Bachmann 2-8-4 Berkshire/Kanawha in stock at M.B. Klein

[victor miranda]

hmmm. tough call.

where you have the hitch, it could be either.

quartering issues often move around depending on direction of rotation

lets state the tight spot is 4:30
in forward(clockwise) the hitch may appear at 3:30
and in the reverse it may appear at 5.

the gear test is pretty easy. move the driver about an 8th of a turn on the driving gear.

that is easy if you have only one driven gear... if you get the hitch at 6 or 3 oclock
then it is the gear.

the gear shift will separate the possible causes.

.. if the hitch stays the same... it is quartering or siderod/cranks.

victor

[Chris333]

I will probably know tomorrow, but is the boiler shell metal?

[BeastofTheEast]

I was under the impression that most post 2000 steamers were pretty good.

Lots of experience here. Years of solid toy like driver spokes, improperly milled frame pieces, unfixable duck wabbling, brand new traction tires that are unevenly formed, new valve gears falling apart, misaligned body details like the assemblers dont even care, random glitching and short circuiting happening with the lil steamer, growly motors. I own 2-8-0s, heavy 4-8-2s, The J, light 2-10-2, SF 4-8-4, 0-6-0, 2-6-6-2, 2-6-0. No I dont feel very pleased, I keep giving them a chance hoping the next unit will be positive.

I read people praising Bachmann's newer steam, but when I get hold of them, they dont live up to the hype. The EM-1 their highest achievement and it still has issues. Tender too far from engine, mine has the metal casing around the motor milled incorrectly so the flywheel scrapes it and slows the motor rotation.  But it does run silently and it is quite heavy and deliver good traction.

They are far behind their HO counterparts.

[sizemore]

Yeah it's metal. Tender floor is pretty heavy too. I got the boiler off, just unscrew the screw beneath the cab/firepan and slide it forward.

So I think I have it figured out. I took the shell off and removed the bottom plate. I flipped her on her back again and hooked her up to with some alligator clips. I ran it watching the wheels go round and round. The third driver was getting just a bump of vertical movement. If the rods were completely free I shouldn't get any vertical movement. So I did the finger stall test again. This time when it hitched I immediately cut the power. Using tweezers I checked all four side rods. The two rear (D3-D4) side rods were "free" the two forward (D1-D3) were tight. So tight that they have no side to side on their pins.

The S.

[MVW]

I think the heavy mtn is not a good value at the 180 I paid.

the 2-6-0 and 4-6-0 are both nice runners and with DCC
they are almost good values.... the replacement motor is pricey.
I warn against buying these in the used market.
the motor is a tad difficult to replace.
at the 90 dollars I recall I paid, I feel I should get more service life.

victor

OK, this may be why I have a considerably higher opinion of these particular Bachmann offerings. I only paid $107 (new, with shipping) for the heavy Mountain, and $68 (new, with shipping) for the 4-6-0. My Mountain is three years old, the 4-6-0 is two years old. I can't claim to have extensive run time on 'em, but they have been trouble-free when in use. So at those prices, I consider 'em darn near a steal.

Jim

[victor miranda]

welcome to 'value'

I think the hvy mtn is worth 107 dollars.
... I might not buy it anyway, because it is not the size I want.
b-mann is using a motor with brushblocks in that model so it should survive a long time.

I don't know about the motor in your 4-6-0,
in that b-mann may have improved it over the one I ran.
I doubt this, and who knows?

I guess it is worth 68.
I want the motor in it to be available some other way than in a 45 dollar chassis.

oddly enough I think I'd buy a new one for the 68, when I need another.
they are good runners.

victor
 

[sizemore]

To tag onto my previous post I did a siderods and drivers tear down of the locomotive last night. Using reaming tools I gently enlarged the D3 pivot hole on both D1-D3 rods. It has eliminated the slight bind I found, however the loco still hitches. Next steps will be guts tear down and check the gears.

So thinking I may have gotten the "runt" of a litter. On Tuesday I purchased a second Bachmann Berk, thinking I'd return the poorer runner of the two. It came in today, it exhibits the same issues. It hitches in the low speed steps (1-5), I didnt take note of the time on the clock. At 7 and higher it runs OK.

The S.

EDIT: Both hitch at 11 & 5...found out late last night.

[Chris333]

Without seeing the loco myself, I would say it is a driver with loose bearing blocks (or loose slots they ride in) allowing the driver to gyrate as it runs.

