Like a number of other modelers, I was very glad to see Bachmann come out with a ten wheeler (after a long wait), but very disappointed to see that the loco came with a tender that looked both too big and too modern. Nevertheless, I still finally bought one,and it does run nice, but that tender just doesn't look right. Could it be replaced with one of the Bachmann "separately sold" tenders, e.g., the medium one, or the small slope back one? Does the fact that this loco is DCC wired complicate the issue? If I had a Bachmann 4-6-0 that looked right with a suitable tender, that would greatly help me to be a happy person. Is there anyone out there who can say whether there is some hope for this situation?
I swapped out the stock tender for a Bmann USRA "Short" one: Then wired in a DZ125 (better slow-speed creep than the Bmann stock decoder). If Bmann starts selling the new mogul tender separately then that would be a nice one, too. Swapping out the bigass "Thing" fists they call couplers for MT905's (Z scale) is easy and looks good too. Just ream out a little: And then slip the 905's in: Hope this helps.
I added a Model Power 4-4-0/2-6-0 tender on mine. It still looked tall to me so I chopped some height off. Stock height:
I changed the med USRA for a short one, but just cut down the medium tender's DCC board to fit in the short. There's a lot of miscellaneous and unnneeded hardware on the original board you can remove w/o harming the DCC function, then cut down the circuit board itself. The only thing I haven't gotten to yet is re-wiring the headlite LED into the chopped board.
I also swapped out the longer tenders on my 4-6-0's for USRA short tenders - The only annoyance is that Bachmann didn't use a plug for the wiring harness in the 4-6-0 tender. Rather, the wires are soldered directly to the PC board - So, instead of just unplugging the wiring harness from the long tender and plugging it into the short one, I had to to clip the wires and then solder them to the PC board in the short tender. Another option would be to snap off the decoder portion of the 4-6-0 PC board and then move the remaining board en masse into the short tender, but that seemed like even more work to me. Those USRA short tenders don't seem to be aging very well in their boxes (or at least the ones I bought weren't). All of the various current conducting parts were really corroded and required a lot of cleanup before the engine would run properly. Also, the little metal jumpers on the "solder your decoder wires here" contact pads were similarly corroded and quite loose fitting. I eventually just got rid of them and instead soldered on some permanant jumper wires (this is only an issue if you don't plan on actually wiring a decoder to the board). FYI, Bachmann's slopeback tender isn't really "DCC Ready" like their other ones (at least insofar as there isn't any sort of PC board inside of it at all). -Mark
MC Fujiwara Nice work. How did yu indentify the wires into the tender as to left motor, left rail etc. Hopefully they are color coded! I have not opened my tender yet. Tom
I used a Bachmann slope back tender underframe with a shell from an old Minitrix old time tender I had in the junk box. In an amazing coincidence I was sorting through some old boxes of stuff in the spare room yesterday and came across the toy train tender in the second photo, it appears to be a copy of the Minitrix tender so my second 4-6-0 might be going to lose its oversize tender as well.
Sorry for the ignorance of my question, but I'm thinking of getting a Bachmann 4-6-0. Will a DCC loco operate on straight DC? I'm guessing it will, but I'm not positive and don't want to spend money on something to find that it won't run on my layout!
i talked to a person from Bachmann at Grand Rapids last year. Was told will not be selling 2-6-0 tender separately because of slow sells of tenders.
Thanks! I ordered one that I think I'll swap tenders on and use it to pull some older passenger cars.
That picture of the low MP tender made me think about cutting down the sides and otherwise modifying the Bachmann short USRA tender. Only thing even partly tough about thjat is makinga new coal load tpo fit the new configuration. There's plenty of "headroom" in the tender to clear the DCC board.
OK, I started this topic a few weeks ago, and here I am again. The answers so far have been excellent and demonstrate a pretty high level of modeling knowhow. But I guess what I wanted to know is---what is the easiest, simplest way of making the conversion? For example, I'm not ever going to convert to DCC. And I'd be happy with a proper looking 4-6-0 even if, say, it had rapido couplers. I was never at the high end of the "mechanical genius" part of model railroading, in fact, quite the opposite, and on top of that, my eyes have recently become unsuitable for close work. I have been thinking of getting someone to accomplish this job. How much time would it take a skilled modeler to do it? Would the wiring be easier in light of the fact that I'm not using DCC on my layout? How much remuneration would be appropriate? (I do want quite badly to eventually get a "good looking" 4-6-0.) I discovered a new hobby shop some miles away, and I've been thinking about asking the guy there if he might be interested. Anyway, my question about this "4-6-0 conversion" was actually extremely basic. Can anyone out there give me an opinion about these "basic" aspects? Thanks.
All you have to do is disconnect the wires from the PC board in the stock tender and re-solder them to the PC board in the new tender. DCC has nothing to do with it. -Mark
This is what I did to the 2-6-0: Since they already have the 2 wires running back to the tender I just soldered them to the pick-up strips, and added connectors so I can still detach the tender. I tore out the working headlight...
When I switched to the USRA short tender by spectrum, I spent a few minutes marking each of the wires coming back from the loco. Use the color coding indicated on the pwork Bachman include and it should keep you in line. Then just turn the tender to the side, slide it off and put the new one in place! Or, just open the shell and unscrew the board from the frame, No soldering by this method, and swap it to the short tender. If it is going to be a dc only. follow bachmans directions and it will be easy to shorten the board. I believe you will have to solder in a couple of jumpers, tho. Hope it goes easy for you! PS- I added a loksound unit to my short tender, and it all fits!
Less soldering that way, but you still have to deal with the wires that are soldered to the contact strips and the underside of the PC board. -Mark
I tried filing down the board to fit into the short range tender and could not get it reduced enough to fit. Then I put the engine on the track and it no longer worked. My next solution was to break off the DCC board and replace it with a DZ-125. It still doesn't work, but the headlight comes on. Spookshow could you show a close up picture of your tender wiring? Did you just solder the six wires coming out of the engine to the pins on the short range tender board? How do you connect the seven wires on the decoder to the six pin board? One of my favorite engines is now dead. Can someone please help? Thanks, Mark
I clipped the six wires from the stock tender and soldered them to the six pins on the smaller tender's PC board (in the same order as they were on the stock board). I haven't actually tried wiring a decoder yet, but your decoder wiring looks correct to me. Is it possible something was damaged on the board when you were downsizing it? -Mark
