The Consolidation

[casey]

Hi,
I just thought I would add a little to the Connie debate about the gearing.
A couple of years ago a prized Spectrum 2-6-0 cracked the main drive gear, after much aggro and some very helpful assistance from other users of this page ( thanks Peter)
I obtained and with great care fitted a new Gear, and all was well with the world.

UNTIL I got my Connie out ready for a run prior to open day 3 days ago and what happens???
you guessed it a whirring from the gearbox and no movement.
I did the obvious and checked but not looking for a another split did not find one but upon sitting on the track same happened again.

I am Totally disgusted! words fail to describe the anger and frustration I feel that I have to go through the same rigmorole all over again because of penny pinching OR worse poor design and quality control.

I am the original owner and the loco has clocked up all of 6hrs runtime from new, BUT I live in the UK and do not have the luxury of sending it back to Bachmann. and If I did I certainly would not want another cheap solution fitted.

I will be sending off for another gear and like as not will end up doing it myself, the sad thing is I have a Spectrum 4-4-0 which no doubt will do the same thing to me.

I would demand that this is put right for I really feel that this should never have happened, but the waiting time and cost of posting is really not worth it, I blooming well hope that this has been dealt with otherwise I for one will not be buying anymore Bachmann loco's if this is what I have to do in order to run them.

Oh I failed to mention the tender truck problems of which one was broken from new. But thats another story.

Kind but angry regards
Casey.

[petertoot]

Well looks like some models,do have some niggles,I saw years ago on a site that some tender trucks had cracked,I have two connives that have done many hours around my tracks,only one has cracked a gear,replaced it a new axle,brass gear from bachmann,this is annoying,but it is mechanical ,and things go wrong,I have eight spectrum locos,five Annie's ,no problems,hope all goes well,Peter in aussie

[Kevin Strong]

... I blooming well hope that this has been dealt with otherwise I for one will not be buying anymore Bachmann loco's if this is what I have to do in order to run them...

Casey, you have to keep a few things in mind. First, the outside frame 2-8-0 and 2-6-0/4-4-0 use the same gear, with the same inherent flaws. It's almost a certainty that the gear will fail. (For whatever reason, the failure rate on the 2-8-0 drive is more than that of the 2-6-0/4-4-0, but they're both dubious in reputation.) I've repaired or replaced all of mine and quite a few others. It's just the way it is. Bachmann will gladly sell you a brass replacement gear already installed on a new axle for the 2-8-0 for all of $10. I've found the NWSL gears to be very good as well.

Second, those locomotives are 12+ years old. A lot has changed within the culture of Bachmann since then. Using those locos as an indicator of Bachmann's current quality is akin to using a 1st-grader's test scores as his college entrance exam. Ever wonder why no one's on this forum complaining about the gearing in the Forneys, or the new Climax, or C-19, or pretty much anything else released in the past 5 years? Because they don't have to. Bachmann has endured this criticism for quite some time, and has made steady improvements to the quality of their drives. 

You're certainly not alone in your frustration, but there's an unfortunate tendency among those frustrated as you are with these early efforts to take them as being indicative of the whole. I've had folks criticize my reviews of Bachmann's latest products, accusing me of pandering to the advertisers because the reviews are favorable. When I ask them if they've run the new stuff, the response is always the same: "no, because I had bad luck with an early loco, so I won't buy anything new." So, what--exactly--is their basis for criticizing my review of a loco they've neither seen nor run? "Past performance is not an indicator of future results." I had a discussion not too long ago with one such "doubting Thomas." He came to my open house and left ready to order a new C-19 for his railroad.

I'm sorry the gear on your outside-frame 2-8-0 broke, but welcome to the club. It's a big one. Fortunately, as each new loco comes out, the "have to fix it to run it" club membership has diminished considerably. The "when's the next loco coming out so I can buy it?" club is gaining traction.

Later,

K

[tac]

To my total amazement, bearing in mind past dealings with Bachmann [Europe], last year I got a replacement brass gear from them almost by return mail.

