I Bought a Spectrum Dash 8-40CW (Bachmann) and it seems to be a Rather slow engine? How long should a Run in period take?? There is signs of a very small amount of grease near the btoom of the Wheels, it is also a rather noisey engine aswell and has a weird smell to it but is not warm when I pick it up.. It seems to pull around 9 carriages OK but does require a fair bit of thrrottle (Fleischmann MSF-TRAFo-6735) is this the norm?? I tried to look at what kind of motor is in them but have had trouble.... I only paid $40 AUS for it , so it is not a total waste of money..
Rather slow compared with what, for example? Some throttle before moving is the norm for this. This is not bad in itself unless you are nearly at full throttle before starting the engine with no load (no cars). This is not a problem solved by run-in if it's a problem at all. Excess grease is typical of new B-manns. Wipe off the excess. It's probably the reason for the odor. The noise is typical of the motors; they are not cutting edge technology.
I have just run it for a 2 hour Straight period (There goes the Power Bill) on approx 8Volts so not to be running it flat out and not at a snail pace while pulling Four 40 ft Box cars and four 20ft empty grain hoppers with a 20ft covered hopper for good measure... Its performance seemed to improve after the first 10 mins then plataued out... then in the last 10 mins peaked again.. I think it had to do with the lubrication warming up.. It was only touch warm, so not too hot but still as noisie as hell, I believe it may be because it is a 12 wheel drive going through a 12 3/4 inch turns at either end of my High speed loop.. so it is slowly becoming a good performer.. I just have to let it warm up longer then the others..
Flip it upside down, does it have plastic gears like the MAC's (which u could buy if u like )I have?? if so, they will always be loud... Must admit, both of mine dont pull too bad for the bux.
I was in N scale for a little while, I owned 5 Bachmann C40-8W's. Within a Year 3 of the 5 broke gears in the trucks and do not run. The other two did but were starting to go. Save your money and buy Kato, Atlas, Life Like Proto or Athearn.
