We have done newsletters in the past, but found them to be uneconomical. This document will contain all of the tips which have appeared in earlier newsletters and precede a real wordy tome I am working on. The Beautiful CAD drawings are by Chris Hollinshead.

BACHMANN SERVICE The Bachmann service department phone number is 1-800-356-3910. When speaking with the service people, keep in mind that they are dealing with all gauges, so mention that your needs are in "G", Large Scale, Big Hauler, or No.1 gauge. If you have a problem which may require the return of a unit, for "free" service (if under one year), send a copy of your receipt.

LUBRICATION Lee Riley, the designer of the Bachmann `G' line of model trains, is rabid on the subject of lubrication. If I may, I'll address the locos, generally and from the inside out:

1) Remove the bottom plate, 3 or 4 screws, exposing the motor and gears. Liberally apply a non-petroleum-based grease to the gears and the axle journals, carefully reseat the motor and it's caps (so the motor doesn't shift out of mesh with the driven gear). 2) Place a coating of light oil, to each of the siderod journals. 3) Lightly grease each of the wheel journals on the rolling stock.

The frequency of lubrication depends upon time and usage. The locos' gears are the most critical and should be checked weekly in heavy, daily use. The side rods at the same time, rolling stock axles once or twice a year unless borne with a heavy load.

AeroMech, LaBelle, and Permatex (SuperLube) each make a line of oils and greases which do not attack plastic - very important. Most petroleum-based lubricants will affect the plastic surfaces we use and should be avoided.

LUBE PORT BBT DRIVEs have a polypropolene cap in the bottom of the aluminum chassis/frame to allow inspection & lubrication without having to teardown the locomotive. The drawing below indicates where to locate the 3/8" hole in the Big Haulers' plastic bottom plate to allow the use of the plug. This plug is available to you from us if you are unable to locate one locally, just send $1.00 for the plug, no shipping and handling. The plug is an AU-VE-CO #14923.

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To fit the lube port cap to other manufacturer's locomotives the 3/8" hole should be located where the largest axle gear is located, thereby giving the easiest view of the lubrication condition. When multiple shaft gear reduction is used (original Bachmann ten-wheeler, for example) the hole should be centrally located so access is to the multiple gears.

HOLE FILLING Generally, hole filling is accomplished by finding a piece of scrap or solid shape plastic to fill the hole, or, as I will describe, tubes which allow the insertion of a desired feature. The hole-filling is done simply by inserting a piece of plastic as firmly as possible in the opening to be filled, applying the adhesive, allow it to dry, cut and sand to finish. Occasionally, the finishing of the filled material can be tedious due to its proximity to features not meant to be removed. Sometimes, it is more convenient to enlarge an opening to the size of the filler material, before filling.

One of the criticisms of the Bachmann rolling stock is the toy-like details; i.e., plastic grab irons, steps, ladders, brake gear, etc. Ideally, all of these details should be replaced with prototypically accurate replacements in pewter or brass. While this goal is being pursued, I found a better, but not totally accurate replacement for the plastic grab irons.

I've made grab irons using K&S .046 brass rod bent to fit the openings on the cars. The holes are filled with 3/32" plastic tube, glued into the hole then trimmed, sanded, and redrilled with a #55 bit. The grab irons are pressed into the tube openings, CA'd in place with about a 1/8" clearance from the side of the car. Paint or not.

BRAKE KITS Shortline Car & Foundry provides brake wheel kits for the scratch builder. They contain more pieces than are needed for Bachmann cars. However, you can order the items below to replace the plastic brake wheels and staffs on the stock Bachmann rolling stock. Note: In most all cases there is some necessary hole filling. The items you'll need are: * cast brake wheel #3402 * HO rail nails * cast brake gear housing #3418 * two straight pins * cast rachet & pawl 3412 * 1/16" K&S Brass tube #125

Each of the cars has particular variations, which call for individual descriptions for the car.

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STIRRUP STEPS This is how to install the pewter stirrup strap step (Shortline #30025) for the Bachmann cars (not the tenders). You will need four HO rail nails for each step. You will also need two lengths of Evergreen strip stock, one 2mm X 2.5mm and too narrow, the other is 2mm X 3.2mm and too wide. I've found that the too narrow pieces work very nicely, but if you like you can sand down the wider strips to a tight fit. Then just CA (CyanoAcrylate adhesive) them in place, cut off the excess, move on to the next opening and repeat. Clean up any excess flash on the pewter strap steps.

