Hey all,

I've had an Oliver loco for months now but its never been out of the packaging.
I just went to go run it on some track to test it out with a DC controller.
The controller was set to 0 power but it was plugged in.
The second I put Oliver down on the tracks his motor started making loud noises and the loco started to slowly stutter move backwards.
Again the controller was just plugged in and no power was applied to move the loco either way.
Any thoughts what might be causing this?

So my loco's only have the Bachmann DCC decoder. I decided early on not to bother with sound or lights for my Thomas and Friends locos.
All my advice is based on my personal experience. I also only use Bachmann equipment. That means I use Bachmann decoders, the Bachmann Dynamis DCC system, and obviously, Bachmann locomotives.
If any other modelers here have more advice, or better advice, please feel free to share and correct me!

I'd recommend starting witch Duck if you happen to own him as his shell is larger than most other Thomas locos thus its easier to fit an HO scale bachmann decoder in him.

For this project you will need a decoder, some solder, a soldering pen (I got mine for 25USD at Home Depot), some flux, some shrink tubing (or electrical tape), a wire stripper, a flashlight (maybe), and a small screw driver (preferably one that works on screws for glasses).
I also like to have the locomotives assembly instructions alongside incase I am really uncertain as to how to take apart the locomotive. Usually it is a matter of removing a few screws, but some can be a little complicated, or, as in the case of Bill and Ben, the screws are hard to see (I have bad eyesight) so it helps to know where to look.

Whatever the case may be you need to unscrew the locomotive's shell.
Be careful when removing the shell as you do not want to damage the mechanism which allows the engines eyes to oscillate left and right.
I also recommend making a crude diagram to keep track of screws. I make a rectangle on a piece of paper and mark the front, rear, left, and right sides. Then I simply place the screws on this paper roughly in the places where they came from. Its not rocket science so you dont need to go overboard here.
NOTE: Keep the screws on a flat surface FAR AWAY from your soldering project. I once had screws too close to Edward, a screw ended up inside his shell, and was a literal pain in the butt to remove. Being careful at the outset makes your life a lot easier lol.
With the top off gently pop the locomotives face off as well. There is usually a tab or two that you can depress lightly and the face will pop right off. Be sure to do this from the inside of the face so as not to damage or scratch the part of the face we care to see.
With that done you will have exposed the motor and you will see the green or yellowish brown circuit board.
There will be four wires sticking out, red, black, brown, and yellow. On some of the locomotives you have to unscrew the circuit board from the motor, on some you dont. If you do, unscrew the board, if you dont you can move on.
Look at the board, the red and black wires will be attached to the board. One wire will have a L and the other will have an R. These red and black wires are your rail pickups.
You can either unsolder the wires from the circuit board or just cut them off where they connect to the board.
Now go grab your decoder. You will need to strip the following wires: red, black, grey, and orange. You dont need to strip them more than 1/2 to 1/4 of an inch. You just need enough exposed wire to solder to the wires coming from the motor.
On your decoder you simply need to connect red to red and black to black here. I take it one at a time.
I dip both red wires, the one coming from the motor and the one coming from the decoder in flux. You only need a little. The flux helps the solder adhere to the wires and makes the connection, and thus the transfer of electricity, better.
With flux on the wires you simply need to heat up your solder on your soldering pen and apply it to both red wires. This takes no time at all.
I will caution you to solder on top of a surface you do not care about damaging.
I will also caution you not to use too much solder or to make sudden moves whilst soldering. I one had a bit of solder hit my index finger on my left hand. There was a hole there for a year of so and the skin is still slightly messed up.
Taking caution into account you solder the red wire to the red wire. Then you simply apply heat NEAR the shrink tubing. Dont press the soldering pen onto the tubing as you will gunk up your soldering pen tips and you can unsolder the wires.
Once youve soldered the red and black wires its time to move on.
NOTE: Be sure to place the shrink tubing on one of the wires BEFORE SOLDERING. I have had to unsolder wires before to get the shrink tubing in place. It is rather inconvenient.
Once the black and red wires are soldered from the locomotive motor to the decoder then you have a rather confusing task. Which wires go from the decoder to the yellow and brown wires on the motor?
Normally I would link you a website I used to use, but it has since disappeared from my saved pages.
What you will do is take the grey wire from your bachmann decoder and solder it to the brown wire on your locomotive motor.
The orange wire from your decoder will connect to the yellow wire on your locomotives motor.
The white, blue, and yellow wires on your decoder can be clipped off (if you never plan to add sound or other functions). If you intend to use those wires I recommend neatly rolling them up and capping them off with some electrical tape.
From here you just tuck the decoder into the cab on the locomotives shell, pop the shell into place, screw the shell down, and replace the face.
From here you just follow the directions laid out in the Bachmann DCC system booklet in order to program the loco to your layout.
That is really it.
This looks like a good deal of work because of all the words but I wanted to break down every step as carefully as I could in order to maybe help someone.
As I have said before, if any railroaders here have better hints, tips, and tricks (or if they want to point out my mistakes) please do. We only learn from our mistakes.

