I purchased 2x 2-8-0 Consolidations within just a few months apart and run them for just a few hours and both showed that busted final gear .
I did not read all these countless posts about the same issue , but to me it sure looks like a common issue . Therefore instead of ordering the same plastic gears again ( or the complied axle with gear ) I decided to search for a metal gear and found some .
I am in the process of installing them now .
Of course I could not find a direct replacement , it's actually a motor pinion gear from R/C cars and it required some re-machining.
It will be a while before I end up running them again to test this setup ,
but I will post here again to let everyone know if it worked out or if something else gets busted now .

to some of you kit-bashers , does anybody has a spare lower gearbox cover ?
since I had these 2-8-0's apart since a long time , I misplaced one of the lower gear-box-covers .

to the Bachmann , can I get ( purchase ) a lower gear-box-cover for the 2-8-0 ?

Willy
CustomRCmodels

Quote from: Mark W on January 19, 2009, 11:23:47 AM
Willy,
Thats a great solution.  I thought of it but was afraid to try it.  In addition to getting the firebox and cab light, do you get the smoke to work on the DC setting.   What happens to the front and rear leds?

I spent over an hour on the phone with Rodney from Bachmann.  He was very helpful, but since it is so new he was going to experiment with it and let me know what he came up with.

I did get the firebox and cab to work DCC, but only at idle, when the throttle is moved the firebox freezes lit with no flicker. 

I am going to either live with a frozen ficker and wire the front and rear leds directly to the decoder with a 1K resistor,  or try your solution if the lights and smoke will work by switching them from the bachmann switches.

Thanks for your response.  I wonder if the Plug and Play guys are having any of these issues.

Mark

Hello Mark ,
Sorry for my late responds ,
but as I read here you got it already going ...
Anyhow ,
The way I did it , the firebox , smoke and LED's
( front and rear and inside the cab ) work on switch-position DC
the firebox flickering works just as it should ,
and it does not change with the speed of the loco ...
if I switch to DCC I lose the firebox ...
the smoke works either way , DC or DCC ....

By the way , under a different thread I asked if anybody would know of a decoder and sound chip which would install in the 2-6-6-2
as a plug-n-play ,
but so far I have not gotten a single responds to that ...
I gone try one of the aristocraft combined sound-driving-decoders ,
since they use the same pin-layout ...
At the moment I use only a cheap MRC sound-driving-decoder which actually works surprisingly well , even without using the chuff-triggers ...

Willy
CustomRCmodels

Hello Bach-Man
I just took some photos of my new 2-6-6-2 ,
maybe they are nice enought to be used in the photo-gallery ?















to see them full-size follow this link :
http://www.customrcmodels.com/Gardenrailroad/bachmanns_2_6_6_2_mallet.htm

Willy
CustomRCmodels

I just encountered the same problem ...,
Experimented around for a while ,
I ended up using the DC board ,
disconnect the 2 pins for the motor-connections , ( 3+10 )
Wired the decoder to the rail-contacts ( 1+12 ) ,
Pulled the motor-connectors of from the main-board
and wired the motor-connectors itself directly to the decoder ..
Means the LEDs and firebox are always on now, which is fine for me ,
and just the motors are controlled via DCC

Willy
CustomRCmodels

Dear Bachman , ( or to anybody knows the answers )
I just received my 2-6-6-2 and have to say , it's an awesome looking locomotive and it runs very well ( so far tested only without a DCC decoder ) ..
But I am also a little disappointed about the size ,
I had expected this locomotive would be even bigger ...
Anyhow
My question is now in regard to DCC decoder installation .
I see that the 2-6-6-2 uses a plug and play arrangement like Aristocraft ,
Therefore as driving-only decoder the Digitrax DG583AR should fit as a plug and play decoder ..
How about a combined sound-decoder ?
Is there any decoder type / model Bachmann recommends to be used with the 2-6-6-2 ?
I would like to take advantage of the 2 chuff-sound pickups and also would like to find a plug and play board which does it all ...
Is there such thing ?
If not which decoders for sound and which decoder for driving is recommended

Thanks a bunch
regards

Willy
CustomRCmodels

sorry guys ,
I am feeling stupid now !
it helps sometimes to look at the paperwork included !

Willy
CustomRCmodels

Is there a electrical circuit diagram available for the 45 ton diesel ?
Since in the descriptions it said DCC ready ,
but it doesn't tell what is what on the installed boards .
I have several of these nice large diesel-loco's and installed in several of them decoders from different manufactures and some I have running with radio control ...
But I always junked the installed boards and wired everything directly ...
Since I have a few extra ones ( still in box ) of them now for sale
I want to install decoders ,
but want to do it without junking the already installed boards ...
I could trace all that back , but if there is a circuit diagram available ,
that would make things much nicer ...

Willy
CustomRCmodels

thanks for the quick reply !
do they have inputs for sync-sound ?

does anybody has any experience with Dallee sound boards ?
has anybody used them for there G-scale loco's ?
how do they sound ?
are they worth the money ?

do these
"1:20.3 Narrow Gauge Two-Bay Steel Hopper's"
have working bay-door's ?

if not , is the upper part a one piece mold ,
or the bay-door's are a seperate part which is just glued in
and could be removed to make them working ?

thanks

thanks guys !

1 more question :
are the couplers truck-mounted or on the chassis ?

thanks

regards

Can anybody tell me the exact width and length
of the new 1:20.3 scale flat-cars ?
Are they as wide (  5.5 inches ) as like the Connie and the 45 ton diesel ?

I miss-use the 45 ton diesel and the Connie
( both modified for a larger scale appearance )
"http://www.customrcmodels.com/Gardenrailroad"
in a 1/16 scale environment .
Using trains as tank and goods transporters
between 1/16 scale R/C tank and truck models

So far I bean using modified LGB flat-cars , but I have to widen them ….
I did get some Accucraft 1:20 scale flat-cars ,
but they are not much wider when the LGB ones …
That’s why I am wondering how wide are the 1:20.3 Bachmann flat-cars

Thanks

regards