Locomotive dead?

ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.


dSLR

New Member
I'm stumped! I recently bought my daughter a basic HO starter kit (a Bachmann Red Rock Express). It was working without any problems since the day we bought it. She had been running it the past few days with just the locomotive. Today it was running fine. Everything was turned off and unplugged, we put the remaining 3 cars on the track, coupled everything, plugged it back in and turned it back on, and....nothing. The headlight comes on, but the motor doesn't make any sound at all. :( I know these are cheap locomotives, but it just seems really odd that the motor could be burned out so quickly. The locomotive has been run for less than 2 hours since we bought it. I tried disconnecting everything, pulling all the cars off the track, even disassembling the track and then putting it all back together. I checked several times to make sure the wheels were lined up on the track properly. The locomotive is receiving power because the light comes on, but that's all I know.

Is there anything else I can check to troubleshoot? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone!
 
Strangely, after leaving everything off and unplugged for about 20 minutes, it's working now. Overheated? It was only running for a few minutes when it suddenly stopped working. Any ideas?
 
I have an electric paper shredder that does the same thing. Yes, the motors can overheat and will stop working for a while. Better quality motors can run longer without having this problem.

timothy dineen
 


Thanks, Timothy. Makes sense. I was just shocked that it overheated so quickly. I appreciate the feedback.
 
There is no thermal shut down in Bachman tainset trains. The transformer has one, but not the loco. Since the headlight came on, it was not the themal in the transformer. It may have been a slightly stuck motor brush, or a bad connection at the brush.

Glad it started working again!

The Bachmann locos are ually pretty reliable. I had a Bachamnn train set at my hobby shop on display that ran for over 3 years, 6 days a week for 8-12 hours a day before it finally wore the motor brushes. I installed a new set of brushes, and it's still running.

Rotor
 
Last edited by a moderator:




Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website (Learn More Here)

Back
Top