Long time reader, first time posting.......................
I have the above loco, yes not very great but was a great price. It has 4 function DCC. From the first day I had it in order to get it moving I had to thump it with my index finger and thumb (no other way to describe it). Pushing, nudging didn't get it going only thumping it. Once running it runs great, sometimes can start and stop without issue. After a day or 2 of this I requested an RMA and just before boxing it up gave it one more try. It worked perfect so I didn't return it. Fast forward to yesterday, 9 months later, it started doing the exact same thing. Took it apart and lubed and cleaned and inspected. No broken or loose wires, nothing I could find. Well this didn't fix it. My suspicion is the motor and not any gear binding. Open to any suggestion as to what to look for or proposed fix other than sending it back.
Welcome to the MR forums.
Here's a review thet MR did in 2011.
http://mrr.trains.com/news-reviews/staff-reviews/2011/06/bachmann-trains-ho-scale-electro-motive-gp9-diesel-locomotive
I guess the first thing to try is a decoder reset.
Mike.
My You Tube
Welcome.
Last I knew the on board non sound decoder is a low end EZ Command but it does sound like dirty track and maybe wheels. It takes very little to stop DCC from getting to the decoder.
I would try cleaning track first but that could happend with a new loco.
I have had new Bachmann locos but never had that issue.
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.
Thanks for the sugestion but I have ruled out dirt track for several reasons. One by pusing loco it does not start. Second no other loco does this. Third it happens anywhere on any of the 3 lines of the 200+ feet of track.
Bachmann likes to use plastic clips to attach the various wires to the decoder board. One of my Bachmann S4 locos would periodically stop moving although lights and sounds would continue. I first tried simply pushing the clips on a little tighter which worked but only until the offending clip would loosen again. A permanent fix wasn't achieved until I completely removed each plastic clip, carefully removed and cleaned the stripped ends of each wire, then carefully reattached each wire ensuring full metal-to-metal contact before reinstalling the plastic clips. You could also solder the wires to the decoder pads and skip the plastic clips entirely.
Hornblower
So just like before the problem fixed itself but manage to manifest in another cheap locomotive. The suggestion hornblower made about the clips was the first thing I checked on. One red wire was barely holding on. I pulled all the clips off and solder all the connections, proplem fixed. Will do the same when the first loco acts up again. Thanks everyone.
And for a "heads up" some loco have those same clips where the wire attaches to the electrical pick-up strips that are attched to the trucks.
This is the diagram page you should have received with your loco. You can see the clips. Removed and solder the wires with a soldering pencil. I found it at the Bachmann forums.
https://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/dwg/dwgs/HO_GP9_DCC.pdf
If yours is non sound, NCE sells a better decoder. It is called the Bach-DSL. They developed it some years ago because of all the complaints about the Bachmann decoder, not the SoundTraxx decoder.
Remove the caps next to what looks like two green resistors. The caps have a C prefix. What looks like green resistors are 4.7 micro henry ferrite inductors and no resistance.
Dirty track sounds like the culprit to me, but maybe the loco needs to be “broken in”. Have you done that yet? New locomotives run best if they have been run around for a while at a variety of speeds. I will note you’ve chosen a rather low quality brand, based on my experience and what I’ve headers from others.
Regards, Isaac
I model my railroad and you model yours! I model my way and you model yours!