Large Scale Central

Good Small Locos for under $100?

General Discussion
#21

Eric,

I’m kind of looking for a cheap base for a project. Long story short, I had an eggliner that I converted to radio control. It works just fine, but I ended up not liking the paint job I gave it. Not a huge deal, but stripping the paint at this point would be a huge pain. The particular paint I use bonds to plastic, so it’s hard to strip it all off completely. In addition, I had planned to run the eggliner this year on a railroad that only operates until October every year. I don’t see the eggliner being stripped and repainted in time to run it on this railroad, so I was hoping to buy a cheaper loco to replace it and convert to r/c in time to run it on the railroad. I felt cheaper would be better for a couple reasons:

  1. I don’t have enough money at the moment to purchase a more decent quality loco

  2. I like smaller 4 wheel locos and they tend to be cheaper

  3. Cheaper usually means less detail, so I don’t have to worry when it gets knocked around a little.

Hope this answers your questions.

#22

Joe,

Thanks. If you crack the code on this, I’ll stand the round!

Aloha,

ERic

#23

I second Vic’s suggestion of using the B-Mann lil bug hauler. For a NEW complete small loco I think this is the only offering that is a decent loco. He turned me onto them, I have three or four now and have modified and run one of them. They seem to be a decent little locomotive for the money and can run right out of the box or open the door to all sorts of kit bashing at a price that doesn’t hurt so bad to chop it up. I want to buy a couple more.

1 Like
#24

Joe, a real nice LGB 92078 engine just sold on ebay for less than $70.00

#25

Greg Elmassian said:

Vic, I have not taken my locos apart yet, do the axles ride in bearings or just slots in the sideframes?

As near as I can tell there look to be bearings, but I havent dismantled one to remove the wheel, the Bmann diagram shows what look like bearings. Best i can do is atttach the Bmann diagram here.

#26

Vic Smith said:

Greg Elmassian said:

Vic, I have not taken my locos apart yet, do the axles ride in bearings or just slots in the sideframes?

As near as I can tell there look to be bearings, but I havent dismantled one to remove the wheel, the Bmann diagram shows what look like bearings. Best i can do is atttach the Bmann diagram here.

Page not found but perhaps it could be found on “Other Train related Websites” ?

#27

The drawings are on Bachmann site.

LBH Tank Engine

Tom

#28

Greg, I think you might want to re-examine your little big haulers. Someone on Facebook claims they come from the factory with brass gears!

Brass gears, and bearings? For under $100? Doesn’t seem too bad after all. That’s even a step up from the mack.

#29

OK, I pulled one apart.

Yes technically there IS a brass gear in the loco, the worm on the motor shaft. Basically ALL locos have to have a metal worm due to the small size and how it would wear. All the other gears are thin plastic.

Here you can see proof. Now, I don’t remember saying ANYTHING about brass gears, I said the axle bearings were not great and ASKED someone about theirs. The “big deal” about metal gears on Bachmann locos is not the worm, nor the idler gear, but the one on the axle since they crack and slip.

So, you can see that the rest of the gears are plastic. I have pulled the left axle out and swung it to the right. The bearing surface is an extension of the pot metal wheel casting, they are relatively smooth, but still cheap metal. What is worse is the “bearing” is a small thin piece of gray plastic. See how I slid the “bearing” down on the axle on the (now) right hand axle.

The moral is if someone says “blah blah”, it’s not an issue to ask for a picture.

The Big Hauler line got an additional brass gear, and I’m sure the person who told you the LITTLE Big Hauler had one too was confused. In any case he was in error, at least from the intent of getting the nylon gear on the axle to be metal, since this is the one that winds up slipping on the axle and your loco stops moving.

More pix on my web site: https://elmassian.com/index.php/large-scale-train-main-page/motive-power-mods-aamp-tips/bachmann-motive-power/little-big-hauler

Greg

#30

I was misled, and I should have been more skeptical of a claim that sounded too good to be true. I had a glimmer of hope that it might be true. Thank you for taking the time to take it apart to show us the guts. At any rate, I don’t think I’ll go for any new loco under $100.

#31

Yeah, soft plastic does not a good bearing make. I did learn something from opening it up, I won’t invest an expensive decoder or sound system in it.

This would not be a good loco to pull any more than a couple of cars in my opinion, but that was indeed what it was sold for.

Will mount some kadees, but not sure about investing the $$ for the ball bearing pickups I would demand for good track running. In any case, I will be paying attention to lubrication for sure! I can also see that I need to remove a bunch of inductors and capacitors.

Greg

#32

The plastic bearings are probably necessary because of the low temp melt metal in the cast wheels and axle stubs.

Brass would cut grooves.

#33

That makes a lot of sense, and I was also noticing how much width was devoted to the brass wiper for power, maybe that is to spread out the wear?

Greg