Bachmann Consul problems

garrymartin

My Family,Railways, Beer and the Seaside
Country flag
About 18 months ago I bought a Bachmann 2-8-0 from a dealer on e-bay which was advertised as new. The dealer was US based. I spent the intervening time , removing the W.P.& Y paint job , & repainting it black. (reattaching the many pieces of detailing that dropped off along the way, & rebuilding the tender bogie that disintegrated of its own accord.)Anyway the great day came to give it a run. After lubing it up as per instructions ,I placed it on the track & applied the power. I could hear the motor running but it didn't appear to be transmitting its power through the gearbox. I have removed the outer gearbox cover & noted that the cog within just spins on it's axel. It does not appear to be making contact with any other gears.
If anybody has any idea's on how to proceed i would be most grateful
Cheers Garry
 
Hi Garry,

i sounds like a well known problem with the connies. They are quite heavy models, and for some reason, they seem to be a bit easy to damage while posting in its package.
The damage may come from a ditch or fall with what the loco moved a bit in the package, while the whole energy was to be taken by the gearwheel.
I heard of that and had the same problem, too.

If you are a bit fix with working and handling, kate out the geared axle and give the cogwheel a test: perhaps its broken and doesnt stick fix on the axle.
Maybe it just will break completely while working.
I replaced the plastic-wheel with a metal wheel from the RC-cars equipment (the have wheels for the motoraxles...one of them fits exactly the diameter and cogcount). But u need to drill it out exactly round-running with about 4,9 or 5 mm if i remind right on the axle diameter of the connie.

Its a bit annoying, but with me, the delivering service really made it to be 2 times broken, so, the second loco stayed with me and was repaired.

Greetings

Frank
 
I aggree with the prev reply the connies are prone to transit damage, the tender bogie frames especially are very fragile, Bachmann UK spares dept provided me with spares for these at no charge a few years back!

If the loco does not work as it should then really you should have complained to the seller and if that didnt work then eBay should have been involved. However probably too mch time has elapsed now, It would have perhaps been wise to test it an receipt .

I know its probably not much use to you now but HATTONS are offereing some Consolidation variants at quite low prices Check via http://www.ehattons.com/ < Link To www.ehattons.com goto manufacturers - Bachmann USA -- G scale steam. their price of £225 is around HALF of what some retailers are listing them at!!
 
I digress, I know, but I had a Triang 00 B12 which did just that, I sold it on e-bay, but made sure that the bidders knew all about the fault. Incidentally, when I saw the word "Consul" I immediately went back to my Ford Consul days, but you don't want to hear that story. Overhead camshafts????
 
Glengrant said:
I digress, I know, but I had a Triang 00 B12 which did just that, I sold it on e-bay, but made sure that the bidders knew all about the fault. Incidentally, when I saw the word "Consul" I immediately went back to my Ford Consul days, but you don't want to hear that story. Overhead camshafts????

...out of balance wheels....?
 
garrymartin said:
... the tender bogie that disintegrated of its own accord.

They're known for that - the screws used to attach the sideframes to the bolsters are too short on early production runs and the bogies can litterally fall apart if they experience too much sideways force. This can happen if try to run the loco round curves that are too tight causing the cab fall plate to foul the tender - precisely what happened to mine when I first ran it! I had 3 bogie frames fail in the first few hours of running. The fix is simple, just re-attach the sideframes using longer self-tapping screws. No problems at all since.

There are also problems noted with the motor sometimes not being tightly mounted to the chassis, causing rapid stripping of the gears if not rectified - but this doesn't sound like the problem you've discovered with yours?

Frank's suggestion to look further afield for replacement gears is worth considering. Last year I sourced replacement gears for a Toytrain Porter much more cheaply than genuine LGB components. As he says, you need to take accurate measurements of the diameter and the number of teeth, from which you can calculate the "Mod" value which you need to know when ordering gears.
 
