0n30 C&S passenger car questions

[Synthmusician]

Hi All:
  I'm new here so please go easy on me if this has been asked already somewhere.  I've been in the hobby since I was a kid but I'm new to 0n30 stuff.  I just purchased a 0n30 C&S set from a seller on eBay.  It was used but I was told it was in new shape (Yeah right).  So it gets here yesterday all the wheels are off the tender and one of the tender steps were broken off and one was missing, the locos steam dome and generator were off just laying in the box.  The vestibule cars trucks and wheels were all apart with the wires for the lights just hanging loose, and none of the cars lighting systems work.  So much for Like New condition.   I bought this so my boys and I could setup a cool layout for the holidays. And we'll most likely just keep it up and change the seasons on the layout.

Now for my question, I want to get this train back to peak working order and get all the lights working in the cars again.  How does voltage from the wheels transfer to the lighting kits?  There are wires that are black that come out of the bottom of the cars.  Some of those are just hanging loose. Am I missing brushes? or do they some how connect to the truck frame?  Also is there a diagram of the wheels and how they are to be loaded on the trucks.  I noticed that if you put them in wrong you'll short the power pack.  I have no docs at all with this either.  I figured out where all the Loco parts went and had the unit running with in an hour.  it seems to have a bit of a wobble but not bad.  It's a great looking set and I want to keep it.  I just want to make it like new.  Can I get a new tender body?

My boys and I Love our Bachmann stuff.  I want to thank Bachmann for the great products they make.  They each have there own Locos from the Thomas the Tank series and they want more of them.  I want to give them the gift of a hobby that can last a lifetime and span generations.

Thanks all
Mark aka Synthmusician
www.synthmusician.com

[Tomcat]

Hi Mark,

shouln´t mean a big problem to take care of this. Please follow this path:

Check the polarity of the trucks, best take a closer look at a care which is still beeing wired correctly, so have a closer look at the wheelsets. You can actually make out the tiny insulation inlays arround the axles. They should be on the same side within one truck, on the opposite side on the other - so one is "plus" and one is "minus" polarity.
There is no other secret on that as long as the wires are connected with the trucks.

Check them, if they are correct, check the wires, they should be soldered to the brass wipers on top of the truck. You can check this if you carefully (very...) take off the truck, but take extra care since there is just a bit of wire extra between the car body and the truck. If they are still connected as they should, change the axles to get the isolated part to the opposite side. This should work and I trust this will solve your lighting problem with the Coaches.

No problem about it, if you short out the power pack, but immediately turn off the power, change the axles, try again. I´m sure, this will solve the problem.

About a Tender Body - I trust the Bachmann Spare Parts guys can help you out with a new Tender body or complete Tender at a affordable price. Just contact them, they will be happy to assist. About the Tender wheels - no problem, they don´t contact nor interfere with any electric parts of the Engine.

If you have any further need for help, please feel free to contact me.
This is rushing across the Atlantic in seconds - I´m a German D&RGW/RGS Modeller.
Will be off with my Army unit for three days before we will go to MAINE to see this year´s foliage season. So I would be able to respond by Sun evening or Monday before we leave

Doris and I - we love to go visit the States, love to meet new friends here-great people!!!
Kind regards
Tom

# did you get to see all the other fine items Bachmann has in stock for us?
    There are fitting C&S freightcars and they once had a C&S 0-4-0...

[Synthmusician]

Thanks for the reply Tomcat:
  Well it appears that the wire on the observation car is broken off the truck and I haven't removed the trucks yet.  BUT I don't see any brass lug to solder too.  I was a bit pensive to remove the trucks, it seemed like I needed to use to much force to remove it.  I think there might be a screw from inside the car I need to remove.  All the cars lights are out so I suspect the wheels are on wrong on all of them.

I had the top off the car last night and there is a plug setup that looks like it makes for easy light replacement.  However it does look kind of strange.  There are a set of red and white wires have been striped and stuck back together but have no tape or heat shrink to cover the exposed wire.  I don't believe that Bachmann built it this way.

The other issue is the trucks themselves seem like they are not put together correctly.  The metal portion of the truck that holds the wheels slip off and on the plastic portion of the truck quite easily.  They just seem to slide on.

I really like the look of this engine and car set.  I was looking at buying new cars but that's a bit steep right now, I'd rather get these working if possible. 

