I am usually a very patient person but I’m losing my patience with Bachmann Industries Parts Department. I emailed them last week to see if they could sell a replacement PC board that is in the G-Scale 55-Ton Shay water tank…mine is looking a bit tired. No response. I then called this morning and had to leave a message…no return phone call.
What has happened to professional courtesy of a timely service response?
Has anyone else had issues with them?
Richard
I just bought some parts from them online yesterday and they shipped the parts to me this morning with no problems. I did not however, talk or contact them though.
They are terrible about anything even slightly resembling personal contact, so no phone contact and no email contact. The best bet is to order it directly thru the online purchasing system like Denah did.
It might be time to change out your electronics for a new update system. I personally have gone with Rail Pro battery power and love it, it’s a totally different way to run your model trains.
Hey John,
That is precisely what I am installing. I am replacing an old RCS America system with RailPro. My plan is to install the RailPro in the oil bunker. The battery, speaker, on/off switch, rear light, and charge jack are all in the water bunker. The original PC board is what I plan to use to get those connections to the oil bunker and RailPro. The original harness is nice but I’m open to other suggestions.
Richard
Richard,
Forgive my ignorance here and I am not an electronics pro at all. But in the few conversions I have done I scrapped any and all existing PC boards as the 3rd party upgrades all (to my knowledge) have some sort of connection system like a wiring harness or screw terminals to connect all the necessary wires. For my education, what is the thought process for keeping the stock board? I didn’t quite understand your response. To me, and again I am not at all an expert or knowledgeable, but it almost seems counter productive to keep any of the stock electronics.
Devon,
The speaker, rear light, 3rd powered truck, and on/off and charge jack assembly are all the water tank of the shay. All the wiring of these items is soldered to the 8-pin PCB which only serves as a connection point to the RailPro which will be installed in the oil bunker.
The original PCB just seems like a clean way to go. I’ve been looking for other options which would probably be an 8-pin JST. Bachmann seems to have all of the electronic PCBs for this Shay except this one. However, I cleaned up the original PCB and it looks like it might still be ok.
I’m not a electronics expert at all and am just learning some finer points of soldering. Now I’m looking for some thinner wire that I can solder to the board without much issue…I’m currently looking at what guage the RailPro harness wiring is.
If you are working on an older loco, then it won’t have much of a pc board to keep. However, the latest products may have LED resistors on the board so you don’t need them in the lamp housing, and other useful connections to different parts of the loco. So keeping the stock board and just feeding it power can make life simpler.
Thanks Richard and Peter. That makes a lot of sense. Especially now that I have a clearer picture on what you are trying to accomplish. And with Peter’s addition I can see now where that would be the way to go.
I agree with scrapping all the electronics in the engine and do a complete rebuild, including the lights to LED’s. I purchase a miniature plug and pin set on eBay and make totally new wiring to work with my Rail Pro system. The set I purchased has from 2 wire plugs, to 10 wire plugs, you can customize your wiring to your needs and a professional look, plus when you have a problem it’s easy to locate it. 230pc 2.54mm Pitch Terminal Kit / Housing/ Pin Header Wire Connector Adaptor-Kit | eBay
Richard I believe the RailPro harness is 28g wire. I think I saw it somewhere , but am not 100% sure. Good luck with the conversion, a 3truck Shay is about thevonly steamer I would consider buying, since I grew up about 20 miles west of you, and have been on the Sugar Pine RR Shays
Pete,
I love the Sugar Pine RR. Hope to go back soon and take a ride!
Thanks John,
Would have a photo of your work? The original PCB is screwed to the floor of the water tank making for a secure fit when plugging and unplugging the terminal. If I remove the PCB from the water tank I’m left with a rectangular hole where the original “male” terminal goes. Would I just hang the terminal loose or should I secure it? And what would you recommend?
Richard. Sounds like this is the 3 truck Shay and the board has the sockets for connecting the sections together. I briefly owned one but don’t recall how the boards were set up. Does this board have any other components other than the plugs? If not I would definitely keep it rather than having to re-wire the connections. Could you post a picture of it?