Quote from: MOP on September 15, 2023, 11:59:55 PM@jward. Thank you for the detailed and informative reply. So here is something interesting. I took a 9V battery and touched it to the two metal terminals on the motor and it came to life. The lights came on and the wheels started moving. So what do we make of that? Why would the motor not work on the track but will work with a 9V battery?

Ao far you've tested the motor. It works.

You've tested the controller. It also works.

Have you measures the voltage betwen the two rails? with no locomotive on the track it should read similar to the controller. If this also works, then.....

You mentioned that there was a wire loose on the locomotive. I suspect this is the cause of your problems, but we need to find out where it goes. With the locomotive on the track and the power turned on, touch the wire to a metal wheel on either one side of the locomotive or the other. If the disconnected wire is the problem, tapping one of the wheels should get it to move. Make a note of which side the wheel is on, because that is the side the wire needs to be connected to.

Quote from: MOP on September 15, 2023, 12:20:17 PMThere are two distinct ports, AC and DC. I have it connected to DC and it reads 18 volts. Yes, the voltage varies and changes polarity. Do you think the high voltage may have caused the motor to burn?

I am unable to move the wheels manually. Should they move? If the motor is jammed then what can I do about it, anything or is it irreparable?
 

The voltage should be fine. VOltage readings can be affected by the internal circuitry of the power supply. It does seem a little high but without a load like a locomotive it's not going to read exactly 12 volts. I won't go into electronic theory here other than to say that voltage across any given point in a circuit is related to the resistance across that point as compared to the rest of the circuit. If you are reading between the rails with nothing on the track the meter sees it as an open circuit (infinite resistance) and will read the entire voltage output of the power supply. Add the locomotive to the track and even if it's not moving it is no longer an open circuit and the voltage reading drops accordingly.

As for the pancake motor, my experience with these are that yes, you should be able to turn the wheels by hand, but they won't free roll. There will be quite a bit of resistance. That you're not able to do that points to either motor damage or a gear bind. SOmetomes, grit gets in the fears that can prevent the wheels from turning. Usually in that case, they won't turn one direction, but you can roll them back the other direction until the gears bind again. If that is the case, I'd completely disassemble the gears, looking at each one carefully under a magnifier for anything in the gear teeth. If you find anything, remove it. DO this for each gear, and put it back together.

The motor itself in Bachmann locomotives of that era was very cheaply made, with plastic bearings that would overheat when the motor got hot. If there was enough heat to soften the plastic, the motor would seize. As a teenager, I worked for a display railroad where we ran alot of Bachmann locomotives. Under heavy usage we ran into seized motors quite often, and the owner had a supply of power trucks which we swapped out as needed. Even then, with parts readily available for these locomotives, there was no way I knew of to fix a seized motor. If there was, we'd have worked on them during the slow periods when we had no visitors and the railroad was shut down.

As trainman has said, in the long run you'd probably be better off with a newer locomotive. Bachmann has refined these old train set GP40s into a nice running, decent quality locomotive and I have at least a dozen of them. The pancake motor is long gone, and I haven't seen them listed in the Bachmann parts store for several years. If you do have a seized motor, you might be able to find a similar locomotive for cheap at a train show that is in working order and use it as a parts source to repair the locomotive you have. But you will still be dealing with the same drawbacks of the original locomotive.

I was fortunate enough to live on a streetcar line in Pittsburgh, and I rode the PCC cars every day. Like the Bachmann model, ours were single ended. Backing them up was only done in the yard or in emergency situations out on the line. Thus they would look a bit odd doing the autoreverse thing on a layout. You'd be better off using a double ended streetcar for the trolley line unless you make a loop out of it.

That said, the PCCs are beautiful cars and I enjoyed riding them very much. It was amazing riding them at rush hour, and meeting maybe 15-20 cars heading the opposite way. That is an experience that cannot be duplicated to-day.

There is also a magazine called Garden Railways that caters to outdoor large scale trains. I often see it in Barnes & Nobles. This should be able to point you in the right direction.

The old pancake motor. I usually try to avoid those, because the newer locomotives are so much better.

First, that 18v reading you were getting, is it AC or DC? It should be DC and lower than 18 volts. 18v sounds like typical AC voltage. Can you vary the voltage by turning the speed control knob? Can you reverse the polarity by moving the knob left or right of center? If you answered yes to these questions your controller is good.

The motor is geared directly to the wheels through spur gears. There is no worm so you should be able to turn the wheels by hand. If you can do that, the motor is not seized.

You should have a set of test leads, the kind with alligator clips on the end. With those, you can clip one end to the rails, and the and the other to the contacts on the motor. If it runs then the motor is good and your problem is in the wiring.

There is another reason you haven't mentioned. DC is simple to understand, easy to troubleshoot, and any mistakes aren't going to potentially burn up expensive equipment. Plus, any locomotive you buy is going to be able to run on DC unless it is DCC and somebody has disabled the analog cunversion setting in the decoder.

I can understand starting out in DC, getting to know and understand the basic wiring and what pitfalls to avoid, then switching over to DCC at a later date. Keep it simple at first, before you introduce the level of complexity DCC can bring. There really is no simple way to introduce DCC and have a fully functional system. DCC locomotives can lose their programming and require a reset that some DCC systems are unable to perform. That is not the case with DC. No programming involved with DC. No figuring out how to hardwire a decoder into an older locomotive, no potential for a dead short on the track that can pull 5 amps or more and render an expensive system a brick.

There is always the option to bend your own handrails. Personally, I prefer the metal handrails to the plastic ones that come on most models these days.

The simplest way to do this is to use Atlas Selectors. https://shop.atlasrr.com/p-54-selector.aspx

To wire your layout as drawn you'll need two, one for each track. Note that these devices have inputs for two seperate controllers, meaning that is you fully wire them either of your controllers will be able to run a train anywhere on the layout.

Wire them according to this diagram: https://trains4u.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/IMG_20200722_112839__01__01.jpg

Note that the insulated joints are only on the outermost rail of the track. You can adapt the diagram to your own layout, where you have drawn the insulated joints in the correct locations.

As Len has said, use the dummy plug if you are going to run it on DC.

Pretty much anything the real StJ&LC ran including its successors as well, would run well on 18r. I visited the line in 1979 when it was the Lamoille Valley, and they were running RS3s at that time. Will you have a covered bridge on your layout?

Quote from: jgilchrist800 on September 08, 2023, 03:59:15 PMThe engine is brand new, bought from one of the major train dealers. When I set CV=8 I did turn off the power and turn it back on, but lights didn't come on. The lights only come when I push the light button on the Pro-Cab. I'm also getting a buzz now when I throttle the engine.
I did set up a separate track and hooked up 16 volts; the engine worked perfect, except the sounds did not work.

By "hooking the track up to 16 volts" do you mean you tested it on DC, and it worked perfectly there?

Easiest wayis to get a 9 volt battery with the snap in termnals. Touch the terminals to the wheels and it should run. This is also a good way to test secondhand locomotives at a train show before you buy.

Any 4 axle diesel up to and including GP40s will work well on 18r. Also, small 6 axles like the SD9, SD35, Alco RSD5, FM Train Master. Basically, anything up to about 60 scale feet in length. But with the longer engines you have to be careful not to couple them to short cars like ore cars of they will derail on curves. I am running all of the above on handlaid code 83 track with 18r curves.

Have you tried the locomotive on DC?

Have you checked the wheel guage?