# I killed my Bachmann Annie! Help?



## FFCobra (Oct 20, 2008)

I set up a Christmas yard display and had the Annie pulling 4 cars. I left it alone for a few minutes and came back to find the cars laying on their side with the engine at the BACK, still on the track. Smoke was coming out from under the Annie and it smelled like burnt electrical wires. Of course it no longer runs.

Any ideas? What's it going to cost to fix this?

I bought this off of eBay last week and it ran like a champ. It was brand new with a warranty card, but it was taken out of a set.

Thanks for the help,

Bill


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## Snoq Pass (Jan 2, 2008)

Wait.....it was still on the tracks, but wheels up......that sounds like somebody pick-it up and flip-it over..... I don't think I have ever seen that happen on its own. Anyways, I wish I could help you, but I don't have an Annie. 

Edit: wow, my mind read "on its back" not the "at the back" that was writen. My bad.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Bill, 

Sounds like you fried the motor. You can take the bottom plate off and have a look at the pickup wires and also see if the motor turns (move the worm wheel by hand.) 

If you take a look at the Warranty, you'll find it is for the Lifetime of the loco. Just mail it back to Bachmann and they'll fix it.


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## cephius (Jan 10, 2008)

Snoq Pass, Bill wrote: '...at the back.' not '...on its back.' More like the rolling stock derailed and the locomotive continued until stopped. 

Bill, As Pete stated send it to Bachmann for repairs. They are good about honoring their warranty without regard to where you purchased the product. 

Dave


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## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

Sounds like the cars became uncoupled and the Annie made the loop and got jammed up and over heated the motor or wireing. Hopefully, its a simple fix like replacing burnt wiring or a new motor. 
I did something similar once with finding the loco laying on its side still chugging but the tender was still on the track. Lead to a bit of a meltdown of the power pick ups in the tender - 











-Brian


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Warrantee service is the best idea, but if you're in a hurry to get running again, I have a Christmas Big Hauler with the good drive that's never been run. It needs a new home, and I could use some dough to hohoho.


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## Russell Miller (Jan 3, 2008)

The wires inside the Annie are of a very small gauge and tend to melt easily. When this happened to mine, I unscrewed a lot of screws to take the locomotive apart and replaced the tiny burnt wires with wires I ripped out of a Bachmann passenger car. It was an easy fix.







Took maybe an hour, tops. The locomotive has been running fine ever since.
Russ Miller


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Just for a quick reference look at the under side of the loco and check the front poney truck. It may have pick up wires on it and see if they are melted. Mine is fairly new and has this feature. If it smoke those then the rest are burnt also. Later RJD


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Just a silly question from a fella that doesn't use electricity to run his trains, and apologies for tripping this thread off into the light fantastic, but it seems the original question has a good answer (that of returning the unit for the lifetime warranty or simply replace the wires and hope the motor ain't fried too).

Sooo.. my question... have the manufacturers ever thought of putting a FUSE in these things? I realize that adding an end-user replaceable fuse would be an added expense and that expense might be more than the cost of just simply using wires that are capable of handling the currents that might be generated in a stalled motor, but it seems to me that some of the simpler engineering principles are being ignored here... that of designing for high probability accidents that can cause catastrophic results.

Maybe heavier wires would be a problem with flexibility from free floating trucks to the frame, but a simple Slo-Blo cartridge fuse behind a small door or just recessed into the bottom of the frame would save the wires from frying and the motor from letting all the magic smoke out and would be easily replaced by the end user and save on shipping and handling costs and the customer dissatisfaction when the loco gets stalled and draws too much current for a long time.

Do battery powered locos have a fuse to protect the battery from catastrophic electrical short circuits?


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## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

Battery locos are normally fused to prevent overloads to the motor driver. Power packs are usually fused and trip when there's a short. 

-Brian


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## Guest (Dec 15, 2008)

LGB and Playmobil have an auto-reset fuse in the regulator/transformer. 
so the enduser just has to lift the piece, that causes the shortcircuit, to be able to run again.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Ow. 

I have this picture in mind of your poor annie on it's back gasping its last. 

I'm going to guess the wires to the pilot truck got burnt. Not a hard fix.


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## SteveF (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Snoq Pass on 12/15/2008 9:55 AM
Wait.....it was still on the tracks, but wheels up......that sounds like somebody pick-it up and flip-it over..... I don't think I have ever seen that happen on its own. Anyways, I wish I could help you, but I don't have an Annie. 

Edit: wow, my mind read "on its back" not the "at the back" that was writen. My bad.

