On30 Rail Bus detailing

[robert]

Can anyone tell me how to get the body off the On30 railbus. Mine needs a driver and a few passengers and I don't want to bust anything trying to do the job.
Thanks
Robert

[DWU]

If you have the exploded photo that came with it,it will help.Theirs a screw under the drive shaft,you must remove the rear cover(4 screws) then you remove the driveshaft.On the back truckbed is a rectangular black box,remove the lid,theirs another screw inside that helps hold the body on,take your time the screws are tiny,it sounds bad but its not,

[NarrowMinded]

DWU, are those the instuctions for the Rail BUS? Sound the simular to the rail TRUCK...
I have a truck  but have never had a bus, im curious if they are the same.

NM-Jeff

[2foot6]

Hi Narrow minded       They both suffer the same problem,   stripping gears   

[railtwister]

2foot6,

Are you sure the RailBUS has the same gear problems as the RailTRUCK? If so, this is the first complaint I've heard about the Railbus, although I've heard many complaints about the Railtruck, and of course, also the Shays and Climaxes.

Bill in FL 

[mabloodhound]

There has been a number of gear problems with the railbus, posted on other forums.   Split gears seem to be the norm and there are no replacements.   One modeler got 10 minutes out of his before it quit.

[railtwister]

There has been a number of gear problems with the railbus, posted on other forums.   Split gears seem to be the norm and there are no replacements.   One modeler got 10 minutes out of his before it quit.

Bummer!

I found the Bachmann Railbus gear problems thread posted over on rail line forums. I wonder why I didn't see any similar complaints posted on this forum? This is very disappointing because I purchased one of the Railbuses right after they first came out that I have never run. I thought (and hoped) when I bought the Railbus, that Bachmann had corrected the gear problems that began with their release of the Shays, Climax, and Railtruck, but it's obvious that was not the case. I guess it will join my two Shays, Climax, and Railtruck on my "Bachmann Shelf of Shame". Since I have a couple of other pieces that I have not run yet, I guess I'd better set up a test track and try them out, although I don't know what good it will do, since they were all purchased over a year ago, and replacing them with new items using the same gears won't fix the problem anyway.

Bill in FL

[DWU]

My mistake,I misread,I thought it was for the railtruck not thr railbus,SORRY!Dont do too much work to it,it wont work for long!

[2foot6]

Hi Railtwister,    the problem with my railbus is the small pinion gear at the end of the  long drive shaft inside the gear box./The gear is slipping on the shaft because it has split,i will attempt to glue it to the shaft when i can build up some courage or in the long term replace the drive system ,perhaps with something used in slot cars.Has any one tried using slot car drives,as they used to be metal(a long time ago,far far away)?
regards Peter 

[2foot6]

As a follow up note---- my rail bus is about three years old,being used for a total of about two hours,i feel part of the problem with the gears could be aging and shrinkage,I,m not an expert,but in my working career in tele communications equipment,some items suffered a similar problem of plastics cracking,especially when fitted to a metal shaft.

[railtwister]

I, too, thought about slot cars from many years ago, but those gearsets were quite  a bit bigger than what I've seen in my Shay, although I haven't taken my Railbus out of the box yet, it's never been run at all. Somehow, the idea of shrinkage doesn't make the thought of split gears on my 5 On30 locos any less painful. And, as I've said in other posts, "Split Gear Syndrome" is nothing new, look at the list of all the replacement gears for brass locomotives shown on NWSL's website. I also model in HO, and Proto 2000 HO diesels have a bad reputation for this problem, as do some Athearn HO drives, though not as common. At least Athearn offers replacement gears for a reasonable price ($3.98/12pk, not the $25 per loco that was quoted for Bachmann's replacement gears for the Shay). Walthers never has the P2k gears in stock, and their "Lifetime Warranty" is as much of a load of crap as Bachmann's. For this reason, I will not buy any P2k products of any kind (including rolling stock), period. I have also come to the same decision for Bachmann products, although I might consider new releases in On30 rolling stock line, only because I consider their freight & passenger cars to be pretty decent quality, even though I consider their current price structure (even street prices) to be over-priced.

Bill in FL