# Bachmann Spectrum guidance issue and solution.



## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

Well I got the 4-4-0 and while i am not ready to give away all of it's beauty and pictures and possibly a video perhaps?, Hmmm? I will let all of you know that an issue or rather something that can happen and how to fix it if you are haveing it with your Bachmann Spectrum steam engines.

Here is a picture of her.








http://profile.imageshack.us/user/gc53dfgc
Now the issue that you may or may not have is the front or even the rear trailling wheels jumping or coming off the tracks. Now some have thought this was because of the air hose on the couplers and this can sometimes be the case if the originals have been replaced. This however doesn't happen if it is a new locomotive, the couplers where never changed, or the couplers were replaced with the same # couplers that it had before. So onto the investigateing.








The coupler air hose that in some cases can be the cause of a problem but as can be seen here it is well above the track rails. So we investigate further into how and when this is happening. Actually slowly walking along with the train at a low speed makes it so that everything that goes wrong can be easily seen and will greatly help with finding the source of the problem. In my case it was the front leading trucks that were only derailing on curves and the engine being an 4-4-0 should have easily been able to handle them so we go and look at this particular area of the locomotive.








Here we see where the coupler bottom piece that holds the coupler on is indeed faceing the correct direction. This can sometimes actually get turned around and faceing the other direction if you replace the cow catcher on the front of the loco like I changed mine from a modern "boring" all steel catcher to a more classical steel catcher with slits down it vertically. Now this picture is of after I discovered and fixed the problem but this did happen and it actually caused the engines front leading truck to derail.








Here is another good way to see what is wrong. I placed some old, ok very old brass & carboard tied flex track and bent it to a curve that was a lot tighter then the curves on my layout, not sure what radius and how much more but definatly more then my layout. You can then slowly and gently push or pull the locomotive around the curve and see if it manages it. Before I fixed that one coupler houseing piece it would not even do a curve three times this or something like that. After fixing the piece the wheels on the front truck do stop turning but it manages to go around it without derailing much to my suprise. So that is a simple thing that can cause a large problem on Bachmann Spectrum engines where you can remove the cow catcher and replace it with one of the other ones they provide. Probably not the most interesting thread but I figured it would help those that are scratching their heads trying to figure out how to fix this issue. I might post some more in this thread when the other two engines arrive if they have more problems also that are simple to fix. Oh and the new belt drives, not sure what to say about them at the moment. They seem to have a lot more jumping to them at the low speeds and can't handle to low of a speed but this could be because the belt/motors need a work in period that was not desired with the older geared engines or the engine might actually need some oil as it is brand new and never used before and been sitting on a shelf for who knows how long so i will give that one some consideration but figureing out this new drive ssytem and the apropriate places to oil will be quite the challenge.








Simple comparison shot to show the extreme radius. (Left) Rivarossi 4-6-2 Heavy Pacific-the engine would not make the turn if it was under real power and had its tender instead of bieng pushed without. (Right) Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0 (tiny) Hope you enjoyed this thread and helped you with any issues and problem solving steps on these new age engines.


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## haphall (Feb 1, 2011)

A great thread gc. I've got my eye on a 4-4-0. I want one. This will definitely be kept in mind. Does the Spectrum come with DCC?


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

All current locomotives in the Spectrum line come with full DCC. Most of their steamers are Tsunami sound equipped DCC. This one however is just a DCC and not a sound engine. I just couldn't afford another sound engine after the NYC 4-6-0 that I bought.


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