Don't feel bad, Snoqualimie, that is the way I read it at first, too. Pictures of Annie on its back, gasping for electricity, smoke coming out of its' firebox.


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## FFCobra (Oct 20, 2008)

Thanks guys, I'll send it back to Backmann. I found another new one on eBay last night for $80 so I picked her up so that I can still run my Christmas layout.

I like the idea of a fuse. It seems like a simple idea.

Bill


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Battery locos are normally fused to prevent overloads to the motor driver


Hmmm... Yes, maybe. My battery loco is fused to prevent the batteries from a direct short - and that's the same as the wired power pack; it trips on a direct short. 

However, I'm dismayed to report that you can 'stall' my Bachmann 4-6-0 - it can be stopped without the wheels turning/slipping. Perhaps there's too much weight in the boiler (batteries replaced the cast iron.) Anyway, on Rog's 3% hill, trying to pull 4 RY brass hoppers as well as my usual cars, mine just drifted to a stop but wasn't slipping. The good news is that the batteries are only 2 x 7.2 = 14.4V, so it may not overheat the motor. It still runs fine despite the abuse.


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## Steve Stockham (Jan 2, 2008)

Pete,
That's one of the reasons I sent my Annie directly to Barry for one of his BBT 280 upgrades! Now it's a bullet-proof nigh on indestructable puller! I honestly believe it's _impossible _to load the motor down so much that the wheels will grind to a halt! Together with Tony's RCS unit (installed by TOC) my BBT Annie 2-8-0 "Bumblebee" Big-Hauler (whew! _that's_ a namefull!) is my most reliable unit! 
*Yes, the preceding posting _is _a shameless plug for products that have exponentially increased my enjoyment of a Bachmann Big-Hauler!


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 12/15/2008 12:25 PM
Just a silly question 

Sooo.. my question... have the manufacturers ever thought of putting a FUSE in these things? 








Semper:

Astounding, as I found, 'they' do put 'fuses' in: small gauge wires. Now, I'm not speaking of B'manns especially, but of many devices--cars first among equals, that use small wires compared to the rest of the wires which carry current used by the given circuit. If an overload appears, poof! You get to take it to a mechanic/expert who will solder in the 'regular' sized wires, which will then conduct enough current to burn the snot out of the short-causing culprit. And perhaps the wire bundle too, if one is not living right. Jeeps were famous for this--and how I learned the above fact. The Bas---er, family site!









FWIW, I have a roll of Bussman Fuse wire. Looks like solder on a spool. 10 amp rated. 

Les


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Yeah, I figured that the small wires are acting as "fusable links" but is sure seems a silly way of doing things. and I doubt if it is "intentional".

And, yes, I understand that some power supplies are fused and that certainly protects the power supply from a dead short on its output. But I keep seeing comments here on MLS about fried drives in locomotives caused by it being stalled and drawing too much current.

Fusing the power supply at its safety limit may not be protection for the loco. If the power supply limit is below the damage limit of the loco then the loco is protected. But most folk have a supply that can provide much more current than what the loco ever will need or, more importantly, what can damage it. This is because they also run lighted cars, and/or multiple engines, and/or other things that draw power from the same supply... 

example:

A loco might draw 5 Amps when starting (or near stall) and, say, 4 (lighted) passenger cars draw 1 Amp each (all estimates for maths simplicity here). This means the supply must be capable of supplying and be fused for at least a wee bit more than the sum of all the current needs, or in this case, about 10 Amps. Now if the passenger cars all derail and the loco traverses the whole system and collides with the derailed consist from the rear (I assume the scenario that started this thread) which causes it to stall and it then draws, say, 9 Amps. At this point, the power supply is perfectly happy to let the loco burn to a crisp.

I have never been a fan of the use of "fusable links" in the automotive world as I have seen the result of one of them setting fire to the engine compartment of the car with the resulting total desctruction of the whole car.

Oh well, mine run on alcohol so I don't really care!


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

I sent my Annie directly to Barry for one of his BBT 280 upgrades

Steve, 

I'm sure that solved the problem - applying $$ can often do the trick. Unfortunately, I'm on a budget (gotta pay for that RY EBT Mikado somehow!)

Actually, I doubt even one of Barry's drives would have got that load over the top of Rog's hill! Even his K-36s tend to slip with any kind of load. My ten wheeler was one of the first to run battery power on his layout, so I used to run up behind his D&RGW stock train to give it a shove up the hill. Now he runs Airwire and battery, he can help himself up with another K on the back.


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