Just looked on the Bachmann website, unsurprisingly the top selling spare part is the driving wheel assembly at $20. So I suppose I will have to bite the bullet & buy one . Thanks for your advice Frank but I think this will be the quicker simpler option. Although I did /am considering replacing the whole gearbox with brass alternatives.
I will never buy Bachmann again!
The modern day epoch L.G.B. Mallet will have to travel back in time & take over from the ex U.S Army Transport Corps loco on heavy freight. So how did a Mallet end up in the UK in the early 50's?
 
I would not judge the whole Bachmann loco inventory just becasue of one faulty loco, the fault in which may not have been Bachmann's fault there are many thousands of Bachmann locos giving long and faultless servece around the world.

I think the lesson here is to perhaps TEST a new aquisition immediatley it is received and not wait for 18 months!
 
Totally agree with Steve. OK so I experienced a "known problem" with my Connie as mentioned in my previous post, but it was an easy fix and the loco's been 100% reliable ever since. I'd buy another Bachmann Connie without question. Same goes for the Bachmann Shay, Mallett and Davenport I've bought more recently, they're lovely models. They're in a different league to the "cheap and cheerful" Big Haulers that Bachmann started out with.
 
I do not recall " judging" the entire Bachmann range. I have 4 other loco's from their range of model's & I merely said I wouldn't buy another one. This is my choice based on my experience. The fact that it did not run out of the box after an 18 month wait is neither here nor there.
 
Well you appear to have dismissed Bachmann ....from your statement others unfamiliar with their range of locos might just be put off buying them!

And there are lessons to be learned from your unfortunate experience, simply to test on recept any new OR S/H loco, on reciept ... that way anything faulty can be rectified or refunded!
 
Yes I agree I should have tested it, my comments were probably born from frustration! I think another lesson to be learned is that the consolidation model may be prone to transit damage ( See Coyote97's post) & you may be best served by picking up the model yourself. I will order the replacement drive wheel set & take it from there.
Cheers Garry
 
Hi All

Can anyone tell me what sort of job it is to change the drive gear? I have some on their way from Bachmann and just wondered how much work there is in changing it.

Thanks

Paul
 
As mentioned in the link re disassembly of the Connie, a much better gear is available from NorthWestShortLine ( www.nwsl.com) and it is $12.95 + post they have a quick service.
 
Sadly, Conie's problems have been frequently documented, the main three being the drive gear, the con rods (dropping off) and the tender bogies.

I've never had a problem with the main drive yet - says he hastily crossing his legs, touching the wood on the top of he head, etc etc........
I treated all of the con rod bolts and main gearbox bolts with some Loctite on receipt of the loco
The bogies fell apart after a couple of years or so, and I rebuilt them with some new bits from Bachmann (FOC) and modified the mountings so the the bogie side frames cold be mounted the right way up, and thus achieved some compensation on each bogie (one side frame pivots on its mount on each bogie)

That said, this model was Bachmann's first leap into the higher detail area of Fn3, and when you take a close look at the loco, it reveals many of the design issues which are likely to arise with overseas outsourcing; Bachmann are not the only G Scale manufacturer to have fallen into this trap.

Like others, they appear to have learned, and the subsequent models - the 1:20.3 mogul, the K27 and the Biles-Coleman Mallet all seem to show that Bachmann have raised their game.

That said, the Connie, with all its faults, is IMHO worth buying at £200 :bigsmile::bigsmile::bigsmile:
 
However, having said all that...

It's worth persevering with Cussed Connie, because although she's a bit fat, she runs beautifully, on account of the sprung driving axles :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
I recently read and have checked that the Bachman US site now lists replacement gears in its spares list as well as the complete drive axle with or without wheels. I have not checked whether the UK site shows these parts. There is a US source of replacement metal gears but I cannot find the details at present.
 
There is a replacement brass gear on its axle on the Bachmann USA site for $10. I contacted Bachmann UK and they have replacement nylon gears for £1 each (plus £3 postage to Spain). I've ordered 3 and I'm still waiting for them 2 weeks after later.
 
Back
Top Bottom