NFL Express F7 AB Engines by Bachmann are disappointing.

[Stephen D. Richards]

Bachmann no longer manufactures the F7 loco for general sells.  They do, however, make the FT unit and the shells will interchange.  I think your problem here is your F7 unit.  I own severl to include one from Collectibles Today.  It is a Bachmann unit, DC only, and it pulls very well.  I did repower the B unit but just because I wanted to.  Easiest way is to switch shells and the trucks.  They just pull off and switch them with another Bachmann  FTA unit.       Stephen

[rocknblues]

Thanks for your input Stephen, that is what I will probably do. I am thinking that the Reps at Colllectables Today are trying to be helpful, but really don't know anything about trains. Oh well, I will wait and see if they send me out another unit. I still have the Unit that is free wheeling, so I will end up powering that one up.

[murfling]

I have the Red Sox, Patriots, and NHL Origonal Six trains, and all are on display on the shelf for the exact same reason -- B Units are not powered, and the A Unit cannot pull the whole train. The Patriots train is up to 14 cars now, so I have my doubts that even the two units powered would pull them.  But My AMD-103 from Athearn will pull eight of them by itself.

But they look good on the display shelf.

I may try powering the B units at some point. When I talked to collectibles today customer service about it a couple years ago when I first got them, they referred me to Bachmann customer service. Thats where I got "Lubricate the motor, etc."

Murfling

[rocknblues]

That explains alot. I think the Locomotives are weak, and why they weight the B Units so heavy makes no sense. I will power up the B Unit because I dont want to put it on a shelf. We have the Green Bay Christmas Village and would like to run the train during the Christmas season. I am doing a 4x8 layout and my Athearn pulling  7 heavyweight passenger cars will lap the Bachmann A&B Unit by themselves. Thank you for your input, it really helps me.

[bobparki]

"Anybody else have similar problems with the sets made by Bachmann?"  Yes I have.  The Bachmann item no. 60202 HO FT B Unit DCC.  Two of these units were "bad" out of the box.  The noise they made and the speed they ran was just as you described.  The new A unit was twice as fast and strong as both of the new B units.  After about four hours of "tinkering" I finally got them running as fast and strong as the A unit.  Indivdually, they can easily pull more than 20, 40 foot cars.  The problem was indeed lubrication.  But it took a lot more then one drop and I for sure can not tell you exactly where the problem was.  But both Bs are now fixed and are running very strong.  I agree it should not be this way for a new product.  Fortunately I'm retired now and have the time.  Good luck, Bob.   

[rocknblues]

Thank you Bob, I will get into the tinkering part here soon. Its just that I am new to the hobby, and was a bit afraid to pull the shells off. But I was having a bit of trouble with a light on another loco. So I slowly indulged, and I noticed the light contact wasnt making contact, so its fixed and it was fun to accomplish a problem. I will be digging into this F7A soon. I have been busy building a mountain/tunnel for my layout, so I havent had much time to tinker on the loco yet. Thank you for your advice.