Bachman 2-4-0 'Linda' locomotive problems

[9626JGIL]

Hi everyone, I've recently bought a bachman 2-4-0 'Linda', and have encountered a problem. This is her traction. I have bought 2 other locos, a peco/Kato 'Prince' and a bachman bauguly-drewry loco.

Prince, as I'm sure some of you know, is a brilliant runner (well, he was until I accidentally put him in a patch of static grass and is now very jolty. Oops!), and has amazing traction due to its rubber tyres. The diesel, however, wasn't as much. It's much better detailed than 'Prince', but, due to its size, and the fact that it had no rubber tyres, made it much worse on gradients than 'Prince'. So much so, that we had to physically alter the layout to allow the loco to get from end to end.

When I bought 'Linda', although she again, had no tyres, I expected her to at least have the same power as the diesel as she was larger and heavier than the small England. I was, of course, wrong. 'Linda' couldn't even make it up the improved gradient without just stopping because of wheel slips. She wasn't hauling a very heavy load, either; she was pulling two peco L&B coaches, which are very light compared with the Ash over Light Railway coaches that bachman produces. 'Prince', however, handled them with ease.

Does anyone know of a way to attach tyres onto 'Linda', or if it's possible to access her wheels more easily? Anything would be appreciated. I know that she has beautiful detailing, but if she can't handle the gradients on my layout, she kind of becomes a useless locomotive. I absolutely love the locomotive in itself, and I really don't want to send her back. Again, anything would be hugely appreciated! Thank you! 

[B.Meldon]

What are your grades?
Perhaps they are unrealistic and that is your problem.

I have found that in 009 1 in 30 is ok, 1 in 25 is restrictive on what I can run and 1 in 20 is too steep.

I have a layout with 1 in 25 grades eased to 1 in 28 on sharp 9-inch curves.
This is very restrictive on what I can run.

There are other things that make it worse, for example using fluids to clean the track, or even worse using graphite like rail-zip for example.
Using fine grade track rubber to clean the track is better for adhesion. 
 

 

[9626JGIL]

Thank you for the info. Another thing is that the gradients are curved, so that might be a problem. I have a 1 in 50 gradient, and the loco struggles even on that, which hardly looks like a gradient at all. I've worked it out that the main issue was in fact a 1 in 20 gradient, but I wouldn't like to have to alter the gradients any more. Even so, I'll see what I can do. That's helped a lot. Thank you!

[B.Meldon]

I do fit as much lead as possible in all my locos, even the ready to run locos.
Every tiny bit helps, on scratch built locos tricks like white metal loco crew, sand pots, boiler fittings and couplings work well, I even have complete buffer beams made of lead on some locos.
As long as this is balanced on the driving wheels and does not slow the motor down this works well for me.
It improves pick up as well as traction.
I do not have a Bachmann large Hunslet so I have no idea if there is any room for lead in the body.
On other RTR locos there is often room for hidden added lead in tanks, between cylinders and even on the underside of the cab roof in some cases. 

[JulienW]

The main difference between the Bachmann locos you mention and the Kato England is that the latter has a large cast metal weight as part of the chassis block that pretty much fills the body, whereas the Bachmann ones have to have spaces for the DCC circuitry - both locos you mention have a Next 18 socket and blanking plug on a printed circuit board that takes up a lot of space, and 'Linda' will have yet more space taken up by the on board speaker.

As Brian suggests there is space within the body - certainly on Linda - that one could add some extra ballast to, and if one is prepared to sacrifice the 'play value' of the DCC side of things (firebox flicker, sound, etc) then some of the components can be removed to give more room.



This photo shows a friends Penrhyn 'Blance' with the body off whilst I was fitting a 'stay alive' capacitor system to the DCC sound chip. What is does show is the large long circuit board with the Next 18 socket (the long green thing running the length of the boiler & firebox) and the speaker box (the above and just behind the rear axle) and firebox LED (on the little circuit board below the speaker box.

The purple cylinders are the capacitors I fitted, along with the extra circuit board (the stay alive controller) sitting on top of the DCC chip. All the extra bits (just!) fit inside the saddle tank.

As can be seen this all takes up a lot of space, and if you are prepared to undertake the modifications (that would undoubtedly void any warranty provided by Bachmann) all of the electronics could be removed and the motor wired direct to the pick ups. The space could then be filled with lead ballast.

Even if you wanted to retain the electronics I suspect that there would be some space under the saddle tank for a bit of extra weight and still retain the ability to fit a DCC chip at some point in the future.

A note of caution though - these locos are designed with axle bearings to accept the weight of the standard loco, and adding extra weight could result in premature wear / failure of these parts.

As to your other question you could fit 'traction tyres' to Linda, but these usually sit in a grove that is machined into the thread of the wheel which (again) would need some modification to the loco (and a lathe?) and removal of the motion to fit the tyres.  As an alternative there is a product called 'Bullfrog Snot' that can be painted onto the wheel treads that will replicate the traction tyres seen on the Kato Prince, but the downside is that this will reduce the pick up from those wheels.  'Proper' traction tyres will do the same, which is why the Kato England locos have tender pick ups yet the chassis that were availble - no tender to pick up from - comes with wheels that do not have the grove to take the rubber tyres.

If you remove the loco's keeper plate you can get better access to the wheels, but there are pick up strips bent around the gear driven axle that keep that one pretty much in place, and the square axle bearings make refitting a bit of a juggling act, both to get them at the right angle and in the right place relative to the slot machined into the chassis block.

Ultimately you may have to accept that friction does not scale very well, and that the 4mm scale model will find it hard to haul the same length trains as the full size loco.

Hope that helps,
Julien

[Alec Hudson]

Julien
Is that the sound decoder supplied with the loco? I ask as I didn't think they had solder pads on them for the stay alive to be fitted.
Thanks Alec

[JulienW]

No it isn't Alec.  I can't recall the exact model number but it's an aftermarket Zimo with Tramfabriek sound (and about 2 years old now so maybe not the MS591N18 they currently sell).  The stay alive system is the Zimo STACO4A using the supplied capacitors.

Edit: I checked the loco on one of my weekly visits to the friend and it's an MS590n18.

[9626JGIL]

Thanks guys. That's been very useful. I managed to get a version that doesn't have a speaker, so I'm not sure if that does anything to the weight. I'm not sure if bachman would add extra weight to make up for the lack of speakers. Also, regarding bullfrog snot, do you guys have any recommendations for the type; online I've seen very different prices from different manufacturers. Do you know which is best?

[JulienW]

First off all versions of the locos will have a speaker fitted at the factory. The only difference between the 'Sound fitted' locos and the rest is that the former have a sound chip fitted into the Next 18 socket instead of the blanking plug on the 'DCC ready) versions (the sound fitted ones come with the blanking plug in a little bag in the box - certainly my WD Baldwin did as does the WHR version that's in the Heritage Collection as an example of the first rtr production DCC sound loco for 009).

The speaker is about the size of my thumbnail and like most electronic components will not contribute anything to the overall weight. By contrast a bit of lead the same size would weigh much more, but as mentioned above Bachmann always fit a speaker regardless whether they fit a sound chip or not.

Regarding bullfrog snot it's not anything I've ever needed to use (I try to avoid anything that would interfere with the loco's pick up) so I can't make any recommendations, sorry.