Large Scale Central

Bachmann's disintegrating trucks...

Problem Solving
#1

:o ??? x 10.

It’s a nice day here, so I got out some trains to run while mrs tac milked the chickens and so on while I got down to some serious laziness.

Putting my Bachmann Connie on the track was not a problem, after all, I have done it a zillion times before, but putting the tender on the track was a bit of a surprise, to say the least.

The instant that the weight went onto the wheels, BOTH side-frames on the rear truck sheared off at the screw-fix point, leaving me with an unuseable loco.

Anybody seen anything like this before?

Living here in yUK is the real problem, since Bachmann [Europe] has a very poor ‘track’ record where I am concerned, and I hae me doots that they have any parts for this OOD model now, if, indeed, they ever had 'em in the fust place.

Any point in asking Bachmann in the USA to help?

TIA

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

PS - I’ve snet pics to the usual helpers…

#2

Tac,

Sorry to say, but that is very common for those trucks. My Connie came in the box brand new and the tender trucks were already broken. Jonathan Bliese tried to repair them and they lasted a little while. I finally replaced them with some trucks off of a Accucraft C21 damaged tender. Cliff at Accucraft found them for me.

#3

tac, are they the same trucks as the tender of the big hauler has?

if yes, i just need your snail-mail address.

korm

#4

Gary - thanks for the bad noos. Pretty sad, eh?

Korm - nossir, they are not the same, being a lot larger and ‘sacler’ in appearance. I’ll have to work on this, I can see.

Thanks for your v. kind offer anyhow.

Best

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

#5

Tac, I bought a NOS Connie on E-bay a couple years ago. It came with one broken tender truck frame. I faxed Bachmann USA a copy of my sales receipt and they shipped me TWO new complete trucks for nuttin’ and to Canada as well. Might be worth a shot.

#6

Ah, Randy and all. I figured that if some 14-yo Chinse kid could put it together, I could take it apart. So I did just that 20 minutes ago.

I dismantled the truck bolster, re-attached the broken off stubs into which the WAY-TOO-SHORT screws were, uh, screwed, replaced them with longer items that went clear through to the centre of the bolster, mantled it all up again, and it’s running as we write…

Best to all

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

#7

tac,

You’ve got the fix! Longer screws are the answer…I’ve repaired the pair of mine the same way. Glad to hear it worked out for you.

#8

Hi Bruce - still running…in the darkness now, of course…I really must get around to fitting LED lights sometime.

Best

tac, ig, ken the GFT & The Sleepy Holler Boys

#9

TOC rebuilt my Commie trucks, but this was after a trip to the floor at a show, operator inattention!! He was able to get them back together and their still holding together. He repaired another set (Mike Phillips) after shipping damage.

Paul

#10

I’m pretty sure it was TOC that told me to use longer screws…very helpful.