Royal Blue Line

[joefish420]

I have a 1332 Royal Blue Line. On the track alone it hesitates. With the tender and passenger cars on the track the motor seems to spine but the trains do not move.
Is there a cure

[Joe Zullo]

It sounds like you either have a cracked or stripped gear. Fix it yourself with parts  from Bachmann or send it to them for repair. 

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Hi Joefish,

Most likely the gears are stripped especially if your locomotive has the version 2, 3 or 4 chassis.

Here is how you tell:

Version 2  1990-1994  Smooth Bottom Cover  You can turn drivers by hand and motor will turn                              
Version 3  1994-1998  Smooth Bottom Cover You cannot turn the drivers by hand                              
Version 4  1998-1999  Large wide hump dead center between the rear drivers on bottom cover                              
Version 5  2000-Pres  3/8th inch wide hump offset between the rear drivers and a plastic lubrication plug the size of a dime to the rear of the hump..                              


The Royal Blue Locomotive was produced over a long period of time and was manufactured using 4 different chassis versions over the years, so if you have an early version there may be no parts available individually.   If yours has the version five chassis,  replacement gears may be available from NWSL.

There is no way to help you unless we know what the full problem really is, but you could contact Bachmann service and see what your options are. 

If you want to do it yourself and you want the latest Version 5 chassis for your locomotive, Bachmann currently has the 4-6-0 chassis on sale for $47.  This chassis is an exact fit for you locomotive, but does not have the blue paint like the original, you would need to paint them if you wanted the original look.:

http://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66_69_148&products_id=4086

This is a good price for a brand new latest version chassis and should give you great service for many years to come.

If your chassis version is the older 2,3, or 4, I would buy the chassis for sure.

Bill

     

[RkyGriz]

You could also buy an Anniversary chassis. I did this with my #25 from the Virginia Truckee Prospector set and I had no problem with everything mating up correctly. Try to judge from the pics if the attachment points match up. That's how I did it and it runs perfectly. You can buy an Anniversary chassis for only $44.00 (plus $17.52 shipping) on sale right now by using the wake up promotion that currently ends on April 30th. Good luck and have fun. Check out this video to give you an idea of how many cars the Anniversary Edition will pull versus the original, standard locomotives.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joQoRoRHaXs