Up until now, I haven't had any luck with Bachmann's light mountain - the couple-three I tried a few years ago were all terrible pullers (3-4 freight cars max). This (I've been told) is due to chassis problems that rob the traction-tire drivers of their ability to grip the rails properly. So, fast-forward to last week when I got a tip from a buddy who hepped me to the fact that the latest production run of light 4-8-2's has been improved in a couple of ways - First off, they now come with DCC-Ready tenders (no actual decoder, but there is now a decoder-friendly PC board in the tender and wiring for motor/lighting control running to the locomotive). Secondly, pulling power has been greatly improved. The unlettered unit I purchased (from "The Favorite Spot") outpulls all of my previous light mountains by a wide margin. It's still a little finicky about slight dips in the track (where it will get hung up and start slipping under really heavy loads). But it doesn't have any problem hauling 15-20 freight cars around. So, at this point I'm wondering how widespread the original pulling power issues were. Was it a "one here, one there" QC problem (and I just got unlucky with all of mine)? Or was it a "most of them" problem? Basically, I'm trying to determine if I can go ahead and say that the first version pretty much sucked and that this new version is a much better option. Thanks, -Mark
Apparently your review scared everyone away from buying one. :tb-biggrin: Just kidding. Thanks for putting all your work out there for us. It's a great service to N scale! I wouldn't dream of buying a loco without seeing what the Spook had to say about it. Jim
Mark, I bought mine when that first came out. We were at a train show and a dealer had one deeply discounted. I took it back to the layout and it wouldn't pull 3 passenger cars out of the yard. I finally managed to get it to pull two around the layout. One of the other club members said, " great deal, 80 bucks and it won't pull three cars!" I eventually used the tender for another project and traded the engine for some other stuff. Never did hear of one that pulled all that well without some modifications.
Hi! I shimmed one of my LM and for the other one I went a much easier way: I replaced the original traction tires with some new and slightly thicker ones I cut by myself from a 3/5mm silicone tubing. You can try other brands tires as well if you can get by some, Fleischmanns are wellknown for the quality here in europe where tts are very much more common. I is a great improvement in pulling power and does not affect the running abilities although it does not reach to the HM it is good enough IMHO. Regards Mathi
Thanks for the feedback. It does sound like all of the "first version" 4-8-2's had pulling power issues. At this point I'm not sure what they fixed in this revised version, as the chassis looks identical to the original version. Maybe Bachmann just tightened up the tolerances. Cheers, -Mark
They probably dropped a tad wider tired wheels in with the matching diameter, learned from the HM. If I had both versions I would confirm this by caliper. BTW: Adding weight helps a lot in pulling so I sticked some flat lead strip under the cabin roof, almost invisible from outside. Regards Mathi
Mark: The light mountain evidences the same issues as in other recent Bachmann steamers. To some degree, the connie, the light mountain and even a few of the heavy mountains suffer from quite loose tolerances in the frame castings that cause the floating bearing blocks to be too loose laterally, causing a wobble, or not vertically correct causing the drivers to contact the rail with uneven pressure. This is exactly why the rotation of the bearing block or shimming the bearing block "cure" was effective in some but not all. Just put anyone of them on a stiff level piece of track. Using the very point of an blade try to slowly pick up each of the drivers. You will note that some will cause the frame to immediately move up, which indicated the bearing block has weight on it, whilst others the driver can be moved up without affecting the frame, which obviously indicated that the driver is not load bearing. As the bearing blocks are not completely symmetrical due to some variant in tolerances and not design, often rotating the block can increase the load bearing potential of the driver, a similar result can be achieved by a small shim in the space between the top of the bearing block and the frame. So a simple test if the light, heavy or connie needs a "fix" to increasing pulling power, is just to slowly pick up the traction tired driver with the point of a blade, if the frame does not move concurrently with the driver's vertical movement, the driver is not load bearing, pulling will be diminished and the loco is in need of a "fix". Kind regards, Bill
I have an original from back in the day and it pulls pretty good. I get about 20 cars. However, I have a flat door layout in N. The funny thins is my 10 wheeler pulls just as much. The consolidation is a beast! I can get 40 and we are touching it's tail!
Mark, is there a way to tell between the old and the new just by looking at the box? My LHS has a couple of them for 90 bucks, and I am thinking about it.....Mike Arrgh stupid question There will be wires between the loco and tender on the new one, seeesh! musta been a blond moment LOL
Not to rain on some guy's parade, but the issue with the old 4-8-2 was not the frame, but the bearing blocks. I got an SP version that wouldn't pull itself when new. On the N Scale list on Yahoogroups someone posted a trick of taking the bottom off the loco, pulling the axle with the traction tires on the wheels out and rotating the bearing blocks 90 degrees and reinstalling. Seems the blocks are not square. Well, I did it and went from Zero to Hero just like that. An engine that couldn't handle 3 cars started pulling 15 like it was nothing. The problem was the traction tires didn't make solid contact with the rail, so no traction. Rotate the bearings and it started working like it was supposed to! Art
Rotating the bearing blocks might work for some, but not all. I tried that on one and it had zero effect. -Mark
Well I went and got one ( first run ) today and have been running it in for the past few hours. Finely figured out that the tender was not making good electrical contact at the drawbar and seem to have that fixed. Seems to run pretty well at this time, but figure I'll do a bit more breaking it in before I find out how much its going to pull. Does anyone have a link to any posts that have tune up tips for this loco , including how to safely take the boiler shell off for decoder install ??? Thanks........Mike
Same here. Didn't do a lick. I also tried the tape method, and it made it worse. I'm experimenting with Bullfrog Snot now.
Right now, I'm pulling 12 cars on my layout ( its more or less level ). Looks like it will take more, so as of right now I don't think I'll be messing with the traction tires. Maybe I got one of the better ones ??........Mike
This best fix for the Light Mountain is to get the Heavy Mountain in the first place. Haven't seen a lot of derogatory comments about the Heavy Mountain. Mine seems to pull well although I haven't used it that much so I don't know its limit.
