I have a Hvy. Mntn. 4-8-2  undecorated with a straight side coal tender,
I want to install a decoder in the tender. I see the 2 clips on the under side at the rear, but there is also a screw behind the front truck. Is it necessary to remove this screw in order to get at the decoder plug, or do you just have to have four hands to hold the clips back AND wrestle the top off.
It sure would be nice if Bachmann and other manufacturers told you or showed how to get into the guts of their products without destroying them.

My R.R. is a fictious line the Elma and Contour, it is loosely based on three lines that are all within about 30 miles of my home,  the C.N. Main Line, the C.P.R. Main Line and a line which comes up from Duluth, Minnesota into Winnipeg.  There used to be some Burlington Northern units on this line but I havn't seen any lately.  Also the Duluth Winnipeg and Pacific used to operate on that line.  Because of this last track, almost anything that hooks into B.N. is possible.  On The CPR. I have seen a number of Soo Line units, on the C.N.  I have seen older B.C. Rail units and some other short lines which operate in Manitoba. ( Central Manitoba Railway CEMR ) Hudson Bay Railway HBRY also some Omni Trax the parent company of HBRY.) I am also looking at another short line, the Greater Winnipeg Water District Railway GWWD.) which operates from Winnipeg to Shoal Lake, Ontario and has been in operation since 1914 and has 92.7 miles of single line track.
So most of my units are C.N. including a 2-10-2 Light and a 4-8-2 Hvy.
2  CPR. Diesels. 1 BN. Diesel. 1 BNSF. Diesel and 1 DW&P. RS11. Diesel.

Colli at Elma and Contour.

Thanks JWard,  I did finally figure out where I went wrong and have one of the locos up and running, now if I can just find that brush spring, the other one should be O.K. to.

I have 2 older style Athearn diesels, both converted to DCC using the Athearn wiring kit from Digitrax and a Digitrax DH123 decoder. I can program them for 4 digit addresses but they will not run on main line.The headlight is on but the loco wont move. I re- addressed them to 003 for DC and tried again, now they buzz, the light is on but still no movement.
Any suggestions
Thanks Colli.

Thanks guys, I will try your suggestions. As a fairly newbie I thought I had screwed something up.
Colli.

 I have installed a DZ121 in my 0-6-0 Saddle Tank by Bachmann.  Conversion went well and is now programmed 4 digit with #1000.
However, when I nun it on main line it occasionally send sparks out from under the running gear.  There is a lot of slop ( sideways play) on all 3 axles and there appears to be some copper strips protruding towards the
drive wheels. I would like to know if anyone else has had this problem and if so what is the cure. Thanks.

Well Christmas Day being quiet I thought it a good time to program my DCC equiped 2-10-2 from Bachmann.  So plug her all together, put on the program track but the CV read came back as an Open Circuit.  Tried again, same thing. Changed to 4 digit, still no joy.  Plugs are all tight all looks good in the tender where the decoder is.  Tried the 4-8-2 on the same track
A.o.k. So guys any suggestions. The 2-10-2 is brand new right out of the box.