help with my overland

[onewildchild]

Hello train lovers! I am new here! Nice to meet you all! I started to get really into train last year when my parents bought the Overland Limited, as a christmas gift for my daughters. They also purchased another (same one) for my sister and her daughter. We fell in love with the train, it lights up & blows smoke! I set a whole village up, I continue to add on as I find more that interests me. It is lots of fun! However,I am looking for some help, both my sisters train and mine are having problems. First the wheels started falling off, okay no big deal, I put them back on. Then I had problems with the locomotive. The drive wheel assembly broke. A small fragile piece seemed to come off and was hanging there, the train wouldn't run. I returned just the engine car to the hobby shop where it was purchased. They took the bad one and ordered me a new one. I received it in about a week. Well it was fine, I had no further problems. The train and village were packed away carefully, in the original box, after christmas. This year, yesterday actually, I removed the train, carefully once again, to set it up. I set my whole christmas village display inside of the train track & finally it was time to add the train. We were all so thrilled to get it running! We got it on the track, started it up, it didn't want to move, it was going at a slower pace than a turtle would move!  So I took it off and had a look at it, well if the same thing didn't happen again!  The drive wheel assembly! Now the piece is once again dangling! I talked to my sister and darn, thats her problem as well! What is going on here! Help! What do I do! Has anyone else had issues with this happening! I mean it has to be the train. As I stated I did get a new one and the same thing happened. So if anyone elses has encountered this problem can you please write me and let me know. I do plan on contacting the  hobby shop as well as Bachmann. Thanks everyone!!

[Yampa Bob]

Dear "Wild", 
Bachmann lists the Overland Limited as "The biggest and best for serious railroad enthusiasts."  But I have to add "For the price."

The 4-8-4 has lots of parts, the more to fall off or break, and probably won't hold up to extra handling of re-packing each year. Also, being in storage for a year, the factory grease might tend to gum up the works or ooze out leaving a dry mechanism. 

I see 3 options, keep returning it to the dealer as defective, ship it to Bachmann for replacement (you pay shipping charges to them), or....if the dangling part is not critical just take it off and run the thing, no one will notice. The piece is probably part of the valve gear linkage and is not necessary for operation.

[the Bach-man]

Dear WC,
Please contact the sevice department. They'll be hppy to help.
Have fun!
the Bach-man