The Hobo Camp Fire Is going well #VI.. Stop In!!!

[Chuck]

What a GREAT day! Things have just been falling into place with some locomotive projects I have been monkeying with over the years. But the BEST part was when I got my little Bachmann 44 tonner to finally run smoothly. It is a newer one with DCC on-board -- it just never ran well. It always jerked and stuttered at low speeds, would sometimes stall on switches, but not always. I have had this engine for a few years and have tinkered with it on and off. I was thinking about how to get better pick up when the idea hit me to check the old two-motor 44 tonners as they probably has wipers on the trucks. They sure do! Today I stripped the wipers off the trucks from the old two-motor 44 tonners, trimmed them to fit, and installed them on my single-engine 44 tonner. Pick-up problems gone -- no stalling or dying anywhere. Now to the stuttering issue. Over the years I tried a Digitrax sound decoder, NCE basic decoder, and the latest is a TCS with BEMF. I figured the BEMF would help the stuttering. Nope. I was bummed that I would never get this little critter to run well (I really like switch engines). I was perusing the TCS website today and noticed something about turning the BEMF off. Hmmm, why not? Nothing else has worked. Voila! The thnig runs FANTASTIC with the BEMF turned off. It creeps along without stuttering and no stalling. The TCS decoder is doing something to make it run smoothly the other decoders could not do. It is a GREAT day!

Chuck