small baldwin tender

[Pacific Northern]

Has anyone tried swapping the "small" baldwin tender with any other steamers? (not the vanderbuilt versions)

If so which ones would simply plug in and which would require rewiring?

Thanks

[NevinW]

I switched the small older style Baldwin tender that comes with the 52 inch driver 4-6-0 with the larger tender that comes with the 63 inch driver 4-6-0 without any problem at all.  The circuit boards were identical.   however, using the small tender with other Bachmann locomotives may be more of a problem.  -  Nevin

[Atlantic Central]

drhone,

The following is a bit long, but it covers most issues with swapping bachmann tenders for regular DC use.

I posted this some time ago and repost it when these questions come up - the first part is about using the Vanderbilt tenders behind the 4-6-0. After that is most of a compatiblity listing that should help.

Tender Swap â€" Bachmann medium Vanderbilt oil tender (Item #89905) with 63” driver 10 wheeler (Item #82307)

Initial test using jumpers provided with the tender â€" dead short, no operation.

Original plan â€" move 10 wheeler circuit board into new tender. This proved unworkable for several reasons, 10 wheeler circuit board too large and wires too short to fit into Vanderbilt tender without major modifications to both the tender and the circuit board.

New plan â€" can existing circuit board from Vanderbilt tender be rewired to work with 10 wheeler. A simple examination of both circuit boards revealed that while different, they both have the same basic connections, so the problem must lie in pin assignments in the connectors.

Tracing wires and a few simple checks revealed that the two wire connector simply brings the loco pickups to the circuit board. Reversing the wires on one end of the two wire jumper corrected this. Now the loco runs but in the wrong direction.

Two of the wires on the four wire plug are the motor leads. Reversing them gave us correct operational direction.

This only left the front headlight. The circuit board in the Vanderbilt tender is for the 2-8-0 which has 12 volt lamps for lighting. The 10 wheeler uses LED’s, this is the main reason the circuit board is different. Rather than trying to modify the circuit, I simply replaced the loco headlight LED with a 12 volt lamp.

Additionally I added weight to the Vanderbilt tender bringing it weight to about 5 oz. and replaced all couplers with genuine Kadee #148 on both the loco front and tender.

Result â€" loco now converted, runs well with original 10 wheeler draw bar and looks great. 

This issue seems to be tied to what tender cam with what loco in the first place. I do not have all of the Bachmann spectrum locos, but from what I have seen, read and experianced, the following may be a good begining of a compatablity chart:

Light Mouintain & Consolidation will work with all of the "medium" tenders.

Heavy Mountain and 2-6-6-2 will work with the long coal tender, hicken tender and long vandy tender

Russian shares same tender with some 10 wheelers, so I am guessing they share the same circuit board.

The 10 wheeler is really a wild card here because it comes with three different tenders, depending on roadname. Some have the low, small "pre 1900" looking tender, some have the small tender from the Russian and one has the same tender as the consolidation, but obviously with a different circuit board.

But again, I think most of these differences are just the pin assignments and the type of headlight.

Sheldon

[rogertra]

If a tender don't work, you start off with this -



Then you do this: -




And you end up with this: -



Easy.   

[Pacific Northern]

So the small baldwin tender (Non-Vanderbilt type) will only mate up with the 63" Spectrum 4-6-0 then? And of course the 4-4-0.

I assume that any other engines would likely require swapping the boards and/or  re-wiring?

No one has tried to mate a small baldwin tender to a Spectrum 2-8-0 or a 2-10-0?

[Atlantic Central]

drhone,

The small baldwin tender works with ANY 4-6-0, regardless of driver size.

I do not know if it works with the 4-4-0, I do not have the 4-4-0 to know if it is wired the same as the 4-6-0.

Sheldon