When you're ready to fit the steps, just one note: the twist on the sides should flow to the inside; i.e., if a foot was coming down to the step and touched the side of the strap the foot would be directed to the rung of the step. If this had been specified today it would probably be an OSHA requirement.

Line up the top of the step strap over the plastic insert where it looks right (the two holes in the strap should be on the insert and the curl in the side will be on or just below the edge of the side of the car. Drill a hole (#61), insert the nail, which you will have to carefully tap into place. Line up the other side of the strap step, getting it parallel with the side of the car, drill the hole on the other strap. (Note: if the pewter strap step does not line up correctly with the plastic inserts, bend the side carefully until it lines up). Drive the nail in that hole. Now repeat these steps for the other two holes (one on each side), drive the nails. Next apply CA to the outer strap, carefully, and liberally to the protruding nails under the car. After everything is dry, I clip off the excess nail length just to clean up everything. The strap steps can be painted the body color, black or the color of your choice.

BRASS LIFTBARS One of the details I haven't cared for on Bachmann rolling stock is the heavy looking lift bars. For those who may not know what this term means, these are the levers which run across the ends of the locomotive front beam, the tender's rear beam and the freight car ends for the purpose of allowing the switchmen to uncouple a car without having to pull the pin in the coupler directly, but from the outside of the car. These are very prototypical and attractive when they are the right weight in appearence. I have been hand bending these using K & S 5/64" brass rod and attaching them with small eyelets purchased from MicroMark. First, I fill the old liftbar holes. Then after bending the liftbar, threading two of the eyelets onto each side, locating them, drill (#55) a hole for each eyelet base, inserting the base into the hole, cement, and Voila! For those of you who want to go ultra- finescale, Trackside details has brass castings for the eyes. For those of you who are looking for short-cuts, John Neidig from Custom Craft, showed me an ingenious idea using the shank of the proper size fishhook eye. Works well as a locomotive handrail stanchion too.

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DIRECTIONAL LIGHTING A few years ago I scratch-built a G-Scale version of the Athearn Hustler diesel locomotive. One of the things I wanted was for the headlight over the cab to be off when going forward, but come on when in reverse. People had done this but no one could describe how to do it, other than it involved the use of a diode. With a little research I found that the diode allowed current to flow in only one direction. So, I bought some diodes that seem to be the right size for the application (Radio Shack #276-1620 IN914 Type), extremely cheap: 50 for $2.29. My research said that the black band on the diode is toward the source of the electricity (one of the poles on the motor). Not being an electronic guru, I had to figure out how to make this work. I soldered the diode to one of the lamp leads with the black end towards the motor. To discover which of the motor leads to connect the diode to, I put power to the loco and touched the lead from the diode to each of the motor leads and the other lead to the opposite post. When it was on in the right direction I marked them, soldered the wires to the posts and I had directional lighting. One caveat; don't clip the diode lead too short, the diodes can't take the heat from the soldering iron.

BATTERY POWER These `Battery Guys' have some convincing arguments to their point of view; any kind of rail (even plastic) and no rail cleaning (except big chunks). R/C will have many more additional functions available. The only drawbacks seem to be the lack of smoke units (they use too much power) and the initial costs are still a bit high. I believe that battery power is the wave of the future. I am a recent convert and find the combination of remote control of the locomotive's movement only the beginning of what we can expect from R/C. Some of the R/C manufacturers are leading the way in responding to our requirements. Realistic sound units with remote control whistle and bell would seem to answer our current needs. Aristocraft is promising sound modules which can be remotely activated from their control unit. Gary Raymond wrote an article in the Oct./Nov. issue of Outdoor Railroader describing the adaptation of Aristocraft's Train Engineer to a locomotive and tender. A BBT customer wanted to use pure battery power with the Aristocraft Train Engineer. The customer was able to come to the shop, so I was able to see the end result. The difference between Gary Raymond's application was the use of two Makita 9.6 volt drill batteries, in series, as the source of power.

