# The Bachmann James get the genuine RCS treatment.



## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

At long last a Bachmann "James" has crossed my desk to have RCS battery R/C and MyLocosound installed.As James is a tender engine with a quite large tender there is plenty of room for everything inside the tender.The install will be in two parts.After removing the tender shell the first thing I did was remove the small weights from the tender floor.









Once the weights were gone I cut off the two screw lugs from the floor with side cutters.











This was so the speaker could sit flat on the floor. 


















I used a square 50 mm speaker as that fitted just nicely.I drilled out a hole pattern under the speaker and mounted it with 4 x small self tapping screws. I also drilled a 1/4" hole for the ON-OFF switch with the toggle mid way between two axles.
















Next came four 3.5 mm holes for the tapped metal stanchions. Two each side midway between the axles. These will support the styrene platform that will hold the batteries and the R/C + sound.
















Like this:
















I am using 10 x ENELOOP AA hybrid cells as 12 volts is plenty for a realistic top speed and they fit neatly in the space.Next up was the chuff timer. I used a regular small reed switch mounted in a styrene tube and supported at the correct height. Normally the reed switch I use works best end on to the magnets but this one had to be parallel.The tender wheels are almost exactly half the size of the drivers so I used two small rare earth magnets super glued in place for 4 x chuffs per revolution of the loco drivers.
















Here is the template for the styrene platform. 
















Part # 2 will include fitting the RCS ESC and MyLocosound.


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

Because James has a tender, there is lots of room for batteries/electronics/large speaker. 

Did you add weight in the engine to improve pulling power? Or is this in part 2?


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi Dan. 
The loco will be in part # 2. 
Yes I will probably add weight. 
The owner is removing the swiveling eyes, fabricating a new boiler front, adding USA style head/tail light and painting him to resemble an Australian loco of roughly the same style and dimensions. 
BTW. James does have the NMRA reversing switch. The earlier model Thomas I have seen did not have the switch.


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## ChrisBerry (Feb 9, 2010)

Thanks for this Tony - I look forward to part 2. Maybe I'll have to do mine again! Have you done a Percy yet? That's next in my queue! 

Chris


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks Chris. 
I have finished James and will publish part # 2 later today. 
Yesterday I was in Brisbane attending the monthly running day of the Garden Railway group of Qld AMRA where James got a workout. I discovered a problem with the balance of the tender running gear which I need to fix first. Basically it is that the tender rocks slightly on the centre axle because it hangs very slightly below the front and rear axles. I had mounted the chuff timer on the front axle the wheels of which were not consistently making contact with the truck. This meant the chuff was a bit erratic. 

So far I have not seen a Percy in the flesh.


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Second part follows. 
I fabricated a 4 wire loco to tender cable with a plug and socket to make life simple when separating the two. 
This pic shows where the cable exits the loco chassis. I used heatshrink tubing to protect the wires. The orange and grey wires solder to the two terminals on the back of the polarity switch after I removed the original track pick ups. 
 









I used another thinnish sheet of styrene glued to the battery pack on which I could mount the three main components. 
 
Then the assembly was mounted on the stanchions with 3 mm screws and lock washers and wired up. 
 
Track testing produced an odd problem with the sound chuff timer. I had used the front wheels of the tender upon which two Rare Earth magnets were mounted. Unfortunately the center wheels sit very slightly lower then each end wheels. This results in a slight rocking on the wheels and sometimes the front wheels do not make very good contact with the rails. The chuff got a bit erratic. 
The easy fix in future is to use the middle wheels for chuff timing. 
As it was a bit difficult to redo the reed switch mounting I opted for another simple solution. 
I used thin styrene shims under the axle bracket mounts to lift the centre wheels up a smidgin. 
I removed the bracket screws cut a thin strip of shim just wide enough to fit under the bracket and marked where the screw holes should be. 
 
Then I drilled out the screw holes 
 
I slid the styrene shim into position and replaced the screws, then trimmed the styrene to fit. Repeat for the other side. 
 
