Bachmann Thomas series freight and passenger cars

Madman

Madman

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Who here has some of the Bachmann Thomas series cars? I'm curious as to how they perform on the track. I see that the Emily coaches have center blind wheels. Are there any issues with these on curves or turnouts?
 
I have Annie and Clarabel; I've had no problems on curves and they generally go through R1 points OK although I have had the occasional derailment. However, that has usually been down the to grandsons's having disturbed the wheels in some way. The axles pop out quite easily, but they also pop back easily. Also, one of my R1s is on a 1 in 30 slope (it forms a temporary loop during line extension) and that does give some issues when approaching from the diverging route; but then it does that for a number of other things too and I can't really say I'm surprised; it will be going when the expansion presently under way is complete.

My two (currently aged 6 and 2) have not been able to do any serious damage to them in more than a year of strenous play. The couplers, however, do damage fairly easily but luckily I have quite a few spare from other Bachmann items. If I run out, it will be Kadees; even the boys couldn't damage them.
 
My kids also have the thomas & percy sets.
We ran into a problem with reverse moves around the R1 curves (because we moved the trains outside, the Bachmann track has been replaced by Aristo stainless curves and nickel-silver 8' ribbons). Several slow motion derailments revealed that the buffers on the cars were locking together in the curve and forcing derailments going into the straights.

I ended up using H&L loops (minus the hooks) as the new buffer and used three links of chain as the new couplers. It seemed to work for the lousy trackwork on the Freedom Central's Sodor Secondary.
 
jgallaway81 said:
My kids also have the thomas & percy sets.
We ran into a problem with reverse moves around the R1 curves (because we moved the trains outside, the Bachmann track has been replaced by Aristo stainless curves and nickel-silver 8' ribbons). Several slow motion derailments revealed that the buffers on the cars were locking together in the curve and forcing derailments going into the straights.

I ended up using H&L loops (minus the hooks) as the new buffer and used three links of chain as the new couplers. It seemed to work for the lousy trackwork on the Freedom Central's Sodor Secondary.
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I wouldn't give much thought to backing these cars up, especially through switches. I have some trouble even with LGB four wheeled cars in the back-up mode. The only real sucess I have in shunting cars is with eight wheeled cars and the small four wheeled field type wagons. Even then I have added lead weight to all of them which greatly enhanses their performance along with metal wheels.

It's alot of work to keep all of my track perfectly level, as it floats on screenings (crusher fines). The geometry of the wheels on the eight wheeled cars, along with the field cars is what keeps them running true though turnouts when backing up, in my observations.
 
I received Troublesom Trucks #s1 & 2 and put them to the test behind my modified Thomas. The two gondolas tracked very well, even through turnouts. I did observe slight bumping across the frogs however. It seems that the flanges are slightly smaller than those on normal Bachmann and LGB wheels. That may be the culprit.
 
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