Forney issues

[d. calloway]

Bill, Sorry to here about all of the problems you have had with Bachmann locomotives,I  cannot say I have had that trouble. Ijust got into On30 last year with the ten wheelers and mine have been run alot with no problems at all!!(ET&WNC)  I switched from H.O. when they came out. I have two of these and am getting ready to buy another one with sound. I hope Bachmann is addressing these issues because I really like this scale and think it has great promise. Will let you know if I have any problems with my engines.   Dwayne Calloway

[railtwister]

Hi Dwayne,

Thanks for responding. Splitting plastic gears on model locos is not a new problem, it has been going on for many years, and can affect all types of locos, even very expensive brass ones. This is not caused by normal wear and tear, or customer abuse of any kind, but can occur on locos that have never been run, even ones that are still sealed in the factory shrink-wrap. Frequently, by the time the defect is discovered, the manufacturer or importer has gone out of business, and you are then stuck with a display model that cannot operate. If replacement gears are available, then at least the problem is more of an annoyance than a serious problem. The frustration begins when a manufacturer or importer denies that there is a problem and fails or refuses to do anything to rectify the situation, or expects the customer to foot the bill for a problem that is clearly a factory defect. It's not so easy to shrug your shoulders and write it off when a locomotive costs several hundred dollars instead of twenty or thirty dollars like the old days.

In the case of Bachmann On30 locos, the big culprits seem to be the geared logging locos like the Shay, Climax, and the little rail-truck. There have been many reports of this on the various groups since these models were introduced, and the numbers seem to be increasing as time goes on. There also have been spotty reports of similar problems in the Porters (presently out of production), and the little Davenport side-rod gas-mechanical switcher. From the time they were first released, the Forneys had a widely publicized problem with their cylinder sets being broken due to inadequate packaging protection, and up to now, the reports were that Bachmann had been making good on these. Subsequent shipments had modifications made to the packaging that supposedly corrected the problem. I guess now that the Forneys have been on the dealers shelves for a couple of years Bachmann has decided that they no longer need to stand behind their product, using the excuse that these must now all be used locomotives (I have a local dealer that has several Forneys on his shelves, still sealed in the factory shrink-wrap, along with a couple that have been opened to be put in the display case. Apparently, the only way to demonstrate that the loco is new and not used, is if the shrink-wrap is still intact, but the only way to detect the cracked cylinder saddle defect is to open the box, effectively making it a used locomotive as far as Bachmann is concerned, and therefore eligible for a not insignificant "service charge".

Hopefully, if you don't have any of these models in your collection, you won't see this problem.

Regards,
Bill

[lvrr325]

Incredibly, the engine just about caught on fire, for real, tonight.  I've run it around a 10x14 loop about 4 or 5 times; I start it out tonight it gets about 8 feet and quits.  Will go in reverse but not forward.  I noticed a burned smell, so I pull the coal load and take the decoder out.  It's melted the shrink wrap over one of the chips.  Applying power again trying to see the problem, the chip glows bright orange-white and smokes!

Further playing with the dummy pins I'm guessing one of the components on the tender PC board has failed, as with one side installed it creates a dead short and one resistor gets hot. 

But had I left it to run and break in and it did this, or it quit inside a tunnel where I couldn't see the problem as fast as I did, there's a good shot it would have caught fire before the circuit breaker tripped. 

I'm just about beyond words at this one.  I have portable transistor radios from the 60s that have been beat around and work just fine - even if this thing is old stock, the PC board has a June 2006 date on it, it's four years old tops, and stuff is dead on it already?

[C.S.R.R. Manager]

My only suggestion at this point is that you might consider removing the problematic DCC system altogether and converting the loco to DC only.  I once bought a 2-8-0 from a seller on Ebay, only to discover that a DCC system had been poorly installed.  I uninstalled it, wired the  motor to pull power directly from the rails, and it runs perfectly, and silently.

Either that, or install an entirely new DCC system.

manager

[the Bach-man]

Dear LV,
Please send the loco back to the service department right away.
thanks!
the Bach-man

[d. calloway]

Bill, I have a problem with everything being made in China these days. I know it is a cost issue, but the quality suffers. I used to drive a semi-truck for Broyhill furniture and watch them close almost every plant down (over seven thousand peoplelaid off) mostly in my home county, And now the quality is awlful!!!!!!  I am very glad we have so many options in modeling now, but I would like to see it made here and would pay a little more as long as quality was good.  D. Calloway

[lvrr325]

Of course to remove the DCC means you can't use the headlight, since the short is in the loco elsewhere meaning the PC board would need to be amputated as well and the LED in the headlight won't last long on 12-16V.


In any case, after many many emails, explaining the decoder issue several times, the woman who was the most help taking a few days off, I finally was assured if I sent it in they'd replace it, so I sent it in last Friday and checked in today to find out they've already sent a new replacement.  Hopefully the new one arrives in good shape and I can move on to the next thing. 

[lvrr325]

Warranty replacement arrived today, sealed NIB.  Ran it a couple laps around the layout; these things really should have a coupler on the back with the shank offset to the bottom of the knuckle, but that's a production issue.  (they're low compared to Bachmann rolling stock and come uncoupled at the end of grades and the like).