Bachmann 31-210 Unrebuilt Patriot 45503

I operate a large model railway where trains run a complete circuit representing 3 miles and so if I run the Elizabethan Kings Cross to Edinburgh, a real life distance of 393 miles, one of my A4's will complete 131 circuits - in other words my locos really do work for their money!!

My new Patriot 45503 ran perfectly on its first run from York to Bristol but when it ran light engine to the depot, and as it arrived, the motion had all seized up on one side and the loco stopped suddenly. A right mess mainly in the cylinder area.

What concerns me is that a similar thing happened with 2 Bachmann Jubilees with the same chassis, 45593 and 45587.

Has this happened to anyone else and if so, how did you get it fixed. My brother sorted out the Jubilee with great patience and without having to send back to Bachmann.

 

It is difficult to tell without actually seeing the valve gear side in question. However, a common issue is that the connecting rod will hit one of the axle nuts, typically on a tight curve where the wheels have inclined in that direction. A common symptom is a clicking noise on tight bends, but this may not be noticeable. If this happens, the loco will lock up and will not move. The fix is to turn the controller (gently) the other way for about a half turn of the wheels, which should free the bind and allow you access to the valve gear. Then, using the back end of a set of tweezers (or similar), you should try to gently bend the coupling rod outwards (ie: away from the loco) in the problem area by a small amount to stop this from happening again. However, when doing this, you should take care not to knock the piston rod out of its guides - if this happens, you'll have to make sure they go back in OK.

If this isn't the problem, then it may be the last item mentioned above - the piston rod has fallen out of its guides while running. You should be able to distinguish between what I descibed above and this - basically, just check if the piston is still running in the guides OK.

 

As long as nothing is broke you should be ok.
It's basically bending things back where they should be and out of other moving objects ways.

 

This may not be related but I have had a problem with the centre driving wheels twisting in the chassis and causing derailments and lcking the motion. This happened to BR cl 4 80121 and an N class. the fault related to crude comensation used on the middle axle. I have replaced with a plain bearing

 

Hi Guys

Thanks for you ideas and here is an image which says it all - but how on early could this have happened having travelled 70 circuits of the railway (York to Bristol) and for the motion to fail when running light engine on to the depot???

 

That should be relatively straight forwards to fix, it's just jumped out of the slide bars.

First, the easy fix.. If you have small pliers or a screw, undo the centre crank, remove the rod and reset in the slide bars, fasten it back up.
With the older mainline /bachmann ones it's less easy ...

To be safe, if your less practised at working on models, turn upside down, remove the body and put it somewhere (just incase your not the mind for small work ,or don't have a cradle to hold it in), there's two screws one under the cab, the other under the smokebox... This is optional to avoid an accident to the body if your just begining.

If your ok, the next is the harder method to fix..

Turn upside down, Undo the screws on the frame underneath the wheels, (from memory I think its 3, could be 2)
Remove the frame, depending on version, this may take the pony wheels and assembly with it on some versions.

Lift the centre driving wheel upwards approx 1/2 cm with a small screwdriver, lift the piston and slide back onto the slide bars whilst lowering the wheel back in. Check lifting it out didn't remove it from the other side as well.

If (only if) the version you have has the gear on the center wheel, you may need to turn the wheel slightly so all the connecting rods are in straight alignment. If it's not got the gear on the centre, you can turn it by hand.

When everything's set again, reassemble.

Your probably want to check a couple of things..

First, as you look from underneath that nothing is bent, or when turning could catch on another piece of the gear, or the retaining screw on the wheels, (you may find you need to bend the rod slightly (I mean use a tea spoon underneath and gently press with your fingers either side, Remeber lightly does it you can repeat as need be, big push ends in agony !)

Run it first very slowly, just to make sure it doesn't stick or catch.
If you hear a click with each rotation of the wheels, the piston itself could be bent and catching inside the cylinders.. Solution is to straighten or sometimes slight inwards towing of it).

One clue of either a bent rod, or bad wheel quartering is the loco wanting to waddle like a duck.

Hope this helps.

 

As for cause, if there's lots of fast running around curves, and potentially the same direction, the model railway equivalent of flange wear could be happening..
That is the outer and inner driving wheels axles could be wearing a grove inside the frame (where you'd find an axle box on the real thing) and so that extra movement could be twisting the rods more.

Engines which lived in those 10p a go model layouts which went round and round in circles used to be notorious for it.

For a cheap fix, bit of kitchen foil in the grove, but I'd consider buying an alternate off ebay, switch the chassis /wheels and reebay the purchase... May not be a bad idea as eventually all that heavy running is going to wear the brushes out on the motor.