Question about N-Scale Bachman Northern 4-8-4


J

JHansen

Member
Hello everyone. I'm very new to model railroading and will probably need to mine the wealth of info on here but today I have a single question. I purchased a NIB Bachman Nothern 4-8-4 in N-Scale and it seems to be a bit quirky. It doesn't perform well at slow speeds, jerking and sometimes stopping altogether. Sometimes when it stops it will start again without assistance but sometimes needs a nudge. At first I thought it just needed breaking in but now it has a couple of hours on it and is still doing the same, although it does seem a little better. I considered a track problem but I have another smaller loco by Kato that will crawl around the track without a problem. So my question is, do I just need to run the loco more, is this a common problem with this loco, or is mine in particular defective? Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,
John
 
First, clean your track. That might be the problem. But the Bachmann engines are low quality, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was the problem.
 
I was afraid someone was going to say that about Bachman. I bought the loco online and then the guy who runs one of the local hobby shops didn't quite come out and say they were inferior but did direct me toward Kato. The smaller Kato loco runs beautifully on the same track that the 4-8-4 has trouble on. The track itself is Kato and nearly new. It's too bad about the 4-8-4 because I really wanted a large steam loco.

Thanks for the info,
John
 
There are at least 3 "versions" of the Bachmann....the oldest came in a paper box, followed by a plastic box with a flip up lid, and now the new"Spectrum" box. each version is better than the last, but there haven't been any major improvements. I have a second version that overall runs good with only occasional stoppages if the track isn't 100%. On the plus side, it will pull better than every other steamer I have. The BigBoy and Challenger (maybe the 2-8-8-2 with traction tires) might do better, but I don't have those for comparison. If you have the 1st version, you're proably stuck with what you have, although Bachmann might "trade up" to the newest version for a nominal fee if you send it in and explain the problem.
 
Well, I discovered part of the problem. This evening the front trucks kept jumping the track so the gunsmith in me took over. I may not know much about electric trains but certain mechanical principles apply regardless. I went over the loco and discovered that the screw that holds the front truck in place was backed way off and the one for the rear truck (please feel free to correct me if I'm using the wrong terms) was a little loose. I snugged them down and the loco is less jerky and will run at slower speeds than before without stopping.

MRLDave...this one came in a plastic box with a removable lid. It also had knuckle couplers. I think it must be the latest version. Thanks for the info. I'm learning as fast as I can.

John
 
Sounds like you DO have the newest version.......another thing you might check is the gauge on the wheels. Bachmanns are notorious for being out of gauge even brand new.......which causes a lot of the "crappy Bachmanns" we hear about all the time. It can cause erratic running, derailments, lack of pulling power, ect. If you really want to make it run good, you can set it up so the tender also picks up power.
 
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