Wow, there was a package on my porch when I got home today and it was the 3 truck shay.

Now for the bad news. The service order said that the trucks were replaced but that the decoder had been modified and that this locomotive was dcc only, not sound equipped. I even sent the documentation back to them that clearly states that it is a sound equipped loco with LC series decoder by Sountraxx. It has a Bachmann logo on the front of the instruction booklet for the decoder. It also has the Bachmann orange stickers on the outside of the box warning that it is to be run on DCC only because it is equipped with a Sountraxx LC Series Digital SOUND DECODER. They never tried to call or e-mail me with any options for the repair. They even had the nerve to send me a bill.

So much for customer service. Very disappointing that people working in the service department don't know as much about Bachmann products as modelers on this forum do.

Thanks again for the replies.

As it turns out, I did have all the correct screws removed. It was just a really tight fit and possibly some paint as suggested.

After some prying and prodding I finally have the boiler/cab assembly off.

I tried to run it again with the same results. I will now need to remove the lower plate and split the frame to check the belt and drivetrain.

Thanks for the reply Warflight but I had removed the screw under the front truck before I made my original post.

I have the cab off and removed 2 screws that come down from the top inside the cab into the running boards. The boiler still won't budge.

In the parts section of this site they show a complete chassis so I have been trying to study that for a clue as to what is still holding it together.

Thank you to all for the replies.

I decided to send the loco back to Bachmann for an out of warranty repair.

They have had it for about a week now and I have not heard back from the service department yet.

Will post the results here.

I bought a new/non running Spectrum 4-4-0 as another repair challenge.

It is the dcc model in the red box, item #80106.

It looks brand new in the box but someone has been into it.

First problem was easy to find inside the tender. the decoder had been removed and a jumper plug installed. The locomotive still did not run after plugging in a known good decoder. I also eliminated the possibility of a wiring problem in the tender by running this tender behind a known good loco.

The problem has to be in the locomotive either wiring or motor.

After looking at the parts breakdown I am attempting to remove the boiler and cab assemblies to get to the frame /motor.

I have removed the 2 small phillips screws under the cab and it seems to be loose but the boiler is still tight to the frame. I have also removed a screw under the leading truck between the cylinders.


What am I missing? It is not really clear from the parts breakdown what holds the boiler to the frame.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The code on the inside of the box lid is 020812.

It does have the warning labels on the outside of the box that it is DCC only. I did not try to run it on dc, only with an NCE powercab.

Do you happen to know if I send it back to Bachmann and pay the $45.00 out of warranty charge if they would replace the decoder?

Also found out this evening that one of the bevel drive gears is already split in half so the rest will probably soon follow.

Do the replacement side frames from Bachmann have better gears? I have a set of the NWSL gears that I bought about 3 months ago for the first one of these shays that I bought about 4 months ago.

Thanks for the reply.

I recently purchased a new old stock HO 80 ton 3 truck shay locomotive with the factory installed DCC sound decoder. It is Bachmann item # 81909 and has the orange stickers on the outside of the box that it is equipped with the Soundtraxx LC series digital sound decoder.

It was sealed in the factory cellophane when I got it.

I opened it and put it on my test track. It runs ok and the lights work but the sound output is so low that you can barely hear it. I adjusted the CV for the master volume to the max allowable but no change. I set the CV for the chuff volume to max and it came up a little but still barely audible.

I really do not want to send the loco back to see if it can be repaired by the factory if it is something simple that I can repair.

Any ideas where to start? Bad speaker? Is this a common problem. I already know that I will have to replace the drive gears at some point.