Thanks Len,
Further experimenting leads me to believe that the problem lies in the odd way that this locomotive's power pickups are wired. (There is pickup between the two non-traction tire equipped locomotive drivers and between the two front and rear tender trucks.) The tender trucks have axle wipes with insulated wheels on alternate sides. So, for track current to flow to the the decoder input, current must flow between the tender's two front and rear axels. I cannot visualize the wiring diagram, which, Bachmann chose not to show in any of their documentation. Also, by the way, the turnout which is adjacent to the track pickup, has an insulated frog, and if the engine is going fast enough, the aforementioned stall does not occur.
Don

I have small ez-track oval with a totally black terminal section and an unpowered switch on one of the straight sides. Power is provided by a Digitrax Zephyr. The track reads 13 volts everywhere. The terminal track is all black vs. the model Model: 44510, which has short gray sections at opposite ends. (I have no idea what the difference between the two is, other than appearance.) The issue is that my DCC 4-4-0 with Digitrax sdxn136ps sound decoder stops dead on the terminal track. It runs perfectly on the rest of the oval. Does anyone have an idea of what may be wrong or what I might check next?

I traded in my old standard tender drive 4-4-0 American to Bachmann Service toward a DCC-ready version. It ran reasonably well on DC so I installed a DIGITRAX SDXN136SP sound decoder. Since the DCC-ready engine was designed for a down-facing round speaker, I had to do a slight bit of exacto knife work to install the decoder's 10x18mm oval speaker. Installation went well and the decoder and stay alive capacitor all fitted inside with no further modifications required.

I wasn't able to re-set the address, but the engine ran ok on a temporary oval, powered by my Digitrax Zephyr. After a few minutes of operation, the engine's performance gradually began to deteriorate. Finally, it got to the point of occasionally stopping at full throttle.

I checked the wheels and found two problems: First, I discovered what appeared to be a very thin, transparent, almost Elmer's glue-like buildup on the two non-traction tired drivers and on the tender wheels. Second, I discovered that there was no current flow through the tender's rear axels, though they had axel wipes identical to the tender's front axel.

I haven't checked any further, but I'd appreciate anyone's comments, theories or experiences with the way my conversion is behaving.

What decoders, both with or without sound, are recommended for the newly tooled DCC ready HO 4-4-0 American?

Where can I find the wiring diagram for my model 51114 DC 4-4-0 American? Is it possible to convert this older model to DC, and if so, what decoder is recommended?  Has anyone in the forum converted one of these to DCC?

How can I obtain a copy of the wiring diagram for my Bachmann 4-4-0 American model 51114?

The headlight in my Berkshire with Sound Value DCC decoder has always been very dim and hard to see at all except when viewed straight on.  Is there any way to adjust the lamp's brightness via CV? 

I would like to know which Bachmann factory installed decoder is installed in the F7A & Bs and is is possible to obtain an information sheet from Bachmann.  I would like to be able to speed match and control these as accurately as possible.  Thanks,
Donstaff

TJ.. Are the 1128-1130s (00130012/13/14s) offset?  I had to do some Dremel work on the one I converted using  (I think) an 1115 0r 1116.

Haven't had any experience with sending a "snotted" loco to Bachmann, but they replaced an aged and limping 0-6-0 of mine for $15 a few months ago.
I improved mine's traction by adding a thin slab of lead to the top of the cab. After painting to match it doesn't look strange unless you're a real purist.
These are wonderful little locos which the potential for improvements such as conversion to MT couplers and even addition of DCC decoders.
Good luck.

Thanks Mike.  Tried the full reset to no avail, but I did manage to trash the lovely slow start that the previous owner had programmed in.  Now it jackrabbits at the first click.  Does that mean I'm now at 14 or 28 steps rather than 128?  And can you tell me how to get back to a slow startup?

Have a lovely Conrail dash 8 that has a odd lighting problem.  When it first goes on the layout, the lights will turn on but shortly afterwards, they go out for the rest of the session and refuse to come back on.  I got this loco used and it had and still has momentum programmed in.  Any connection and anything to try besides a reset to factory specs?
I appreciate any comments.

Thanks Skipgear.  The slits that the contacts arc in are about .040 wide so I'll try to find a 62 or 64 router bit, if such a creature exists, and try making the arcs.

I bought a pair of Kato 800081 N scale high speed trucks because I thought they would be perfect to use in making flashing red end devices for some of my n-scale freight cars for use on a DCC layout.  I already had some tiny flashing diodes with built in resistors.  All I would have to figure out would be how to cut two neat crescent-shaped slits in my cars' floors to enable mounting the contact-equipped trucks.  My Kato material handling cars are already equipped with the same trucks explicitly for this purpose.  I'd appreciate any anyone's suggestion on how I might cut these crescent openings in the floors of my cars for using the 800081 trucks in my project? 

Bech-Man,

Much to my dismay, I have to return a brand new damaged WM 2-8-0 Consolidation to a very large and reputable vendor.  Upon opening the visibly undamaged shipping container, I first noticed the left front ladder laying free inside the container.  Upon closer inspection, I discovered that it had actually broken away from the front walkway.  OK I think, no big deal, a tiny drop of Model Master and it's cosmetically perfect again, even under high magnification.  Put it on the test track and bad news - stops and starts - noisy - barely runs at all - bumping sound  - than not at all.  Bottom line - thrown right-hand side drive rod.

This is the second in my last three new Bachmann locos that arrived with pieces floating around inside the pretty see-through cases.  I can't imagine that the carriers are somehow treating these packages roughly enough to break pieces off inside, especially without leaving any outside evidence.  Is it possible that the design of these packages is not nearly as effective and protective as they are beautiful?