Rick, thanks !

Once I got the shells off, all three units had multiple cracked gears.

Between the three units there were no interchangeable gears so . . . I kind of liked the GP35 so I converted it into a B-unit. I tried to do the same with the two GP40s but they don't roll very well so I've put them up for sale for parts in multiple places.

Bachmanians,

I recently bought 2 Bachmann GP40s and a GP35 at a yard sale. All three are the OLD ones with pancake motors and only the front truck drive. A few questions :

*How do I lubricate the pancake motor ? Maybe a tiny drop of oil on the motor shafts on each side ? A little bit of gear grease in the little slots around the shafts where I can see the gears ?

*How do I lubricate the gears in the trucks ? This doesn't look easy; I can't see any visible way to open up the bottom of the truck assemblies.

*When the GP35 runs, it has a clicking sound - is this the gear drive 'click of death' ? Or is it perhaps something else that's repairable ?

*One of the GP40s is factory painted gold with UP lettering & trim. I seem to recall that this was a locomotive in a set. Was there a UP gold painted locomotive in real life ?

Thanks for any and all information !

I appreciate very much Bachmann's Code of Conduct for their forums. I would have added this as a reply to the original Code of Conduct thread but it's been locked. And my post here may be redundant and taken down but here goes . . . .

Today on another model train forum (not a Bachmann forum), I had an encounter with a guy that was just downright nasty. He took exception to something I said about a post on some causes of derailments; I was just repeating what had been said in another thread and wasn't even saying it in a negative context. But this guy stopped just short of publicly calling me a liar. I did a little digging and he's obviously an extremely accomplished model railroader - he's likely forgotten more about the hobby than I'll ever know. But even so, don't wear your superior knowledge on your sleeve. In one way or another, we're all here seeing a bit of help. I hear all the time about 'our hobby's dying'. . . . yep; and it's guys like that who are highballing it's demise on the mainline. In fact, the reason that I was on that particular thread was to get some information for someone  that is brand new to the hobby . . . and had just had a very rude experience with a train store owner !

There's an old saying that goes, "If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all." Keeping this hobby going is enough of a challenge; let's not add to the challenge.

Update 1: Today, the guy posted a challenge to me on the aforementioned forum thread to prove with a link to what I'd quoted from another thread. Really ? If I had the knowledge and layout that this guy had, picking fights with strangers would be the last thing I'd waste my time doing !

All:

Are the side rails that go in front of the cab on a 'regular' Bachmann GE B-23-7 locomotive interchangeable with those on a Bachmann Plus GE B-30-7 locomotive ?  I can't tell just from photos. If they're kinda close, then maybe I could make them work; but otherwise I don't want to order useless parts.

Quote from: graywolf on January 01, 2021, 07:20:46 AM
How about trying a magnet?
[/quote

Good idea ! And the magnet says . . . . steel.]

Brass & steel, yes. Steel & nickel maybe not so much. But if I understand, Bachmann never made nickel track - just plan steel?

Quote from: Trainman203 on December 31, 2020, 04:36:20 PM
The roadbed color is what's important to this question.

I know that Atlas code 100 is black but that's for both their brass & nickel. This is older stuff that I'm trying to determine if it's just plain steel.

Veteran Bachmannians : In the course of clearing out some of my junk, I've come across some older pieces of Bachmann-branded track that are silver with black ties. Does anyone know if this is nickel-silver or is it just plain steel ?

Thanks folks !

I have an MRC Tech IV 260 that's dead. MRC's Service Department will not look at it so I gotta do it myself. Does anyone happen to know if the fasteners that are used to hold the box together are some sort of oddball screw or rivets ? I've tried several Allen wrenches to no avail. . . .

Got a call from the Bachmann Service Department today and it was a nice conversation. If I understood the tech, he's going to just put the shell down on a new everything including the dark gray truck frames that I requested for their flat-rate $35 non-warranty fee and get it in the mail to me on Tuesday. He's also upgrading me to 8-wheel drive versus 4-wheel on the old unit for no extra charge.

He thought that the problem was a broken or defective gear in the drive truck. He added that my unit was 'really different' in that it was only 4-wheel drive but with a can motor; and a slightly different one that what they used. I think that perhaps he saw that even thought it was old, it was new-old-stock and made the decision to just send me a replacement.

While I'm sure it's that my timing was just right, they're turning around my repair in less than two weeks !

Quote from: rich1998 on June 30, 2020, 03:00:56 PM
"Yes. Powered truck leading makes sense.
I thought I saw a worm above the un-powered truck is why I said look at the truck and see if any gears might have been in the truck at one time."

No, no gears in the front truck; and I got it out of a sealed box so not modified.

I did speak with the Bachmann Service Department today and have made the decision to sent it to them for repair. Repair + shipping is about the same cost of ordering parts and trying to fix it myself; and they've got tons more experience at it than I do.

BTW, they also confirmed that this was a 'custom set' that was made just for Great Planes Models and was only sold by them. They were surprised that it wasn't a pancake motor . . .

Quote from: jward on June 28, 2020, 01:21:56 PM
On this locomotive are the trucks held in place by a pin that slides through a hole in both the truck and the chassis?

No; the trucks are held in place by a screw that goes through the top part of the body into a circular plastic piece that attaches with two screws to the truck body. The plastic piece is circular also and so it swivels within the body above the trucks. If I tighten the screw too much, the truck assembly is too stiff, doesn't travel/steer adequately through the curves and derails. If the screw is too loose, the rear axle of the rear (and only drive) truck kicks out to the right when both starting and stopping the loco. I cannot seem to find the 'sweet spot' adjustment.

Quote from: rich1998 on June 28, 2020, 05:58:41 PM
Possibly cracked gear and previous owner stripped gears out of truck. That does make sense.

Rich

I doubt it. The likely scenario was that my dad bought it and he wouldn't have even ran it much less taken the shell off. When I first took it out of the box, I looked at the wheels and there wasn't a spot on them.

Another possibility is that by virtue of it not being AWD, it's simply a defective unit via a production issue.

No, the only time it will stay on the track is if I run it in reverse with the powered truck leading . . .

I have three separate B&O passenger trains in HO scale. I'd suggest a good place to start would be eBay. It will at least give you an idea of what was made and how much you could expect to pay for it. You probably have more experience with trains than I do but someone else might read this so . . . while I don't purchase a ton of train items off of there, my experience has been 1)"In very good condition" from the seller is not always accurate. One thing that helps is to see if the seller has other train items as non-train folks can be a little over-generous on their descriptions. 2) If I have a choice between a car that's a kit or already assembled, I'll go with the kit because the person that did the glue work might not be as neat as I'd be. 3) Look carefully at the photos as 'shows some use' can range from a scratch on a corner to a corner being broken off. At a minimum, there should be 4 photos showing both sides, top & bottom of the car/engine. Also make a note of the type (or absence of ) couplers. There's some good B&O stuff out there, you just have to dig for it.

Rich,

I don't know if it's a pancake motor per se . . . but it's a different one from the one shown on Bachmann's parts diagram for the 'regular' GP-40. (Unfortunately I can't seem to figure out how to get attachments down to the limit of 128k here so I can't post scans of both diagrams for comparison.)

I think I'll give the Bachmann Service Department a call Monday and see what they say.

For what it's worth, this set was sold by a 3rd party "Great Planes Model Distributors" which is apparently now owned by a company "Horizon Hobby". Both are mostly RC airplane companies but I did manage to track down an old phone # that Horizon had for 'train questions'. The main thing I'm curious about is when these sets were sold; but it's like tracking down something that was made for Sears 30 years ago. . . .

Charlie