During installation of both sound & conventional decoders two bugs have come up.

  • Inverted motor drive or no lites. No matter how you install the NMRA plug the loco does not work correctly. Install the plug with the red & orange wires facing fwd and program the decoder to reverse motor drive CV29 = 07. Then all is ok without any rewiring.
  • Loco buzzing at low speeds. While we all expect a minor motor hum at low speed with most DCC decoders, several of the new Bachmans 2-8-0 were noticeably buzzing loudly. We traced the problem to the motor mounts and worm shaft. Use nylon tape and wrap the motor once. This prevents it from vibrating in the split frame mounting. The worm shafts had burrs on each end, simply filing off the burrs also helped.