On30 gear issues

[petervweimer]

Hi Bach-man, your post regarding this long-lasting problem was really good news and I will gladly use the solution offered for my Rail-Truck. But there remains one question: What about those of us who were desperate enough to buy replacement gears for the problematic locos from you  when they were not available for free? In my case I bought replacement gears for 2 Shays and 1 Climax from your Service department that were quite expensive because of the high postage to Germany... Best Regards. Peter

[Hamish K]

Good news. My questions for  Bachmann,  are replacement universal couplings (the joint that connects the drive shaft to the trucks) available for the Climax? It is this,rather than the gears  that have failed on my Climax. Will these replacement gears be  shipped free to Australia?

Hamish

[2foot6]

DITTO also in Australia

[Sherwood]

Great to hear that Bachmann will step up to correct the various bad gear systems - this will make us all more inclined to try the next one - I will be looking forward to the June date for replacements for 3 units.

Is it clear that Bachmann now understands the problem and the fix will be permanent?  Since so many similar designs in a row were bad there must have been some flaw in the design process or quality control, not just a simple one time mistake.  Have the maximum possible stresses in the gears been calculated correctly now, taking into account the tolerance stack-up and the range of temperatures that may be encountered in shipping?  Nylon has many times the CTE of steel, so at the tight end of a stack-up that is supposed to be just barely within the strength of the nylon at room temperature, it will get much tighter yet at -20 on a container train across the northern US in winter!  I wonder if this explains why some seem OK and others break quite early in use.

Has any one had long term good luck with Shays, Climax or Railtrucks?  I wonder if I should get gears for the ones that haven't broken yet to have on hand, or if they got through the first few years they may be OK.

[GG1onFordsDTandI]

I wonder if I should get gears for the ones that haven't broken yet to have on hand, or if they got through the first few years they may be OK.

A few extra parts now while available is "train insurance". If you love that engine buy the most likely parts to fail, or get broken by you. Do it now while you can, I only have two good Og- "L" smoke elements bought for me as a boy by my Gramps in the late 60s-70s(out of twelve, only seven of mine use this one, replaced 5 bad ones when I got "old-locos" cheap), I will most likely use these all up before I get old enough to "kick da bucket". Ever have to junk a rare old vehicle because parts could no longer be found? Ever look for a taillight lens for eight years? Question is, would you be happy with it broken, but sitting pretty on a shelf? Or will you kick yourself if needed?

Wow.. half my ramble posted on its own just now.... here is what what didn't post, but was typed before first "Auto post"... some self poking was intended to lighten the tone.

PS-   I'm so cheap I have to watch for weasels and hide from the chicken hawks. "Chicken hawks I say!"...
... "Its a joke son, a flag waver, you're  built to low, the fast ones go over yer head, you got a hole in your glove, I keep pitchin um and you keep missin um, you gotta keep your eye on the ball,...eye... ball....eyeball........I almost had a gag son,..joke that is.. " -Foghorn J. Leghorn
"(Loudmouth)Shnooks are sure noisy things." -Henry Chicken hawk  

[railtwister]

Good news. My questions for  Bachmann,  are replacement universal couplings (the joint that connects the drive shaft to the trucks) available for the Climax? It is this,rather than the gears  that have failed on my Climax. Will these replacement gears be  shipped free to Australia?

Hamish

You're right Hamish, my On30 Climax suffered split gears on the secondary shafts of both trucks AND failure of both universal joint hubs on the center shaft, and just making the gears available (I had already purchased them at a cost of $25 with shipping) won't fix the problem for me, so I am hoping the U-joints will be included in the extended coverage. Time will tell whether just replacing the parts that broke with identical parts will effect a long term fix of the problem, or whether a major re-engineering will be needed.

Now, after having inspected the drive components and their design, I'm debating whether or not my Climax, Railtruck and Railbus are even worth spending the postage money on to try to get them repaired. For my Shays, I will probably just try the NWSL metal gears, which seem like they ought to be a better bet than plastic.

These split gear problems have been going on for too long with too many different companies, and are not limited to only On30.

Bill in FtL