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Acela fatal flaw

Started by Growlithe, January 03, 2011, 03:17:45 PM

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Growlithe

i have had my Bachmann spectrum acela for about 3 weeks now, i have only run it a few times at a local model railroading club and would you guess what happened? the trucks decided to fall apart. i took a look at the insides of the trucks after removing them and the rods that hold the gears in place slid out due to a complete lack of anything holding them in. the gears proceeded in slipping away from the main center gear resulting in the lack of movement. i ran several tests in which i placed the gears on the rods and slid the rods back into place and the same thing happened every time, the only object holding the rods in place are the two metal power collectors that ride on the wheels and have two rods that run up into the powered cafe car. After having paid full price for my acela, the failure of one of the most vital parts of my train due to poor engineering is a VERY serious letdown. i would be glad to take part in re-designing the entire internal system of the trucks if Bachmann would contact me via my personal email address- [email protected] - also, i would like to find out where i can get a new set of trucks for my powered car so that i may mod them myself. despite the poorly designed trucks, the acela is perfect, everything is according to the real acela, (i visited washington D.C.'s central station and compared) the train has a very powerful motor and the couplings hold together better than i have ever seen in any other model train, i thank you mr. bach-man for reading this complaint and i hope that you shall take this to the superiors within your company
Thank you

the Bach-man

Dear Grow,
Please contact the service department tomorrow. They'll discuss the issues and provide replacements.
Thanks!
the Bach-man

en4cer

I do repairs for my local hobby shop so this issue caught my attention. We have one of these sets in the store for sale so I am very interested in whether this is an isolated issue or if all the acelas will have this problem. I had a conversation with the store owner and he asked that I stay on top if this so any information that can be passed along would be appreciated. We have a concern that the set we have for sale may also fail so you can see why we are so concerned about this. I would like to know what Bachmann did to remedy the issue so we can be prepared to correct our set. Thank you.