[Chris333]

Got mine today. Not really impressed. As for the sound and DCC it is pretty much like a LifeLike 2-8-8-2 I have. You have to turn the throttle up to here:

Before the thing even turns on. And I hate the cheezy shoveling coal and whistle sounds.

And it looks like the rear 2 drivers gyrate. It is hard to tell with the white wall tires painted on. When I run it slow there is a hitch once per revolution. Sometimes it stops at that hitch and the decoder resets and does whatever decoders do.

I guess the next thing to do is wire it up direct so I can see what is going on.

[Kentuckian]

My first impressions, but first a disclaimer:  this is my first sound equipped steam loco, so maybe I'm easily impressed. 

I have two, and one of them does have a slight hitch at slow speeds.  I did find out that it runs better if you remove the packing foam between the firebox and trailing truck.  One had this, the other one didn't.  Hopefully the hitch will smooth out after some running.  On my little HCD layout with an NCE system the loco seems to run pretty fast at 4, so I am going to have to work on the speed table.  The whistle seems to be pre-timed; it doesn't matter how long I press the button, it is on for the same amount of time, so I can't do longs and shorts.  I had to hunt for the headlight to confirm it was on, the tender light is much brighter.  These are the cons.

I really like the way it looks, and like the sound system besides the whistle.  It is loud to me in my basement.  It will take some tweaking, but so far I am satisfied with it at the street price.

[Chris333]

I would love to have the sound, but on DC a hate the limited speed control. FWIW the sound was nice and loud.

I pulled the tender and tucked the motor wires to the frame clip. Then I chucked up a regular Bachmann tender since the draw bars are the same. The speed control is much better now. The front 2 drivers were the only wheels that weren't narrow in gauge. I widened the rear 2 drivers along with the trailing and pilot wheels. This might not matter with Atlas turnouts, I have all hand laid.

Still had a little hitch that was much worse when pulling a train. I messed with the quarter of the rear driver and everything seems to be running correctly now. All the valve gear is very loose with a bunch of slop. It would be very easy for it to get caught on the drive rod on its upper travels.

Must say I have a new found respect for my Life Like Berk now. It looks like a fine tuned machine going down the rails while the Bachmann looks like an amish buggy. The rear drivers still "look" like they gyrate, but the hitch is gone now.

[jdcolombo]

Here's my 2 cents.

On DCC (Digitrax Chief system) my NKP 759 is a little ragged at slow speeds, but smooths out above 10 on a Digitrax DT402 throttle.   I think the raggedness at low speed isn't the mechanism at all, but rather the Tsunami's BEMF system - I've seen this behavior before when I installed a TSU in a Challenger and a LL Berk, and it is why I generally have given up using the Tsunami for motor control.  I've got a train show this weekend, but after that I'm going to play with the BEMF CV's in the Tsunami and see if I can smooth it out.  If not, I might try a Zimo MX621 for motor control and see what happens.  A good beer bets that the raggedness at slow speeds is the decoder, not the engine itself.

The sound is at best OK - it is "thin" and the whistle doesn't project as it should.  I'll have to open up the tender and see what I can do about replacing the stock speaker with a Knowles Dumbo or Fox (I have a few of these left from a buy a year ago) in a sealed enclosure; that should improve the sound dramatically.

The detail on the boiler shell is excellent, and the engine pulled 25 weighted cars around my flat layout without problem.  That is a very big plus in comparison to the LL version.  The LL drivers seem to me to look better, but maybe that's just because the white paint on the driver tire is distracting.   That will come off soon.

So the short summary is that so far, it's "OK" but I think could be vastly improved in both sound and slow-speed running.   I'll keep the three that I've got, do some tweaking, and see what kind of performance I can eke out.

John C.

[sizemore]

The front 2 drivers were the only wheels that weren't narrow in gauge. I widened the rear 2 drivers along with the trailing and pilot wheels....

I messed with the quarter of the rear driver...

How did you do this my good sir...? The wheels are metal on... there must be a bushing isnt there?

The S.

[Chris333]

How did you do this my good sir...? The wheels are metal on... there must be a bushing isnt there?

The S.

Just slid an exacto down between the wheel and frame and twist so that I'm pushing out on the side nearest to the axle. To mess with the quarter I just grabbed the wheels with fingers and spun. If it keeps on running nice I will tack the driver center with ACC.

[Mark5]

Still no pics!