N&W Class "J"

[petdrus]

Hi guys, me again. 1st, Thx to all replies to my "gear ratio" & "its official" posts. Sadly, I now believe my N&W Class "J" needs to go to the techno nerds. After lifting the body & checking again, it is the motor that stalls, whilst the Tsunami races on full noise as if she was do'n 110mph!!! When the motor stalls, it "hums" and that cannot be good. This has now got me beat. Thx Jim, but its not the gears. Why the motor stalls under load??? Mr Bach-man, someone down under will get my "J", but could it be just the motor, or could there be something more sinister hiding??? Whilst I have had her for some time, she is a new loco. As mentioned, I have a Branchline class 55 Deltic diesel which displays very similar traits. Thx Peter.

[Stephen D. Richards]

petdrus,  sounds like your motor is binding for some reason.  i.e. the bushings are out of synch.  Or something along that line.  Probable best to either return it to Bachmann or purchase a replacement motor and refit.  Bachmann will sell motors if they have them on hand.  Several others are also available that are as good or better.  If you can take the motor out and free run it it might give you a better picture.  Then again, make sure that the gearing isn't binding anywhere as well.  Hope that helps a bit.  Stephen

[mabloodhound]

I know this is not the answer to your problem and to clarify, it was Jonathan who had mention 'Bullfrog Snot' previously, but you weren't' sure where to get it in Australia; this dealer lists it along with other items http://www.mrrc.com.au/
Just wanted to pass this on for your future reference.

[petdrus]

Thx Stephen. Checking into your idea. Yet also to check power into the motor. There seems to be something a bit more sinister happening here though, one which even Bachmann would want to be interested in. I have a Bachmann Branchline class 55 Deltic Diesel which is displaying a very similar trait. Both loco's are new, and displayed this "sluggish" behaviour out of the box. I was gifted with my "J" but never had a train for her to run. I am only now in the process of getting my "J" ready for her train, the "Powhatan Arrow" soon to be released by MTH Trains.  I will not give up on my Bachmann N&W class "J" She is truly a beautiful machine. I just want her running right. Thx mate. Peter. (footnote, this problem is beyond Bullfrog snot... I now know what it is... Thx Dave)

[munro747]

My N&W J Class is the same. No binding, no out of mesh gears etc etc. Replaced the original sound decoder with WOW. The motor has virtually no power. I bought a new motor from Bachmann, and its the same. The loco wont even wheelslip. No one at Bachmann seems to be able to give a definitive answer to the problem, and I doubt I'm the only one with this problem. I am pretty unhappy about this as I have put an unreasonable amount of time and money into the engine only to find the motor is still the problem. I just wish Bachmann would tell me how many have had the problem, and I could have saved my money and parked the Engine. Real disappointing!!

[RAM]

I wonder if anyone has tried to run these locomotive ion dc with out the decoder to see if it is the motor or decoder

[James in FL]

Hi petdrus,

The motor is getting some voltage, how much?
Have you measured the voltage at the motor brushes?
Or, it may be possible you have a broken wire in one or more poles on the armature windings.
Anyway to check this, (accessible) or is it a can motor?
Chances are higher that your problem is on the board or the decoder itself.
Maybe just be a bad connection somewhere, or a bad solder point on the board, you will have to chase that down with your multi-meter at the component level.

If possible, take RAM's suggestion and remove the decoder and see if it runs any differently on DC.

Good luck

[Brewman]

I will share my experience.
I bought a N&W J 611 set for my wife. She wanted sound so I installed a Tsunami sound decoder. I tested it on the floor at home with the track that came with the set and a Bachmann EZDCC controller. Everything worked well and we took it to my club to run. The train ran fine with the 3 cars that came with it. Over the course of a month or two she purchased three more passenger cars to go with the set. We took it to the club and the train would barely move, even stalled on the large sweeping curves. No grinding or stripping gear noises. I really thought the drive gear was slipping on the motor shaft. Brought it home and I decided to run it one more time with the track on the floor, it ran fine? Took it back to the club and same problem, it would barely move. We started to investigate further, the club uses Digitrax on the layout. We finally discovered that someone had set the power supply voltage to 12 volt output instead of 14 volt output. We switched it back to 14 volt and the locomotive ran fine. The Bachmann power supply puts out 16 volts. Either the locomotive, decoder, or both wanted more power to operate.
I hope this helps someone troubleshoot. I have some WOW Sound decoders but have not tried them at lower voltage to see the effect. I also have an N scale Challenger with factory Tsunami and it also did not run well at the 12 volt input.

Barry

[Trainman203]

Your wife wanted model railroad stuff?  Man, I've never heard of such a thing.  I'm amazed.  Most wives wish those trains weren't there at all.  They want to tear the layout down to get a sewing room.

This is a big topic worthy of a starting a new thread to not derail this one.