Help Please! My 4-6-0 is messed up.

[Dusten Barefoot]

Folks, I really hate to say this, but my beautiful 4-6-0 which i just lettered for the Barefoot & Southern is messed up. I'm not sure what happend. I set her on the tracks and was about to test my grade on the line, so I cranked up the power then all of a sudden I hear a humming sound, then the controller shorts out. So I check the tracks to see if any rails, or anyother metal objects are over the tracks; nope, that was clear. I tryed again, and the same thing happend, this time the locomotive's head lamp didn't even light up, and shorted out the controller again. I inspected the engine to find that the insulation around one of the tenders wires to the locomotive was coming loose away from the plug. Could this be the culprit?

Thanks for any help
Rock ON!
Dusten

ps. another dumb question. Could I return the locomotive if I have already lettered it, and modified the cab and front truck.

[railtwister]

Dusten,

Sorry to hear of your loco's problem. Bummer! From your description of the problem, it definitely sounds like you have a short circuit, are you running on DC or DCC? Is the "hum" you hear coming from the locomotive or your power pack? When you painted the loco, did you dismantle it? Usually a short cannot be caused by a loose wire, unless that wire is allowed to touch something else in the circuit. The Bachmann plugs are very delicate, and should never be disconnected by pulling on the wires. A lot of modelers file down or cut off the little "nub" cast into the plug that makes it "click" into place, for that very reason. As for sending it back to Bachmann, that may be your best choice, but you need to make a phone call (letters or emails are not as effective) and talk to the service department about your custom paint job, to see if they have a "work-around", so that you won't have to do the paint job all over again. They might be able to fix your loco, or exchange just the mechanism by swapping the cab and tender, it all depends on how difficult it is for them to swap the parts.

Regards,
Bill

[Dusten Barefoot]

Thanks Bill, but I think i have just messed everything up once again like the idiot i am. I tried to splice the wires and re-mount everything. So I don't think Bachmann will be taking the engine anytime soon.

The humming sound came from the loco. I think I'm going to buy antother locomotive any way. I will take my engine to the hobby shop and see if they can fix anything, if not, I'll ask for a new tender if that is the case.

Rock On!
Dusten