Hope this helps CC55
-Striker

For what its worth I have the following Thomas & Friends locos and have put a decoder in each of them:
Duck, Donald, Edward, Toby, Bill, Ben, and Oliver.
The process of wiring your own engines for DCC is actually fairly simple with Bachmann decoders (though I presume other decoders are just as easy because of the NMRA DCC Standard).
Let me know i you have any questions!

-Striker

I'm wondering if someone here, maybe even the Bach Mann himself, could help me with an issue I am having.
I received the Bachmann Dynamis System for Christmas 2 or 3 years ago now. After about  year of use the controller stopped working.
I contacted bachmann and they replaced the handset and I had to pay shipping. It was a worthwhile deal considering the cost of a new handset.
I just added a new decoder to the Thomas and Friends Douglas locomotive and went to program the engine. My controller initially functioned fine after not being used for a year.
Slowly the controller began to malfunction. Initially my ability to scroll through locomotives was hindered and I could only scroll through locomotives by scrolling to the right. After literally a moment (I stepped away to get new batteries) the controller turned off. Upon turning it back on the controller automatically scrolled through every locomotive I had continuously and I could no longer use the unit. After a change of batteries nothing has changed. I am frustrated because I do not take my trains out often as I am a grad student, but now that I have my own place and a space for trains I cannot use them. On top of that this is the second time the handset has malfunctioned without being dropped, shocked, gotten wet, etc. I am almost beginning to regret going with the Dynamis system because of this.
Any thoughts or help is greatly appreciated.
I also want to apologize for rambling or seeming overly frustrated.

-Striker

So I've been mulling this idea over for some time now and I think I am about ready to take the plunge.
I'm just posting here first to ask other peoples impressions/comments.

I've got Edward all DCC'd but just pulling red coaches isn't enough.
After a bit of thinking I realized that one could part out Emily's coaches and combine them
with the Red Coaches.
I'd take the Red Coach roof and put it on one of Emily's carriages. Then I would just need to
fill in the front and rear ends of the coach with a putty or something and sand it down.
After that the coach would get a proper paint job and then it should be good to go.

With all that being said I want to know what you guys think?
Any recommendations on a filler for the gaps at both ends of the carriage and colors for the paint scheme would be greatly appreciated.

-Striker1945

Love the progress here man! For the wind turbines falling over I was thinking you could drill a small hole in the base of the turbines maybe 2-3inches deep then drill a hole in the table where you want the turbines to stand. Place a small rod (metal or wood, I'd say wood) in the bottom of the turbine and then you can effectively stick them into the table like you would pegs to a board. If that doesn't work I'd consider using an adhesive around the pins youve placed in the turbines. There's my two cents, take it for what its worth. Anyways I love the progress on your layout man! Keep havin' fun!

-Striker

All,

Checked battery terminals and nothing was corroded. I opened up the handset and nothing was disconnected or filled with dirt or grime of an kind. I went out and got some rechargeable energizer batteries but that did not help either. I finally decided to send the unit in to Bachmann for repair/replacement. Hopefully Im back up and running by Xmas!
Thanks for all your help though!

-Striker

The lights on the base unit produce a steady flicker, but no distinct flashing.
And what does "heavy duty batteries" consist of?

Hey all,

I've been using the basic Bachmann Dynamis DCC system for well over a year now and have been loving every minute of it.
I got home for winter break yesterday and went to run trains this morning.
When I turned on my dynamis handset all the icons on the screen lit up and it would not move from there.
I figured my batteries were dead and so I went and replace the batteries and tried again, but that failed too.
I thought maybe unplugging the control box would do something, but that also failed.
I've tried looking this issue up online, but have found nothing.
I'd really appreciate it if anyone could provide even a modicum of assistance here!!!

Thanks,
-Striker

Hey love your work!
Was wondering how you went and made the face for the laughing van?
Also did you use the body of the Ice Cream Car for the body?

-Striker1945

I'm operating DCC only on my layout. What would be considered heavy wire? I have a ton of wire laying around 12-22 gauge. Was thinking of using 16 gauge for the bus line with 20 or 22 gauge for the feeders.

Hey all Striker here!

Had a question about wiring. Im running two main loops on my layout and was wondering if i needed two main bus lines for this or could I just use one bus line to run feeders off of?

Thanks,
-Striker

Hi all,

Recently purchased an unopened Bachmann Toby engine in HO scale. Got it home after two months away at school and went to run him.
Only used a DC powerpack as I know DCC would kill him and noticed two issues right away.
First Toby doesn't seem to accelerate well and when he does accelerate I notice a grinding/straining sound.
Second when he does get going I notice that there is an electrical burning smell always present.
Not sure what is going on. Was gonna pop him open tomorrow and look inside, but I figured I'd ask here to see if anyone could help.
Maybe the Bachmann could help?

-Striker

Wow! The tunnel simply looks amazing. Looking forward to your next update!
-Striker

Hey man! Really liking what you've done so far!
Was wondering what you did to weather the track?