Problems with 4-4-0

[canpac]

Dear Bach-Man and everyone else out there........Just received a Bachmann 28322 4-4-0 outside frame steam locomotive and cannot get it to operate in either direction. Light does not come on either. Nice gift but no response when I put power to it. Am testing on a DC test track. Other Bachmann DCC locomotives work well on same test track. Do I have a dud or am I missing something here ? Any suggestions ? Thanks and Merry Christmas. Michael

[railtwister]

canpac,

When you tried to run the loco on DC, did the headlight come on in either direction? If not, there may be a bad connection, or the DCC/DC board may be loose (or removed) from the socket. Another possibility is that the loco may not be set to factory defaults. Since the loco comes with a DCC decoder installed, the default setting should be to have the analog feature enabled (so that the loco can run on DC as well as DCC), and the default DCC address should be 03. If either of these settings have been changed, it could be the cause of your problems. Try running the loco on DCC at address 03. If it runs, then probably the decoder's analog capability has been disabled. If it still won't run, try putting it on the program track and changing the address to 03. If it still won't work, and you've checked inside the tender to make sure the decoder is installed and well seated, you might try plugging in a different decoder that is known to be working, or , you can try putting a dummy plug into the socket and testing the loco on DC. If it runs with the dummy plug you may have a decoder issue. Some types of DC power packs put out a pulse power that can confuse a decoder that is trying to determine if it should run in DC or DCC mode. If that has happened, you'll need to reset the decoder to factory defaults, which must be done with a DCC system. If all you really want to do is run on DC anyway, just use the dummy plug in the socket instead of the decoder.

Good luck,
Bill in FL

[canpac]

To Bill in Florida....Thanks for the advice. I will keep nit for further reference. I am now able to operate this locomotive after discovering the cables from the tender to the locomotive were partially out of their connectors. Have made them right and reconnected aaaaand we have action on the rails. Merry Christmas to all and to you Bill especially. Michael

[railtwister]

Hi Michael,

Glad you got it figured out, and it was a simple fix. Those little plugs can be a pain, be especially careful when unplugging them, it's very easy to break a wire out of the plug.

Merry Christmas,
Bill in FL