"Train Set" 4-6-0

[Bob S]

Perusing the latest MR, saw an ad (Micro Mark) for a Bachmann trainset with a 4-6-0.   Looking at the pix real close, it showed a Spectrum tender (still the way too big and modern "medium USRA") hitched to the engine in the "normal" way, suggesting a non-DCC locomotive.  Just what I need ... a non-DCC, simplified (no external valve gear) easily converted to a reasonable tender.  Micro Mark had no stock, but I found a seller on our favorite auction site (sarcasm is only one of the many service I offer) that had one in stock.  Arrived today.

Hitched a Spectrum "slope back" tender to it, and it ran smoothly ... for about a foot... then stalled.  Nudge, repeat, ad nauseum.  There was obviously some pickup problem going on here.  "Lifted the hood" to see what was going on.  One screw aft of the rear driver, disconnect the pilot deck braces, and the whole boiler/cab pivots up, forward and off.  The motor leads run forward in a groove to the microscopic LED board for the headlight, which is screwed to both sides of the split frame chassis.  Could be a couple of things going on: one or both of the screws could be loose, or something funky could be going on in that tiny PC board for the light.   I took the easy route, snipped the motor wires from the light board, and ran them aft and out beneath to cab, soldered them to the contact strips in the Spectrum tender, and VOILA!  Smooth, reliable slow speed performance, creeps through the insulated frogs of the Peco Setrack turnouts in my small 2x3 layout.  The tender bodies from the Model Power/MRC 2-6-0 or 4-4-0 will slip on the Bachmann slop back Spectrum tender, with only a few styrene strips on the sides. I have a few of these that were "converted" to HOn30, so the tender bodies were available for this project.  Now I have a smooth running 4-6-0 that is passable for any of the Belfast and Moosehead Lake (former Bangor and Arrostook) 4-6-0's.


There may be no motivation for Bachmann to offer this simplified loco for sale separately, but I paid a little over $100 for the entire "set".  I have no use for the rest of the set, so I may substitute one of the new USRA 0-6-0 or 2-6-2 Prairie locos that I have, and donate the set somewhere.


BTW, Bachmann seems to be very conservative in their minimum radius recommendations ... they recommend 11-1/2 (?) radius, and that is what is included in the set.   FWIW, this 4-6-0 has no problem with the 9" Peco Setrack on my small layout.


Just thought you'd like to know ......


Respectfully,
Bob S.

[brokemoto]

What you did was to work around the weak point in the SPECTRUM tender to locomotive electric transmission (although the Ten Wheeler is actually a Standard Line product).   It is something that I would not have considered, but it worked and it is something to keep in mind for future reference; overall, a good thought.

When the first SPECTRUM steam locomotive appeared, the 2-8-0, there were several people who noted the problem of electric transmission from tender to locomotive.  Several of them hardwired the locomotive to the tender by running leads from somewhere on the locomotive or the motor to the contact strips in the tender.  All reported favourable results.  The difficult part of that is removing then replacing the contact strips.  They are held onto the tender floor by melted plastic nubs.  If you can solder something to those strips without removing them and without damaging the tender, you are far more skilled with a soldering iron than many out here.

If you do find a later SPECTRUM tender, it has a plug'n'play decoder ready fixture.  You can solder a wire to the outer two prongs on each side and it will work for DC only operation.

The weak point in the whole business is the front truck/stiff wires/contact post assembly.  Both trucks have needlepoint axle pick-up.  On the front truck, the tab makes contact with the stiff wire.  Both tab and stiff wire can accumulate dirt, which must be removed.  Further, if the stiff wire is not bent properly, it does not make proper contact with the tab on the truck.  At the other end of the drawbar, the stiff wire and split contact post on the locomotive can get dirty, thus compromising the electrical transmission.  You must clean both stiff wire and both sides of the split post.  I use LL track cleaner on a Q-tip, let it dry then use a sanding stick.  Next, you must make sure that the stiff wires are making proper contact with the split post on the locomotive.  In fact, this is the usual culprit when these things do stall frequently.  Often, simply bending in the stiff wires and cleaning all contact surfaces solves the problem.

There are two important things to keep in mind when dealing with N scale steam:

1.  Enemy Numero Uno of all things N scale is dirt, Dirt, DIRT, DIRT, DIRT, DIRT and DIRT;

2.  Miranda's Maxim as explained by ke:  The poor performance of many N scale steam locomotives is almost always attributable to poor electrical contact.


The manufacturers' addressing Number Two has resulted in some very nicely performing N scale steam locomotives over the past few years.  More than a few of us can remember when the only decent N scale steam locomotive out there was the Con-Cor Hudson.  The first two breakthroughs after that did not come for many years.  Those were the Kato Mikado and the Bachmann SPECTRUM Consolidated.  In fact, those two are still the yardsticks by which N scale steam is measured.

[Bob S]

My answer is to hardwire everything.  This is a modified MDC 2-6-0:



You probably recognize the boiler as "borrowed" from a Bachmann USRA 0-6-0, with the cab lengthened slightly.  Here's what's under the tender body:




The tender is a shortened Pre-spectrum Bachmann short USRA with Kato caboose trucks hard wired.  This was the first one I did, and I lopped off the flywheel to fit the Bachmann coal bunker.  Performance did not suffer with the "missing" flywheel, but on the later conversions that I did, I cut a hole in the rear deck of the tender body to clear the flywheel, and "hid" it with a toolbox.   If you look closely at the tender on the 2-8-0, you can see the "toolbox.  





These are still the smoothest running small steam that I have.  I have not gotten around to eliminating the contact strips in the tender I have on the 4-6-0 ... but I will.   Even though soldering the motor leads to the contact strips was not particularly challenging, I still like to eliminate as many of the sliding contacts as possible.  I have not taken any pix of the 4-6-0 setup yet, but I will.  I don't think the Spectrum Slope-Back tender ever came with any sort of "board" in it, but the length is about perfect for the B&ML engines, so that's what I used.


Respectfully,
Bob S,