I took off the trucks, thinking I had do do that to remove the shell. Big mistake. They are held with nuts and the coal load was excedingly difficult to remove to replace the forward nut.
I did not pay attention to the orientation of the insulated wheels. Are they the same for both front and rear trucks? This is model 89901. Is there such a thing as a wiring convention for all tenders, or is it manufacturer specific.
Do I cut off the black and gray striped diodes? If I install a decoder?
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Rich told me in the Bachmann forum that the rear trucks on insulated on the brakeman's side.
I was going to put this on a Bachmann 4-6-0 and I could have just looked at that. Unfortunately when I did look at that I realized that tender has two plugs that go to the loco. This one has 2 receptacles on the tender.
On the lower right of the board, labeled C2, do those red and black wires lead to the truck pickups? The other two (red and black) wires at "con2" are the rail pickups from the engine.
Red to the right rail (opposite wheel insulated) and black to the left?
Con1 from top would be Headlight + yellow; headlight - black; Motor + red and motor - black.
If you plan on keeping the light functions working I wouldn't clip any diodes. I see the motor inductor (choke) and capacitor (yellow blob) for motor RF interference. Those can, and probably should, be removed. As I understand it, the cap interferes with DCC BAMF signals.
"The capacitors can be removed without effecting operation. If you remove the inductors you will have to install a wire in its place."
Read about it here:
https://sites.google.com/site/markgurries/home/technical-discussions/decoder-motor-drive/motor-capacitors/bachmann-engines
That's the way the board looks to me. I could be wrong.
Good Luck, Ed
Thanks Ed for the wire ID.
This is typical for Bachmann steamers. At least they were for me. From the Bachmann site Hicken Vandy tender.
A few years ago I saw a post here that someone had a short with tender and loco plugged in. Loco by itself or tender by itself, ok. Trucks on the tender was the issue.
The PC boards are marked. No idea what the diodes are for. Bachmann does do that once in a while.
I would cut the cap. It causes issues with a quality decoder. BEMF. The two 4.7 microhenry chokes are a moot point. Zero resistance. I measured them some years ago with an inductance meter. Some PC boards they look like green resistors and some rip the PC board out because of that.
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/dwg/dwgs/89912.pdf
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.