In the conversion in my shop, we started out gearing the BBT DRIVE 460 at 40:1. This was very smooth, quiet and strong. On my test track, pulling eleven heavy cars including the hopper car, which is used for the batteries, the train, traveling at a good rate of speed ran for a total of two hours and forty-five minutes on a single charge. This customer uses two 9.6 volt batteries connected in series (19.2 volts). Recently, we have changed this gearing out for a 30:1 gear and my customer is toying with the idea of reconnecting the batteries in parallel for more duration and a lower speed setting. The interesting part of this is that he can do things like this to get the train operating just as he wants it. We recommend 30:1 gearing, only!

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One additional plus is that the BBT DRIVE can be ordered without track pickups for a deduction of $20.00. The most obvious saving is that the track cleaning is not as critical, just get the chunks off the track.

BACHMANN 4-6-0 PILOT PROBLEMS....Final During the course of demonstrating the early versions of the BBT DRIVE 460 on a club member's layout I was experiencing the most derailing of the ten-wheeler that I have ever seen. It was embarrassing, because I wanted to demo the 4-6-0 drive unit favorably and that could not happen if it doesn't stay on the tracks. The club members' layout was irregular, he was only running his trolleys and diesels, but it was real world and the loco should have run there. Well, in reviewing the problem I have come up with the FINAL answer, which comes in two parts. The first applies to all Bachmann Big Haulers, the early model pilot wheel-set is generally too wide and tight for the track it runs on, it therefore has a tendency to ride up over the rails. The solution is simple; pull the front wheel-set apart, trim something less than 1/16" from the plastic insulator separating the front wheels, re-insert into the pilot truck, repeat on the second wheel-set, done. The second part is in the following drawing. The tongue is formed from a piece of metal 1/2" X 5" long and about 1/16" thick or 16 gauge. If you don't have any spare stainless steel or sheet metal lying around, K & S brass will work just fine. The tricky part of this solution is the bolt that fits into the locomotive's plastic bottom plate. Ideally it should be a shoulder bolt, in lieu of the shoulder bolt use a piece of 5/32" OD brass tube cut about 1/8" long. The washers spread the pressure of tightening the bolt. The tongue gives the pilot truck the ability to move up and down. Fastening the pilot truck loosely to the tongue allows the pilot to tilt in all directions. Now a little weight added to the front of the truck will help (very little space on the rear of the pilot or weight here would help also). Get rid of the original washers and the spring, cut the post as indicated. If the post hole becomes too large (some do, because of bubbles) fill it in and redrill the hole to fit the screw which was removed from the top of the post. In the BBT DRIVE 460 this tongue is standard (but of different dimension), I route the wires through 1/8" shrink tube to protect the wires from abrasion.

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BACHMANN TRACK INTERFACE To interface Bachmann track with either Aristocraft or LGB track or switches is fairly simple. This question came up because Bachmann's switches had not become available. The Bachmann track has a plug in the left hand rail (looking at the end of the track). If you cut this plug off, the Bachmann track will join up with either of the brass type track sections. If you are running Bachmann rail with the other brass rail I wouldn't cut all of the plugs off, but keep the interface sections to a minimum.

BACHMANN SOUND SYSTEM One of the complaints or criticisms of the Bachmann Locos is the poor sound system. On the plus side, it does have a sound system and therefore gives us something to work with. In the August 1994 issue of the Garden Railways magazine a letter was printed from Arno G. Schulman of Buttelborn, Germany. He suggested soldering a capacitor to the sound board in the tender. I bought a couple of capacitors from Radio Shack. This improved the breadth of the chuff sound. You can use either 272-958 or 272-1019.

I have made a drawing of a piece of the sound board to show where the capacitor is attached. If you are queasy about soldering to the sound board, the wire leads can be cut and the ends soldered to the lead on the capacitor, it works just as well. The negative capacitor lead is soldered to the point on the board where the red wire from the loco attaches to the board and the positive capacitor lead is soldered to the point where the brown (positive) wire from the battery attaches to the board (they're about 1/2" apart). [All of the R-T-R locos from our shop have this improvement].

Really a simple process. The only thing remaining is probably more volume, but that, I am told, is function of the available voltage.

I hope some of these tips can help you. We have a bunch more, but we're saving them for the `Book'. If you have any questions or suggestions of your own you would like to share, please let us know.

Happy Railroading!