05-10-2010, 11:40 AM
Sounds like the draw bar is the trouble (or at least the focus of frustration 
).
I've got a J that's one of Bachmann's 'Silver' series, right before the Spectrum line came out. Runs extremely well and has a VERY simple plastic rod drawbar. That is, it's a plastic pole attached to the tender on a conventional horizontal drawbar (sticks up like a peg). The loco has a wide slot that sits over the peg. Simple, but I'd still go with the classic drawbar configuration, one piece of material shaped like a bone and screwed to the engine and tender.
Currently it doesn't reverse all that well (only occasionally), but that's fine for now, as the whole thing is packed away along with the accompaning Powatan Arrow passenger cars. I used to run it on a modular club layout. The whole train backed easily through a wye and down a yard ladder without derailment except at, you guessed it, the connection between tender and loco. (I attribute the good performance on the passenger cars to kadee truck-mounted coupler conversion and metal wheels)
This incident caused me to look into the J's performance reviews online and I discovered many were having problems with the lead and or trailing truck spring tension. If the spring is too tight, as you may already be aware, it could lift the rear or front drivers accordingly off the track or at least provide enough lift to encourage a derailment. Not sure how the new models are sprung but I might also check there.
One of these days I'll pull out my J and have a go at finishing the detailing job I started. Maybe by then I'll have found or made a home for it to get out and run awhile. Until then, it's in the shop. :| Good luck with yours and let us know how it all works out. I hope to goodness you don't have to take a sledge to it.
Galen
).I've got a J that's one of Bachmann's 'Silver' series, right before the Spectrum line came out. Runs extremely well and has a VERY simple plastic rod drawbar. That is, it's a plastic pole attached to the tender on a conventional horizontal drawbar (sticks up like a peg). The loco has a wide slot that sits over the peg. Simple, but I'd still go with the classic drawbar configuration, one piece of material shaped like a bone and screwed to the engine and tender.
Currently it doesn't reverse all that well (only occasionally), but that's fine for now, as the whole thing is packed away along with the accompaning Powatan Arrow passenger cars. I used to run it on a modular club layout. The whole train backed easily through a wye and down a yard ladder without derailment except at, you guessed it, the connection between tender and loco. (I attribute the good performance on the passenger cars to kadee truck-mounted coupler conversion and metal wheels)
This incident caused me to look into the J's performance reviews online and I discovered many were having problems with the lead and or trailing truck spring tension. If the spring is too tight, as you may already be aware, it could lift the rear or front drivers accordingly off the track or at least provide enough lift to encourage a derailment. Not sure how the new models are sprung but I might also check there.
One of these days I'll pull out my J and have a go at finishing the detailing job I started. Maybe by then I'll have found or made a home for it to get out and run awhile. Until then, it's in the shop. :| Good luck with yours and let us know how it all works out. I hope to goodness you don't have to take a sledge to it.
Galen
I may not be a rivet counter, but I sure do like rivets!