmann #82501 USRA heavy mountain locomotive?  If not, is there a long vanderbilt tender that is compatible with the #82501 locomotive?

[rogertra]

The tender swapping question is constantly asked on the this group.  You could look back at old posts to find more information.

Sadly, even after numerous requests on this group, Bachmann have not standardised either the tender to loco plugs nor come up with a standardised circuit board.  Guess they don't think it's important for "Toy Trains".   

Unfortunately, I cannot help with your request as Bachmann's loco and tender part numbers mean nothing to me. 

However, you can swap tenders Providing you keep the circuit board that comes with the original tender and locomotive together and place the original circuit board in the new tender.  I and several other modellers on this group do it all the time.

Swapping circuit boards is not that difficult but would be much easier if Bachmann would listen to us and standardise both plugs and circuit boards.

Mr. Bach Man?  Over to you.

[OLYHI]

Thanks, ROGERTRA.  I'm sore tempted to go in there with a spoon and scoop out all the electronic glop and hard-wire the thing for straight DC as the gods intended.

George in Lynden

[Pacific Northern]

I have the C&0 Heavy Mountain (82503)and it comes with the long vandy tender.

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,3895.0.html

So I would assume you should not have any problems.

[OLYHI]

Well, now for sure I'm going to scoop out all that electronic glop.  I tried the 89842 tender with the 82501 heavy mountain and promptly blew the led headlight.  And the engine doesn't run, either.  It does run with the original tender so the problem is the board incompatibility.  Out it goes.  This may be the last locomotive I buy account one can't get them simple any longer.

George in Lynden

[rich1998]

Some replacement tenders do not come with a resistor on the PC board for LED headlight. There is a low value resistor to dim the light bulb headlight when the loco is put in reverse but does not protect a LED headlight.
Some new users here never think of looking through the archives , "first".
Being an former electronic technician, i always check loco and tender with a multimeter on the ohms scale.
I found this out when I bought a replacement tender. First thing I did was ring out the wiring. I swapped the wires inside the tender and put a resistor in for the headlight.
Actually, you should never attempt DCC without a multimeter on hand. I have read messages in other forums of people having quite a time trouble shooting without a multimeter.
Sorry to say it, but in many ways, DCC is not plug and play.
Your mileage may vary.
History will repeat itself you can bet.

Lex

[Atlantic Central]

Is a Bachmann #89842 long vanderbilt tender compatible with a Bachmann #82501 USRA heavy mountain locomotive?  If not, is there a long vanderbilt tender that is compatible with the #82501 locomotive?

I don't know why you had a problem, bast on my past experiance the long Vandy tender will work with ANY Spectrum USRA Heavy Mountain.

And the long vandy tender will work with the 2-6-6-2

And the Hicken tender also works with ALL Heavy Mountains and the 2-6-6-2.

While the circuit board swap solution Roger suggests is one way to go with some other locos, it is not needed here.

The tender swap thing does get complex with some of the other locos, swaping the broads is not the only answer. Only two factors effect tender wiring and compatibility - pin assignment at the connecting plugs and headlight type (LED or 12 volt bulb).

I find it much easier, to reposition the pins to the needed configuration and adapt headlight types or wiring rather than swap the whole board. Not all boards will fit in the other tenders - example - I put medium vandy tenders behind my large driver 4-6-0's. There was no way to fit the orginal 4-6-0 tender into the medium vandy tender - I repositioned the pins and replaced the LED headlight in the loco with a 12 volt lamp to match the tender wiring.

Sheldon

[rogertra]

Sheldon

Swapping pin connections never occurred to me as I thought it would be too much trouble.  Thanks for the tip. 

[Atlantic Central]

Roger, Its really easy and all the tenders have the same basic connections, they just move the pin configurations around to seperate headlights wiring and and such.

So as long as you understand that you may have to replace the headlight or ajust its circuit, swapping boards is not needed.

Sheldon

[OLYHI]

I was hoping some real person from Bachmann might weigh in on this discussion.  Guess they're content to sell their toys and let us play with words.

George in Lynden
getting ready to rewire that 4-8-2 as the gods intended.

[rogertra]

I was hoping some real person from Bachmann might weigh in on this discussion.  Guess they're content to sell their toys and let us play with words.

George in Lynden
getting ready to rewire that 4-8-2 as the gods intended.

Yeah George.  We've been asking for swappable tenders for years.

As I wrote before "Guess they don't think it's important for 'Toy Trains.'"

Still awaiting Mr. Bach Mann's response.