poor loco performance

[Hamltnblue]

When done soldering, make sure you clean the rail tops off with alcohol afterwards

[RAG]

I have broken in the loco, and cleaned the rails.  There has been some improvement.  I am goint to solder all the rail joints next.

[cptsail]

Also, Bachmann has a wonderful return policy for locos that are not performing to your specs.  Their website has all the info and if it's less than 1 yr they will replace it free of charge, but you have to be able to prove your purchase; otherwise it's 25.00 for a new engine.  Over they years they have replaced all of my engines.

[Hamltnblue]

As noted earlier Bachmann's need a good hour of break in.

First oil the siderods and any  other moving part with a dab of plastic safe light weight oil. Then run the loco in forward for a half hour at about 70% power, then the same in reverse.

[rrinker]

 You can't reset anythign with the E-Z Command, all it can do is set an address.

Break-in first, and check the gears for lubrication. Sometimes Bachmann glops so much grease on there it hurts more than it helps. All you need for the gears to mesh and work smoothly is a tiny little bit, giant globs either get thrown off ont eh track, get on the nice paint of the model as it oozes out in the box (had an E33 Electric like that) or actually causes gear binding as it tries to 'pump' the excess grease.

 If it STILL only runs at high speed after a thorough break in, consider decoder replacement. And removal of the capacitors across the motor.

                   --Randy

 

[Eric97123]

I have had similar experiance with new Digitrax decoders.  But once you do a reset that should clear it up.  If you are having intermittent start-stopping then I would clean the wheels and track. 

[cacole]

If cleaning your wheels and track doesn't improve things, try resetting the decoder to factory default values and try again. 

The decoder used by Bachmann is an extremely shoddy, cheap version that is so bad even Lenz, who actually makes it for Bachmann, won't sell it with their own brand name on it.  Try changing to a better decoder (TCS, NCE, or Digitrax) and the loco's speed control should improve.

 

[RAG]

Hope it's that simple.  will report back after I clean everything up.

[Johnnny_reb]

Dirty track and or wheels.

[RAG]

I have a new Bachman Spectrum 0-6-0 w/DCC.  It has 3 speeds, off, fast, and very fast.  I won't start moving until the throttle (Bachman's E-Z Command DCC) is about 70% to full and then it takes off.  Any ideas for getting better slow speed performance?

 

Ron