# Non Working Engine Question



## JoeA (Jan 17, 2012)

Hello fellow enthusiasts,

I am not the most technically proficient person and I would thus like to ask for some help with a dead engine if I may?

It is a Bachman Spectrum HO steam engine. It is the Baldwin 2-8-0 model. It is about ten years old and recently stopped running. It seems to have just seized up so to speak.

I do not know what is wrong. I have not ventured to take it part as of yet. Is it worth doing so? Is this something that I can repair on my own? How best should I proceed?

I know that is not much to go on so I do thank you for reading this post and taking the time to provide your advice or point my in the right direction to get started.

Best regards,

Joe


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Joe, welcome to the forum! IMHO, it is always worthwhile to open up a locomotive that stopped running. The worst thing that can happen is you learn how your locomotive works as you discover it's not repairable, and knowledge is valuable.

I don't run HO and defer to those who do, but I can offer a few observations. First, verify it's actually getting power: dirty rails and dirty pickup wheels will stop it just as effectively as a burnt-out motor. If it's getting power and the wheels are clean, open her up and look for the obvious things like a loose wire or a wad of dust or string wound up inside. Those aside, the two most frequent train-stoppers are lack of lubrication and worn or dirty brushes and armatures. At ten years old, it may be both in need of lubrication and work on the brushes and armatures.

If you post your progress or ask questions as you go along, you'll find people will jump in with information and answers to guide you.

Best of luck on an early recovery!


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## Massey (Apr 16, 2011)

I have a couple of these engines and for the most part they have been great runners. I would look in the tender first as that is where the diodes for the light control are as with the DCC quick plug. Also check the wires between the tender and cab to make sure that there are no wires that have broken from age and flexing.

Clean wheels on both the tender and engine are important as all wheels pick up power for this engine. There are wipers on the inside tops of the loco's drivers and this is an area that gets dirty but not cleaned all the time. THe tender wheels need to be cleaned by hand as there is no drive for them. Taking the shell off the engine is a little more difficult than the tender and I do not remember off the top of my head how to do it. I would have to pull out one of my engines to refresh my memory.

Massey


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## JoeA (Jan 17, 2012)

Reckers and Massey,

Thank you for your kind and timely advice. I will give it a try and let you how it turns out or perhaps yell for help.

Best regards,

Joe


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

I think I remember reading a story about a guy who had a bachmann daylight 4-8-4 northern freeze up. It was an older model. He called bachmann to get some parts and they said to send it in. They sent him a whole new engine (the newer version).

Not sure if they'd do it for you, but it's worth a try.


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## ptl5spd (Nov 22, 2011)

Remember if you manage to find out it's a failed motor you do get a limited lifetime warranty with bachmann, so they say. I haven't managed to give that a try though.


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## JoeA (Jan 17, 2012)

Santafe158 & ptl5spd,

Thank you for the good advice. I will try to contact Bachman as you suggest. However, one of my goals though is to also learn how to do some of these repairs on my own, something that I also hope that I can teach to my sons who also enjoy model railroading.

Any further advice is always wecome.

Best regards,

Joe


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