I wanted to add a sound kit somehow, since this is not a DCC setup engine I've been looking for a good alternative.  Any suggestions?

Thanks
Mark

[Tomcat]

Hi Mark,
you´re welcome - glad I can help you out with this issue.

OK-about the wiring inside the car: If you take off the roof, ythere´s the a little plug setup you mentioned. The outer (black) wires connect to the bulb, while the inner, orange/red and black wires connect to the trucks left and right side. The wires are soldered directly to that little electronic board. It should look that way.
There is no difference on standard passenger coaches, neither on Combines, RPO´s and Observation cars.
Make sure the two inner wires are connected to the trucks.

You can take off the trucks by unscrewing the outer screws - actually the bigger ones if you look from above into the passenger compartment. The (smaller) inner screws fix the parts of the car, the bigger outer ones fix the trucks. They should come off easily after taking off these screws.
Please keep in mind the wires. Check, if they are still connected, if not, solder the wire back to the truck - or, if you go and strip the wire blank for a small length, then form a "O" and drill the end of the wire together, undo the screw on the top of the truck and attach the wire by drilling it into the srew setting. That will do as well.

About the engine - I have done the DCC + Sound conversion before when I had a C&S No.22 engine, which is the correct version of all the Moguls Bachmann had made. It´s pretty tricky to convert this engine to DCC plus Sound. The Soundtraxx Tsunami Decoders work well with them. But you would need to take off the boiler and get a way to put the wires along since ther is no way to hide a Decoder in the engine. This all has to go into the Tender, there´s plenty of room for Decoder and Speaker. It´s a bit of fiddling arround, but can be done. Can heartly recommend the Tsunami decoders...

There was a wonderful conversion beeing described here some years ago, I´ll see if I can find it. Since this was a pretty "how to do..." Description plus pictures, I´ll have a search right now. If one of the folks reading this could help out - would be great.

Kind regards, Tom

[Tomcat]

Hi Mark,

it´s been Harold Minky which had done this conversion, but his side pacificcoastariliner.com seems to be down.

Anyone beeing able to help out???

Tom

[Synthmusician]

Thanks Tom:
  Thanks again for the info.  I was even considering an analog system, I seem to remember someone making one that sounded great and was designed for the 2-6-0 Bachmann Moguls.   Hey enjoy your trip to Maine..  I've been there in the past on my way to Prince Edwards Island Canada.. 

Seeya
Mark

[Tomcat]

Hi Mark,

thank you - we sure do.

Have a search here in the Bachmann forum for Sound and the Mogul, there were masses of hints given here. A simple way to have analog Sound would be to get you another Engine, what about the BLI C-16, they did various D&RGW/RGS Engines which have both options -analog and digital.

Take care!
Tom

[jcater]

Mark,

There are a couple of things here.  First, your car/light problem.  In order to remove the truck from the car body you must remove the car roof.  There are two screws in the car floor that hold the trucks in place (one on either end of the car).  Once loose SLOWLY raise the car off the trucks to observe what the heck is going on with the wiring.  There are brass plates on top of the truck that the light wires go to.  Should be a simple job to solder them back in place.  Personally, I hate lighted cars because even with constant lighting circuits they tend to "flicker" unrealistically, so I go in and snip the little buggers off!

Now then, your trucks.  These ARE tricky.  You really have to do a balancing act to get the sides on and the screws adjusted correctly.  This will take time but if you are patient it should be no problem.  MAKE SURE that the insulated wheels are placed correctly or you will cause a short.  You can see the insulated sides by looking at the back of the wheelsets where the wheel joins the axle.  Insulated wheels orient toward one side of the truck only and as mentioned above, each truck must be oriented opposite of the other.

Your damaged tender can be fixed either with parts from another manufacturer OR as mentioned above, you can replace it through Bachmann.

DCC in the mogul is dear to my heart.  I have not yet tackled the project but it is coming up.  The best guideline was Harold Minky's Pacificcoastairliner site, but that is gone.  I did manange to print a lot of this off and if you want I can send you copies of what I have.  Scout around on the net though too.  There are folks here who have done it as well as on some of the other model railroad sites (Google On30 and you will get a bunch of sites).

Anyway, good luck and hope this helps.