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I ran one on straight DC at my LHS with no trouble from the decoder. But, the one we ran had the dreaded "Bachmann knock" of a cracked axle gear, even though that has supposedly been fixed. It looked good, ran smoothly in one direction, but knocked and jumped slightly in the other direction.
I bought the HO version and came to the conclusion that it's too small to run as smooth as I need for realisitic industrial switching.
I would think the smaller N scale version would be worse. It might just be mine, and I don't have time to mess with it - yet. It seems like it needs more weight to keep contact on the track.
A friend of mine made contact-slider shoes for his locos. That may be a solution. Wear woudn't be much at slow speeds in a small yard.
Another thought is a pair of them permanently wired together to share electrical pickup. I did that with a pair of old BB F-units and they never need a table thump to get going again. The likelyhood of all the wheels loosing contact is a lot less - hence no stalling. The real railroads often ran these GEs in pairs due to their rather low pulling ability.
For the price it's worth a shot if you like the level of detail.
As to the review in Model Railroad News did on the GE-44."The 44 Tonnner runs even better under DC than in DCC!"
Bachmann has been doin a lot in there products with the dual mode decorders. But honsetly some decoders work better than others.
For some of the things I read in this thread it seem like a decoder issue as well as drivetrain. So with DC you will be good as with DCC operations you will need another Decoder
I bought one new years ago and it ran great for about a week and one of the motors fried out. I often hear that this loco has a 50-50 shot being a good runner or a clunker...
I have 2 of the 44 tonners from the latest (?) run. They're about a year old and are the single motor version. I only run them on DC and they both run fine. As the instructions suggest they need an hour or so of breaking in time at various speeds and direction changes and then a light relubing. Both will crawl and work well for industrial switching or pulling a few cars on a work train.
Mike is quite correct. All Bachmann engines need a good run-in period if you want smooth operation, but the smaller ones are even more likely to give bad results if not broken in. I have the 70 tonner and followed Mike's protocols. It runs at a steady 1 scale mph on DCC and probably 3 scale mph on DC.
I just ordered me a few of these little GE locos and I wanted to know if anyone knows where to get any detail parts of these switchers so I can get them looking really good. I would like to get more scale railings and replace horns and such.
Don't recall any specific detail kits for the 44 or 70 tonners. Basically simple locomotives as a prototype. If you have a preference for a particular air horn Details West has several Nathan and Leslie to choose from. Being small engines there wasn't much need for grab irons all over the hoods as on a road engine. When yours arrive look them over carefully and I think you'll be surprised that Bachmann has built them with wire coupler cut levers and amazingly well done hand rails all around. One could argue over the hand rail thickness I suppose but they do not look out of place to me. The 70 tonner has a single air horn on the hood in front of the cab. The 44 has a very small one but pictures in the 2nd Diesel Spotters Guide and other references show a small one or even none on the hood. Best guess the horn was inside the hood on some 44's. But it's your engine and your RR so if you want exposed horns then add them. Give them both a short break in and I'm sure you'll be very happy with them.
All my Bachman stuff runs great. My 45 Tonner runs the best though. It crawls along really slow and steady.
Here it is converted into an 0n30 Loco. The 44 Tonner has been fitted with new handrails that are much closer to scale. I used the original stanchions and drilled them out to fit the wire. Here's a before and after picture. The second pic shows the original handrails.
He's talking N scale, however if the model is new with installed DCC it is supposed to run DC.
If its made like the HO it will have a custom board with DCC on it and headlights.
I have the HO of this engine 45 tonner, and it comes DCC, but I wanted sound, Soundtraxx has a tsunami with the right engine sound, its placed in the cab. out went the original dcc.
Runs like a champ, for industrial switching I only expect to pull 1-2 cars around at a time.
All my Bachman stuff runs great. My 45 Tonner runs the best though. It crawls along really slow and steady.
Here it is converted into an 0n30 Loco. The 44 Tonner has been fitted with new handrails that are much closer to scale. I used the original stanchions and drilled them out to fit the wire. Here's a before and after picture. The second pic shows the original handrails.
