I have one of the early Climax units.  I love it dearly but would like to upgrade it to DCC and Sound.  Now that Bachman offers such a unit, can mine be upgraded by you?

Hey guys,
  Thanks for the help.  Am i missing something.  All I see for service is an 800 number and a 215 Fax number.  Was there something else?

  Not really impressed with this group.  If I have an axle out of gauge, people think you can fix it with more weight?  I have tried squeezing it while twisting it but the gauge does not change.  I have even removed a wheel and put it back onto the axle.  But I can narrow its gauge.

  Fireman Fred?  I suspect it is not there at all.  This Tsunami has different programming and function keys than the standard one you buy separately.  The ads for this engine don't list it as a feature.  I miss the shoveling, ratcheting, and greasing sounds.

   Do you think that maybe I could get some more axles from Bachman that would be in gauge?  Wonder if I have any kind of receipt.  Bought it from MicroMart recently.  Frustrating when you spend good money for engine that won't run.

  I could steal one from an older engine I have but I was hoping to fix the problem with its pickups no longer touching the wheels.  Wonder how such a  thing happens over time?

  Alan C.

Hi,
   This is very frustrating.  So far, I have gotten no useful answers.  A friend bought a larger Spectrum steamer with sound recently.  He was not able to program it even with help from someone knowledgeable in sound engines so he returned it to the seller.  Is that my option?

   The tender wheels are out of gauge.  No  one can tell me how to fix it.  If it hops over the frog on a switch will more weight make it hop less?

   I have never seen one of these engines with cables coming out of the tender; I have 2, my club has 2-3, plus other members.

   Can Bachman offer no useful and accurate advice?

   Alan C.

Hi,
   You didn't respond to the last message so thought I would try again. 

   The cables from the loco to the plug in the tender are so long, they drag along the ties looking to catch on something.  You told me that the cables come out of the tender and by opening the tender I could shorten them.  Sorry, but they come out of the loco.  So I should open the loco?

   I did find that the tender has one wide gauge axle that picks a couple frogs on my layout.  I am not sure how to narrow it.  I have tried twisting and compressing the wheels together.  The wheel with the plastic center seems to be forced onto the axle but I was not successful in changing its gauge.  Any chance I could get a correctly gauged wheel set?

   Alan C.

Whoa here,
   The cable comes of out the loco and plugs into sockets on the front of the tender.  So how am I supposed to shorten the cable by opening the tender.  There seems to be quite a few people complaining that their tender does not track.  Mine derails on some of my Walthers' turnouts that have been in place for a long time.  The wheels appear to be in gauge and the trucks rotate freely.  Next chance I get, I will unplug the cables from the tender and then just roll the tender through the Walthers' turnouts to see what is happening.  Could it be the wheel flange size is too much?  My older 2-8-0 does not have this problem.

   I used to have a rule to always buy steamers locally where I could see it run before I bought it.  I did not follow it this time or with the older 2-8-0, which was a mail-order Xmas gift from the wife.

   Spectrum had the Fireman Fred removed form the the Tsunami sounds?  Is that correct?  That was one of my favorite items.  I sometimes park another engine near my workbench so I can listen to the various sounds as I work.  Sounds like shoveling, greasing, wrenching, etc.  I suppose removing sounds means a cheaper processor or ROM to save money.

   Alan C.

Hi,
   This is hard with so many people responding and  not always to me.

   Ok guys.  The tender has pickups on all axles and yes the axles are insulated at one end.  I have cleaned all of these.  One truck picks up one rail and the other picks up the other rail.  10 years ago the loco did one rail and the tender did the other but these days the tenders usually pick up both rails.

  Problem - the loco has wipers behind the wheels.  Most of these do not touch the wheels.  Are they supposed to?  How do I fix this? ?

  What I meant to say was not that the loco won't run below half throttle but that it would stall unless it had enough momentum.  I have other engines including a brand new one of these running on that track and they don't exhibit the problem. 

   I guess I need to make sure that all the wheel wipers do touch the wheels and also whether the backs of the wheels are dirty.

  I love this type of loco and intend to use it as my main road engine if I can solve this problem.

   Alan C.

Hi,
   I have an early model Spectrum 2-8-0.  It never ran great like some I have seen but after 10 hours of breakin, it loosened up a good bit.  Lately it acts as if it has dirty wheels.  Unless it is run at half speed, it dies.  Also it had a Soundtrax sound unit installed several years ago, the one made for this loco.

   I have cleaned the wheels but no help.  I don't know what to expect looking at the wipers.  Most of them do not touch the back of the wheels.  Are they all supposed to?  If they don't and are supposed to, how do I fix that?

  Thanks

I just received a Spectrum 2-8-0 Consolidation with DCC & Sound On-Board.  Although it included a CD and lots of programming information, it included nothing about putting the tender and loco together.

  They use very small connectors and I don't know how to run the oversized cables.  The tender is lifted off the track by the cables.  I compared it against an older model unit which had the cables routed on each side of the drawbar.  This one had the drawbar right through the middle of the cable.  I removed the drawbar and changed it to the way the older one was.  It seems with oversized cables they need to bend out sideways.

   Right now the larger cable drags along the ties while the shorter cable tries to lift the tender.  It derails on one of my Walthers turnouts that has been in place for many years.  Possibly one of the trucks is not gauged correctly.

   Any help on what we are supposed to do with this?