So how does James perform? 
Just like Thomas. Nice and smooth just like Thomas. 12 volts is more than adequate for a quite fast top speed. 
There is plenty of room in the loco for extra weights. 
Bravo Bachmann. 
If I did it again I would possibly mount every thing in the loco and have just the speaker in the tender.


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## Andre Anderson (Jan 3, 2008)

Tony,

I am a little confused, shouldn't the orange and grey go to the motor and the blue and the white would go to the light which I don't think James has any way,so why did you need four wires if every thing is in the tender all you should need is the pair to the motor?


Andre


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Hello Andre. 

You are quite right of course. 
The Orange and Grey wires go to what were the track pick up terminals on the NMRA switch and from there to the motor. Easier to wire up. 
The Blue and White wires are indeed for a headlight that the owner is going to fit after he makes a non "swiveling eyes" boiler front. 
Likewise there is a Blue and Yellow connection in the tender for a rear light as well. 
James will be repainted to resemble a sort of Australian mainline 2-6-0 loco.


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## Andre Anderson (Jan 3, 2008)

Ahh, I get it know,

Thanks for clearing it up.


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## ChrisBerry (Feb 9, 2010)

Thanks Tony. I think I'll re-do my installation so I can put in the soundcard. I'll need a flat-lying reciever this time around. 

What length were the stanchions? When I did my Dizzie following your instructions, these were the most important psychological barrier to starting the project. I eventually managed to track them down in the uk from Rapid who called them 'Brass hexagonal threaded spacers'. Once they arrived I was off. 

Happy Christmas 

Chris


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi Chris. 
The threaded hexagonal plated brass stanchions are available in various lengths. I used what I had in stock from projects past. They are 25 mm.
If you intend using an RCS system I will be glad to supply gratis a set with screws and washers. 
As to the sound system. I definitely would check the stability of the tender and if the centre wheels are sitting a bit low I would use that set for the chuff timer. 
Also, if I was using the tender again I would arrange to make the coal load removable so access to the innards is better.


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## ChrisBerry (Feb 9, 2010)

Hi Tony, 

just taken Percy apart for a quick investigation of space - not as much as Thomas evidently, but I need to see exactly how many batteries I can squeeze in the top of the saddle. 

One question relating to modifying these engines - previously for engines like the Connie you have advocated removing the capacitor board on the top of the motor can and rewiring the motor. However I don't think that you have mentioned this for Thomas or James. What are your thoughts on this now? 

Happy New Year, 

Chris


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

High Chris. 
The main reason I recommended removing the Connie capacitor board was because the two 47mfd caps gave too much capacitance for the PWM output FET's on my ESC's. This tended to make the speed control much less smooth. 
On some earlier locos such as the 4-4-0 and 2-6-0 Spectrum locos the 47mfd caps were often not wired correctly. They worked OK in one direction, but, in the other direction they shorted out. 
Bachmann have since changed the components to a more conventional method of motor "noise" suppression and left out the 47mfd caps, meaning too much capacitance is no longer an issue. 
The newer motor pcb's that do not use 47mfd caps can be safely left in situ. 

Perhaps it might be worth considering a 3 x cell Li-Ion battery pack as 11.1 volts should give an adequate top speed and take up a lot less space.


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## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

Tony, does the tender stay on the rails better with weight in iit? VS removing the center wheel?


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

G'day Marty. Happy New Year to you. 
I only tested the loco and tender without a train. As it is quite a bit heavier now, even with factory weight removed, it stayed on just fine. 
I think part of the derailing problem could be because the centre wheels sit just a little bit lower than the front and back wheels. Which causes a slight fore and aft rocking motion. I only modified the centre axle mounts so that the chuff timer I fitted on the front wheels would work properly. 
I guess an easy fix would be to just add a bit more weight to the tender. 
I would also add some weight to the loco down low to keep it balanced. Weights in the boiler could make it top heavy. Strips of stick on car wheel weights should fit under the running boards either side.


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