Questions and Answers Bachman 4

Questions and Answers
Bachmann 4-8-2 Heavy Mountain Locomotive operation

I installed a TH150 plug-in decoder. Detached the capacitor to the motor on the circuit board in the cylinder tender. I noticed that the contact for the Bachmann Spectrum Heavy Mountain (4-8-2) is not great, even prior to the decoder installation. It seems that intermittent contact is created from the tender pickups. Seeing how you deal with many installations, I was wondering if you had any suggestions on making better contact?

I found the problem...it was in the locomotive! The contact wiper bars are connected to one piece of metal stock, inside each set of driver wheels. This stock metal piece then extends a wiper that contacts to a + or - plate under the locomotive. One of the wipers was not quite touching. I bent it towards the plate and now it runs fine.

Thanks,

Jay Edison