Consolidation problem

[florynow]

I've got two black box DCC-with-sound ones about 4 years old, beautiful engines that were the mainstay of the MP branchline they served well, until now.

About a month ago one began to lose power, for lack of a better way to put it.  Its pulling power diminished very noticeably and its speed would sag going through No. 5 switches.  The chuff would continue to accelerate.  I could compare its performance to the second one but, a couple of days ago, the second one began to act much the same.

The road is running with 4-4-0's and 4-6-0's, like the Cotton Belt did forever, and needs these engines back.

It seems like the motor magnet has suffered, to me.  Anyone else experience this problem and maybe know what it is?

The track and wheels have been surgically cleaned, so it's not either of those issues.

PF

[Jim Banner]

There were some 2-8-0's produced with a flaw in the frame casting that allowed the jack shaft bushings to tip.  This led to premature failure of the bushings which allowed the jack shaft to move longitudinally and wear the casting, increasing the jack shaft's end play enough that the cogged belt started rubbing against the casting, producing effects like you have noticed.  My solution was to make up some new bushings that included an enlarged end that abutted the jack shaft pulley and controlled end play that way.  Because of the wear in the frame casting and the original flaw, the easiest way to secure the bushings was to epoxy them in place.  If your problem is similar, you might consider returning your 2-8-0's to Bachmann for repair, particularly if they are under warranty.

The alert reader will be wondering by now why I do not follow my own advice.  The 2-8-0's that I repair are ones used by our Saskatoon Railroad Modellers group in a public display at our local museum.  We consider that as "commercial use" and do not expect warranty coverage on a product designed for personal use.  Besides I was lucky enough to learn the skills during my career and luckier still to still have access to the necessary machine tools.  To give Bachmann their due, we keep using these locomotives because they are like the Energizer Bunny - they keep going and going and going.  They last for tens of thousands of trips around our layout, each trip initiated by simply turning the power on (no gentle acceleration) and ending with the power being abruptly turned off (no gentle deceleration either.)  We have tried other brands of locomotives but they have failed in a month or two, with one brand failing in less than a week.  With our Bachmann 2-8-0's we expect and normally get two years or more of trouble free operation.  We had two units with the problem mentioned above, both bought at the same time from the same dealer.  To me, that is indicates there may be more of them out there.  For our group, two less than perfect Bachmann locomotives in 20 years is a good track record, particularly when the "bad" locomotives lasted 3 times as long as the next best brand.

Jim

[jonathan]

If it were me, I would open up the motor/frame assembly and have look.  Twice I have had Connies with your symptoms and it turned out to be a split belt, in both situations.  It's a $3 (US) part and easily replaced (my opnion of course).

Couldn't hurt to look.

For the problem Jim mentioned, It is possible to order a new motor assembly from parts, and do the replacement yourself.  You would need the whole motor/frame assembly ($25 I think), not just the motor.  Also an easy repair, if a bit pricier.  However, givien the rareness and coolness of the Sound Consolidation, I would do whatever it take to get it running right.

I wish I had Jim's skill for making parts like bushings.  Now that's serious model railroading.

Regards,

Jonathan