Sure, it's a PITA to dismantle the loco and effect the replacement, but it now runs like it used to.

Please take on Kevin's comments - sure, we can't just 'walk into the store' like they can in the USA - my local large-scale Bachmann dealer IS Bachmann [Europe] head office, on the other side of the country from me, but give them a call.  Price was around £7 or so, I seem to recall.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Casey,

Kevin beat me to the punch on this one, and has definitely hit the nail on the head about Bachmann Products.  There is no question that the quality is way up over the years.  Even at that I ran both of my Connies for over 11 years before the gear problem showed up.  One of them is still running on the original gear 13 years later.   I bought both back in 2001 when they first came out and there was a problem with the tender truck side frame screw being too short, but that was an easy fix.  I have often wondered about the gear problem.  Some say they had the problem right out of the box, but looking into that I found that many times they had bought old stock that may have been subjected to heat/cold in a warehouse for many years before being sold. Did the heat cold heat cold cycle accelerate the problem??  I wonder.  Also found that many gear failures occurred when owners had the locos in storage for years before running them again.  The gear problem did not really show up until years after they were first sold.  Just looking back in this forum you will find that the gear problem did not show up until mid 2007 or so, six years after they first came out.  Six years until gear problems stat to show up is not too bad.  The fact that it was six years til the problem showed tells me that it is an age related problem, but I have often wondered why mine have lasted so long.  I did carefully regrease the gear boxes several times over the years, and I did keep them stored in a home with no real variations in temperatures.

When Bachmann produces a product they make hundreds of extra chassis to stock in the service department to have ready for warranty repair.  The Standard Big Hauler and Annie are  good examples.  When Bachmann came out with the version 5 chassis in 2000 they did as usual and made thousands of extra chassis to have for warranty repair.   The chassis proved to be so robust, warranty repairs dropped to incredibly low levels, and the chassis were not needed resulting is a large over stock.  So much so that you can now buy a complete replacement chassis for the Big Hauler for $30 and for the Annie for $50.  This is a win for Bachmann because of the cost savings in the service department, and a win for customers like me who have never had a failure with the version 5 chassis after almost 14 years of heavy running.  

While I sympathize with your frustration I am still amazed with what a great locomotive the Connie is.  Nothing runs forever without things breaking or needing increased maintenance.  I had a new Ford and a new Chevy that barley got out of warranty before having parts failure problems.  My Bachmann train locomotives have done much better by comparison and they are made in China!  

Anyway Casey, don't let a parts failure get you down.  No matter what brand you buy you will have a problem eventually down the line.  The fix is not too tough and TAC has some good advice as well.

Bill

[armorsmith]

Casey,
I will chime in by stating that my Connie also cracked the main gear. It took me several months pestering Bachmann to get a replacement, which I did for mine and a fellow club member. It took me about two hours to do two locomotives following the lead of a wonderful fellow modeler. Alan passed a while back, but left us this wonderful tutorial on replacing the gear. You can find it here:  http://www.the-ashpit.com/mik/gear.html
As for manufacturer's issues in general, they all have them. Some are better than others at addressing them, and I won't take up that debate. Suffice it to say that Bachmann is not alone in that department. For further reading I suggest you do some reading on the other two major G scale fora, Large Scale Central (www.largescalecentral.com) and My Large Scale (www.mylargescale.com).  There are many experienced people on both fora that will be more than willing to help and advise on almost any topic you care to ask about.
Happy Railroading!
Bob C.

[tac]

I can only go along with LocoBill's and others' comments - no matter HOW much you pay for something, at some time or other it WILL go futz.

Examples for me over the last few years have included a $6000 live-steamer that was partly-assembled only by the maker, and then nigh-on trashed by the TSA [can't blame the makers for that last bit though], and an $1800 camera that froze solid after ten minutes of operation, and then 'cooked itself' in my hands.

On the other hand, I have H0 models from the middle fifties that just go on and on, prolly because they are just so simple that they don't know that they shoud have quit years ago.

It's all a lottery, my friend.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
G1MRA #3651