Large Scale Central

Rebuilding a 1st generation Bachmann Climax

Modeling Motive Power
#1

Among other things, I have a first generation Bachmann Climax that I purchased when they first came out. I had a battery and RC in it that failed, so I stripped the electronics out of it at that point. Today I dug it out of my project shelves for a rebuild. First order of business was to figure out what all the wires were for.

Removing the rear truck and the ashpan cover I found I had labeled the wires! Now to dismantle the trucks, re-lube everything, and see what kind of space I will have so I can order batteries. I think I still have the speaker I used in this somewhere. There’s not a lot of space in the tender. I may have to get creative.

#2

So, here’s the problem in a nutshell. I need to fit all this, plus a battery pack, into the tender.

That’s just not happening the way it is. So. I’ll end up doing some major surgery on the “front” of the tender, build (or print) an oil tank for the top of the tender, hack off the top, and probably build some kind of box for in front of the tender, inside the cab. Then disguise everything with an engineer and fireman. First order of business is ordering some batteries.

#3

Why can’t you use the boiler for batteries?

#4

There’s surprisingly not that much spare space inside the boiler. The weight is in there, plus the pack would have to be an odd shape, and I’m not convinced that 4 cells would even fit in the extra space.

#5

Bob McCown said:

There’s surprisingly not that much spare space inside the boiler. The weight is in there, plus the pack would have to be an odd shape, and I’m not convinced that 4 cells would even fit in the extra space.

Does it have an air reservoir like the 2-truck Shay? I got one 18650 in the air tank, and three plus the PCB in the boiler of my Shay. The build is on here somewhere with lots of pictures. I had to do some surgery to remove the smoke generator mounts, but crammed it in.

#6

I’ve seen a couple installations where one of the components is placed under the cab roof. Don’t know it that will work for you. You might want to peruse Tony Walsham’s Climax installations for inspiration.

I’ve got a RailBoss 4, charging module and Tenergy Li-Ion 18650 14.8V 2200mAh into the tender, no speaker. I ended up notching the top of the tender with the battery standing a bit proud and carving a coal load out rigid foam and gluing aquarium filter charcoal over it.

#7

No side tanks like the shay. I do like the idea of a split pack up on the roof, Im gonna have to see if I can get one of those.

#8

I just remembered this Climax conversion by Jack Thompson, pretty amazing.

#9

Bob, do you foresee any over heating issues with the electronics in that tight space?

#10

Not really. I had RC in this before and it was never an issue, so it should be fine. I hope.

Here’s a test print of an oil bunker for the tender. Not too bad, I might shorten it a bit. Going to add a couple hatches on the top as well.

#11

Bob, I’m following your progress closely as I have 2 Climaxes to convert. I am doing a similar modification to my 2T Shays by adding a fuel bunker on top of the tender. The access hatch ended up being larger than I wanted but it will hold 2 switches, the charge port and a fuse holder.

#12

Many years ago someone made a cast resin tank for the Shay, and I have that on mine at the moment. The Shay is next up after I get the Climax working.

I have the sizing fixed, now working on the hatches. Print should be done in about 4 hours, will have a picture then.

#13

Took three prints, but the proportions of this look right to me.

A timely delivery today from Don Sweet of some batteries and wiring, now I can start getting this buttoned up.

#14

Some more, well, progress isn’t the right word. How about some more discovery?

First, it looks like the 24 year old Big Sound '97 board is DOA. Spent a bunch of time getting it set on the bench, making sure the secondary battery is good, etc. Yep, DOA. So it’ll be the Revo sound (ick) for now unless a new Phoenix BigSound board magically appears in my mailbox.

Second, at least according to my multimeter, the chuff sensors dont make/break. They appear to be on all the time. So, time for a bit of surgery to figure that out.

#15

Assuming that you’ve reviewed George Schreyer’s Climax page regarding the wiring of the chuff switches, if not maybe it will help.

#16

Mark Hadler said:

Assuming that you’ve reviewed George Schreyer’s Climax page regarding the wiring of the chuff switches, if not maybe it will help.

Yep. This loco was working fine, and then the RC system threw up, so its really just a refit. I assume the contacts are just dirty and one of them is stuck.

#17

A bit of lunchtime debugging. The engineer-side contacts in the cylinder were fused together at the bottom, and discolored, like a spot weld. The only thing I can think is that at some point during prior disassembly, power got applied to the two wires and spot-welded them together. A bit of prying, and they now work as intended. I’ll get the wires all routed and parts in (or near) place. Tomorrow I will be painting the printed oil bunker, and then we’ll do assembly. Then I need to find a bunch of missing details.

#18

Got some wiring and reassembly work done over the weekend. First, I dug out another Big Sound 97 board and swapped the Climax chips into it, and it works. So now I have decent sound available. In trying to fit everything in, I remembered all the decisions I had made previously as far as placement of things. I have all the wiring connected, speaker is in place. Now to build a speaker box and then tidy up wires. And Im going to build a different cabside front for the tender, since there’s no coal load now. Ill put the switches and charging jack there, I think.

#19

Bob

This is a VERY interesting Thread, I have a couple Climaxes that is begging for a change, maybe I will get the gumption to proceed to get something done.

Dennis