Silverton Durango H/O Train

[lucy]

Hi Folks. Looking for advice on how to troubleshoot a Bachmann Silverton Durango H/O train.  Just got it back from Bachmann after they looked at it and told us nothing was wrong.  Worked great after we got it back from them for 15 minutes and then it stopped moving. We've checked track for connection problems, but our other engine works fine on it.  The Durango train's light will glow very dimly for a few seconds before it turns off completely. Otherwise, it will not run.  Thoughts?  Advice? 

[trainman203]

Maybe the plugs between engine and tender aren't completely pushed in.

I have a lot of Bachmann steam engines.  And one thing I have found about all of them is that they come out of the box with very oxidized wheels that sometimes don't pick up current very well.  They typically have sat in a warehouse for a year or two, maybe more, before being sold, allowing the locomotive driver tires to oxidize rather notably.

You can clean the locomotive wheels by dampening a paper towel with isopropyl alcohol, placing it over the track, running the locomotive up over the towel and spinning the wheels on the towel while you apply the lightest of pressure, not enough to stall the engine.  You will be amazed at all the black crud that comes off the wheels. You may need to do this a couple of times over clean places on the paper to get them really clean.  Then, you put the towel behind the tender and push the tender back-and-forth on the moistened towel.  Stuff will come off of those wheels too.

The track may need cleaning too.  1 million people have 1 million ways of cleaning track and they all think they are better than the other guys.  But the easiest thing for you is to take that same moistened paper towel and run it over the rails, and be amazed at how much crud comes off of them too.  Some people use the magic rub cleaning pads you can buy at the grocery store.  Avoid abrasives.  They just create miniature scratches on the rail that collect dirt even faster than it does already.

Try these correctives and report back how they worked, so we can investigate further if needed.