Bachmann diesel pickups

[kgreen]

Hello I have a H-16 44 engine that has caused a lot of grief.  its been sitting idle for probably two or three years.  Today I decided to take it apart and see if I could get it to run.  I run DC as i have no need for multiple trains on a 36" by 72" door layout.  Firstly I applied power to the motor and it runs.  Next I took the engine totally apart and put It together again.  Couldnt see anything wrong.  Years ago I soldered a tiny brass piece on the light board as  it broke off.  when I put it back on track the bugger runs again.  Do all of their engines have these fragile wipers for pickup.  Also the tabs on the light board seem delicate.  Hope everyone is safe and well.  Thanks Kirk

[Sharky_McSharknose]

Off the top of my head, I know the B-mann SD45 with Econami, GE 44-tonner, and the 2003 run of the Dash 8-40C/CW have those wipers. You are right in that they are fragile and tend to bend away from the chassis. Bachmann learned their lesson with the current version of the Dash 8s w/ Econami because the truck pickups have wire leads. I have the SD45 and the club layout has a 44-tonner. The SD45 is a stuttery mess. The 44-tonner was the same way until I bent the wipers back into position and applied some contact cleaner to the touch points. The 44-tonner's pickup performance is now far better than before. I will try this technique on the SD45 at some point.

[peteski]

My version of 44-tonner pickup modification is in https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=32605 . It did make big difference.

[wm3798]

I wrote a review of the H-16-44 some time ago, about when it was first released.  While I liked it overall, I was frustrated that Bachmann had continued to use a high friction, low reliability pick up wiper system.
In the end, mind ended up in the parts bin, and I built a dummy slug for my BL2 out of its carcass.

Lee

[kgreen]

Im guessing it is the light board  it quit again  it actually ran quite decent around the layout a bit

[wm3798]

See if you can solder a jumper from the frame contacts to the motor contacts to bypass all the DCC trinkets on the board.  You should be able to nick any connections to the decoder stuff so you can run pure DC.

Either that or dispense with the board in its entirety and work out a direct pick up from the motor to the two halves of the frame, at least temporarily to test drive it.

Lee