Hello all you knowledgeable chaps out there. I have just tested my double fairlie and found that one power bogie works perfectly, the other makes a horrible grindy noise followed by locking up. It may be gear meshing problems, the quartering looks fine, It runs for a short while then doesn't!
Can anyone suggest any remedies? It was bought from ebay, so I don't suppose Bachmann will be interested
Thanks in advance
Ken Jones
In the first instance I would contact the seller on eBay, especially if the issue you found on testing the loco on arrival was not mentioned in the description - unless it was specifically listed as 'untested' or 'sold as seen' (and even then one could argue it's difficult to assess the running from still photos if this is not mentioned in the description). They may be willing to offer a partial refund as an issue such as you describe should have been mentioned in the original listing, and if the running issue was not present then it can only have been damaged in transit, in which case I would expect the seller to offer a refund if you return the loco to them (it's what I would do as a seller).
If it was sold as 'New' then you may be able to add the fact that the loco is 'not of merchantable quality' (particularly if the seller is a business rather than an private individual), but if not then the usual auction rule of 'buyer beware' apply (so you are somewhat stuck with the loco, sorry).
If that doesn't get you any joy then I would contact Bachmann. Whilst I suspect they will not be able to offer a free repair under their own warranty (assuming it was sold as 2nd hand and not new) they may be willing to advise as to what the issue could be and may even be able to offer a repair at your cost.
To be honest I've not heard of any issues with the Bachmann Fairlies (there have been some quatering issue reported with the mainline Hunslets that have been repaired under warranty). From your description it sounds as if the one bogie may be binding slightly, possibly due to bad quatering or there is something else in the gear train (foreign object like a bit of ballast or moulding defect) that's causing the gears to lock up, and that's causing the worm to climb out of mesh and slip resulting in the 'grinding' noise.
It will probably take a full strip down to find the problem, but if you want to give that a try it might be worth contacting the seller first, and then Bachmann for their advice, before trying the DIY approach.
If on stripping things down you can't find anything wrong, and reassembly just brings the problem back you could try a second strip down and leaving the gearing out when putting things back so that the suspect bogie just goes around for the ride but is not driven.