I broke the tip of the center metal "pin" off on my WBB 671 turbine. Is this something to worry about or should I just leave it?

Thanks.

My experience with Lionel transformers goes only to the CW80. TB2 locos (or at least my two) don't really like it. I prefer MTH transformers. Jim's Train Shop has great prices, fast shipping and Jim is the nicest person to deal with.

Fixed the melting issue - by removing the glue. Unfortunately, the smoke unit is not secured and will fall out when the engine is turned over. A poor design (the glue) if you ask me. Does anyone know of a better (melt-free please!) method to secure the smoke unit?

Also, when working on the engine, I broke off the very small tip of the metal pole in the center of the smoke unit. It still smokes fine but is should I order a new unit because of this?

Finally, on the smoke unit board, there is a large black "thing" made of metal (not the resistor) towards the back of the board. The unit became VERY hot (I could feel the heat a foot/foot and a half back) and there were two black wires on top of it. I assume these wires were the power wires but I'm not sure. They were very taught and I didn't want to break the zip-lock tie on the reverse board to loosen up the wires. Anyway, I'm worried about the insulation melting on them. Should I worry about it? Should I break the tie to give them so slack to keep them off the black metal "tower?"

Thanks again., Unfortunately this is my second WBB loco and the second one that has needed work right out of the box before I did any serious running.

Thanks folks.

As I noted above, I had smelled a burning smell coming from my smoke unit. I pulled the boiler front off to reveal glue holding the wires to the shell or the rubber around the smoke unit. Does anyone know of a fix or has experienced this? I would rather not send the engine back to Bachmann.

Bach man: Can I damage the smoke unit by running it dry as you can do with engines with a wick type smoke unit? Thanks!

DominicMazoch, thanks for your reply. I timed how long the engine went from fill-up to empty which was about 7 minutes. Not bad IMO. I also tried blowing down the stack but nothing really happened unlike other locos. I guess it is just the nature of the beast. Thanks again.

Hi all,

Ordered a new WBB 671 GM turbine a couple weeks ago. It came last Monday or Tuesday and I finally cracked it open this morning. I have some questions about the smoke unit that I'm hoping to get answered.

1) The smoke unit (I believe it is a Seuthe (SP?) unit and fluid correct?) seems to be a little "stubborn." It tends to puff out occasional clouds with a slight "stream" of smoke in between. This is while running and in neutral. Also, when I first unpacked it, I added around 15 drops to the unit before I put it on the track. While doing some test runs, the smoke stopped maybe after 2 minutes. I added about 5 drops just in case it ran out of fluid and the same process was repeated. Is it possible that I have a defective unit? I have one MTH steamer (PS2) which, most of you probably know, smokes like a cigarette factory on fire. I also have a little Lionel 4-4-2 from the RTR set which has the piston smoke unit. The Williams is a different unit design that I'm not familiar with so please excuse me if I'm fussing over nothing. It just seemed like the smoke unit ran out rather quickly and its behavior was rather odd.

2) As I stated above, the smoke "puffs" on occasion with the popping of the fluid inside the unit. The fluid gets all over the shell of the engine. I've had some bad experience with smoke fluid (JT's Mega Steam) peeling the paint off my Lionel and MTH steamers. As anyone experienced this with the Williams (Seuthe? (SP?)) unit and fluid before?

3) Is there any way to shut off the smoke unit to prevent burning it up and also to prevent fluid from being sprayed all over the engine when filling it up? Both of my MTH and Lionel engines have this feature. If not, it may be something to consider for future smoke equipped steam models.

4) Finally, when I ordered the engine, I ordered an extra bottle of smoke fluid thinking the fluid supplied wouldn't get me far (that has been my experience with MTH and Lionel). I was surprised to see the Bachmann boys taking care of us and giving us some enough fluid for more than one fill up unlike the other guys. When I run out of both bottles (which will be a while), can I just use regular Seuthe (SP?) fluid?

Thank you for the help.

Yesterday, I spent about two hours driving to different hobby shops in my area until I got to one that had Railzip. I came home and applied it and just tested it this morning. Unfortunately, the problem appears to be worse. I applied the Railzip to the center rail only. In addition to the sparking appearing to be worse, I get a very strong smell of ozone which I didn't have before (at least you couldn't smell it after one lap around the layout).

I've decided to return the turbine. This is following a long string of discouraging problems with my layout and trains and I feel that I just need to take everything apart and step away. *Sigh*


Thanks for your help everyone.

Joe,

Thanks for the help. I taped up the rollers but even taped up, they still hit the center rail slightly. I don't think it is the engine as each one of my engines (MTH PS2, Williams and Lionel) exhibit the same symptoms. I believe it is the track. I did buy (and apply today) a product called Railzip that supposedly aids in electrical conductivity and reduces sparking. It takes a while (overnight) to set up but tomorrow afternoon when I have time to test, I will and report back. If it doesn't work, I will replace the track with new stuff.

Thanks for the help.

Thanks again folks. After testing each engine from my operating fleet, I have discovered each engine to have a sparking issue (Williams, MTH, and Lionel engines) when operating at higher speeds. I'm going to try a product called "Railzip" to see what happens. Does anyone think I should just replace the track (which is pretty new)?

Thanks for the help Joe!

Just did some testing with the very little real estate I have. I ran as fast as I could without rocketing off the table and the engine was sparking from the wheels and rollers. I wiped down the track and tested again only to get the same results. This only occurs at high speeds as I said above.

Thanks again.

Please excuse the stupidity in this question. Yesterday I was attending a show with the modular club I belong to and was operating my WBB GP9. For a little fun I put all 22 volts the Z4000 had to give on the track so the train could really move on the 30' - 40' straights. At full throttle, I noticed some serious sparking coming from, what looked like, the pick-up rollers. A friend let me test his new WBB SD-45 to see if it was just my engine. His engine showed the same symptoms. I came to the conclusion it was the track and we wiped it down but no improvement. We did oil the pick-up rollers on both engines that morning but made sure we didn't get oil on the flat part of the roller itself. At home I have no way setting up a test track like we had yesterday although at the leisurely speeds I run at home, there is no sparking problems.

Any ideas? I have a brand new WBB 671 Turbine on the way from Justrains and I hope I don't have the same issue. Thanks for the help and sorry for the stupid question.

I found the Lionel CW-80 transformer (the type that comes in Lionel starter sets) to cause problems with my Williams GP9's horn and bell. There would be quite a delay in the horn and/or bell sounding when using the CW.  I would recommend an MTH Z-1000 as a replacement as this transformer got my sounds working very nicely.

Bach-man and 3rail,

Thank you both for the replies. The pictures have been saved on my computer for reference when I re-do my layout.

Thank you again!