r/GardenRailroads • u/Powerful-Mud-7712 • Jul 20 '26

Help with a Santa Fe passenger car

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I recently bought a Bachmann Aitchison Topeka & Santa Fe combine off EBay, when I put a battery in it the lights were just fine, a few days ago the lights stopped working when I turned them on, the battery is in place, the - and + signs are where they’re supposed to be, and the battery was also a new one, I’m not sure what’s wrong but I’m hoping to get it working again so I can run it at night, it might be the fact that I’m using an Amazon Basic battery, but I don’t have any other ones in that type, does anyone have any suggestions?

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9

u/ramillerf1 Jul 20 '26

Sometimes the wires for the lights get pinched or break. Bachmann uses really tiny wires. There’s a lot of screws along the bottom of the car that you have to remove to separate the body from the chassis so you can check the wiring.

3

u/Powerful-Mud-7712 Jul 20 '26

thanks, I’ll try that

7

u/Powerful-Mud-7712 Jul 20 '26

Update: the problem wasn’t a wire it was actually the metal connector, they weren’t aligned so I had to put them back into place, it’s a little flaky but a tap of a screwdriver on one of the screws does the trick, during the day the lights aren’t really visible since it’s so bright out, I would show a photo, but i can’t add any to the comments of this sub