2-8-8-4...my favorite!

[stljeffbb]

Hello everyone.  Just spreading love for Bachmann's N scale 2-8-8-4!  I bought one about three years ago from ebay that unfortunately died, but I liked that loco so much that I bought two from BLW when they were still in stock.  Speaking of ebay, they are few and far between and as of this writing and used ones go for premium prices. Would be awesome if Bachmann released a second edition with other roads!

So, of the two, one still runs like a peach!  The other has always been a bit slower (both run exclusively on DCC) and squeaks after a while (and trust me I have lubed the outside connections and gears after 24 hours [or less] of running, but still squeaks...my hunch is I will have to take it apart and try to lube the inside portion of the gears and/or bearing blocks).

I would be interested to hear the experience from others...thanks Bachmann for such a fine model!

Jeff

[kewatin]

  in regards to the one that doesn't run ,did you try to see if it would run  on dc or do a factory reset first. perhaps its a bad decoder.ias hard as these are to find, i would try putting in a new decoder in.aslo in my experience i have found that setting cv-2 vstart from 10 to 0 makes all the difference in slow speed control &running. .if you do decide to dig into it  check out mark's spookshow , he gives a good example of what you need to do reguarding  disassembly. these are quite nicely detailed models and it is highly unlikely we will see a rerun for many yrs.what is strange many of us have been asking for a heavy mtn for yrs to no avail. also you are quit limited to what you can do with those old lentz decoders,so you would be far ahead to up grade your decoders for better programming and running access. i have started some time back upgrading my decoders as i i am liking the addition of adding sound to my layout. hope this helps you out and am sure others will chime in also.
   regards& later KEWATIN

[stljeffbb]

Hello kewatin...thanks for the reply!

The other one does still run, but it has always been a bit slower and squeaks after a while.  I mentioned gears (I know what those are) and bearing blocks (I assume this is what the axles sit on), but I might need to consider putting lube where the driveshaft meets the motor...I think they have slightly different terms in model railroading (ha ha and I don't know after 35 years).   That would mean taking the frame apart...now I've done this for some of my older locomotives over the years, but for the EM-1 I am a bit hesitant to try until I feel comfortable that I can get it back together!

...and I have enjoyed Mark's (spookshow) site for many years now....it is quite the service Mark does for the N Scale community by including the locomotive database and other N Scale pages.  Heck, I even noticed he likes board/card games (as does our seven person household; lots of games!) and I found out about the card game Dominion through his reviews.  My older kids really like it!

I have a few DC steam locomotives that do not run (ha ha you could call me a collector ), and I think I will start taking one of those apart and putting it back together just to get acclimated with steam.  I have had limited success doing this with diesels, but steam is a bit trickier for me.  One thing I have not seen too much of on youtube (maybe I am missing it somehow?) are folks taking apart and putting back together N Scale steam...I might just video record what I do and post it to help others see what it is like. 

See ya on the boards kewatin and thanks for the tips!

Jeff

[spookshow]

Hey Jeff, rock on with those table games!  

In my experience, squeaking is usually axle-related. I'd start by lubricating the driver axles where they meet the bearing blocks (unscrewing and removing the driver bottom plate to access them is no big deal). And since they conduct current, I'd go with conductalube.



If that doesn't help, I'd move on to the tender axles.

Good luck!
-Mark

[stljeffbb]

Thanks much Mark for the tips...I now know exactly what the bearing blocks are!  I had a squeaky 2-10-2 that I took the plunge (a different one than the other I mentioned in an earlier thread....hey, I mentioned I was a collector! ) on and it reduced the squeaking by about 80%.  It was getting stuck on my rerailer track at first, but I went back and really screwed down the bottom plate; this did the trick.  Still a couple of squeaks here and there, but this was after about an hour of running back and forth...I will go back and check out the lube situation (not wanting to over lube) and decide what to do next.

Meanwhile, when I get a bit more time I will take the plunge on the squeaky 2-8-8-4....   EDIT:  I know to be much more careful when using my cradle with this one....when trying to look at the "dead one" I mentioned earlier, I broke off one of those air (or water?) hoses on the side...I specifically purchased a 2-8-8-4 shell a couple of years ago to keep in reserve in case it happened again

Regards,

Jeff

[propmeup1]

I have all four road numbers and they all run good. The 7627 was having a bit of a fit with the tender pickups but i fixed that. I put Soundtraxx Tsunami 2 in them. They are nice. one of my best set of running engines. doubleheaders and sometimes triple head as seen in one photo. That must have been a sight for who ever seen that happen, three of them lumbering by,

Keith

[brokemoto]

triple head as seen in one photo. That must have been a sight for who ever seen that happen, three of them lumbering by,

I can just imagine the noise and all of the smoke, steam and sand as three of those things and one hundred hoppers slug it out with Sand Patch.

It was probably Wm. Price who took the photograph.  He might even have recorded it on movie film, as he made more than a few movies and took more than a few photographs of Baltimore and Ohio trains.

I bought only one, as I prefer small to average sized steam power.  I will buy big steam that is road specific to the B&O or P&LE, though.  I like mine.  In fact, it has the best slow speed control on DC that I have seen on B-mann's dual mode decoder-equipped power.  I am not a DCC user.