BM69a from NMJ
Introduction
BM69 exists in a variety of versions. The first edition is the BM69a and the last one is BM69h. BM69 can still be ssen in operation at the time of writing this article, but do note that the BM69a is no longer in traffic. The last BM69a was scrapped in 2017. The running number I bought, number 11, got scrapped in december 2016. The given dates are fetched from the website balise.no.
The entire EMU is called "Type 69" which translates to Class 69. BM69 is the name of the motor car, while BS69 is the name of the control car. I usually call the entire EMU for BM69, but that is strictly speaking not correct. So just be aware that some people including me sometimes refer to the entire EMU when saying BM69. I will try my best to get the terminolgy correct in this article though.
I unfortunately do not have any images of this particular EMU. This unit has as far as I know never been used in the area where I live. A railway friend of mine have told me that he have seen a BM69 (probably not the A edition) on a test drive some years ago though. I am not sure if I have seen a BM69a in real life, but I know for sure that I have seen other editions of the BM69.
So why did I buy this EMU when I do not have any connection to it? The reason why I decided to buy one is because this is a model train I have always wanted in my collection. I like the "tomato soup" design and I personaly like the rest of the design of the EMU. It's also nice to have an EMU, as I do not own any other at the time of writing this article.
I do not know when this model was released, but I honestly belive it was some time ago. It's therefor quite suprising that one such model suddently appeared at NMJs website.
Unboxing the model
The model came in a quite decent packaging. Bellow is a picture of the packaging after the lid is taken off.
Two papers came with the model. One of them explains how to connect and disconnect the couplings while the other explains how to fit parts and the decoder. The model I bought came pre-fitted with a DCC sound decoder, so there was no need for me to do any work realted to the fitting of the decoder.
One thing I noted during the initial inspections of the model is that there is actually a damage to the model straight out of the box! It's a bit hard to see on the above image but there is a tiny piece of plastic that is partially missing under the right window. I find it a bit disapointing that such a damage is on a model straight out of the box. I did not observe any other issues at first glance.
Attaching detail parts
The only detail parts included with the model in addition to a coupling are four mirrors. I initially tried to fit those to the model using a combination of my fingers and a reversed tweezer. Getting them on the model was actually quite difficult. I managed to fit three of the mirros on the model. The fourth one broke. I therefor decied to just remove all the mirros and simply use the model without any of them. Another reason for that decission is that it looks to me that the EMU won't fit in the box withoug breaking off the mirrors.
First run
The first run actually went sour. I would have excpected this model to work flawlessly out of the box, but there was actually three issues that I had to resolve before the model ran as excpected.
The first issue was related to the wheels. The bellow pictures shows what the wheel looks like on the model after I ran it in 30 minutes in one direction. Note the two traction tires.
This is not impressive at all. The damage to the traction tires is not at all consistent with 30 minutes of running in. I therefor strongly suspect that the model I have gotten is not a brand new one, but a refurbished one. That would certanly explain why this model suddenly re-appeared in the store. It's sad that a company such as NMJ sells refurbished models as they where brand new. Bellow are two closeup screenshots of the wheels.
The model luckily has similar wheels as my EL11 from NMJ. Traction tires for the EL11 is actually something I do have a few of, so it was quite easy for me to swap the tires. It's still dissapointing that a model sold as "brand new" got deliverd with damaged traction tires.
Another thing I noticed while I was checking the wheels was that the text 69-11 with an arrow was painted on the underside of the model. That paint is not supposed to be there.
The second issue was the snow plow. It broke off just by gently touching it. I therefor had to glue it into place using Faller expert plastic glue. The left image shows the broken snowplow, while the right shows the snowplow after I glued it into place.
The snow plow was not the only part that was broken off when I got the model. The handrail on the front was also broken off as seen in the left image. I therefor had to glue that into place. The result after gluing is shown in the right image.
The third problem with the model was what I though was a strange sound in the rear bogie on the BM69. I also noticed that the bogie would sometimes jump. It actually turned out to be much more than just a problematic bogie.
Tools used for resolving the third issue
I ended up using quite a lot of tools to fix the third issue.
Tweezers
Servicing cradle
Soldering iron (15W, 400 °C)
Solder
Flux, liquid
Tip activator
Soldering brass
Desoldering pump
Soldering stand
Soldering mat
Screwdriver PH000 x 50 mm
Solid plastic (19 mm height)
Plier
Decoder wire
Special Grease for model trains
Special light oil for model trains
Cotton swabs
Isopropanol 99% (IPA, 2-propanol)
I used a smaler plier than what is shown in the picture. The tip activator was needed because my soldering iron was in a terrible shape. An applicator might be necessary for the oil. The oil I use have a great applicator built-in to the bottle, thus no need for an applicator. Something as simple as a paper clip can be used as an applicator if needed. The solid plastic was used to avoid damage to the underside of the model while the bogies where disasembled.
Fixing the third issue
The first thing I did was to open up the rear bogie to investigate further, as I suspected that was to blame.
My first thought was that some additional grease was necessary. That did not help. I therefor tried to add some oil to the bearings which didn't help either. The third thing I tried was to swap the two axels in the bogie. That didn't do anything either. I therefor had to investigate further and decided to take of the shell. The shell comes of by gently pulling it outwards where the doors are.
What I found out after a visual inspection of the inside was that a wire was touching the driving axle towards the rear bogie as show in the left picture. It was a bit hard to see if it was the problem, so I therefor placed the EMU on the track and did a test run. The wire defintely touched the axel during the test run as I could see the wire jump around like crazy. I then removed the tape which obviously wasn't holdig the wire into place as it was supposed to do, followed by moving the wire away from the driving axel as seen in the right picture.
The sound was then gone and the problem with the bogie was resolved. But a new sound issue arrised after fixing the rear bogie. The model would run fine in reverse, but a strange scraping sound would appear if driving forward!
I therefor had to dig even deeper into the model. One thing I noticed was that one of the wires where broken off. Soldering on new wires requires the removal of the bogie. I therefor decided to replace both wires on the rear bogie and at the same time add some grease to both the front and the rear bogie.
It's necessary to unscrew the circuit board in order to detach the bogies. The first step in that process is to disconnect the wire that goes towards the BS69. I used a combination of my fingers and a plier to disconnect the connector.
The circuit board can then be detached by unscrewing two screws. The entire board can then be bent to either side, so that the bogies and driving axels can be reached.
One thing I noticed after detaching the circuit board was the screws that attach the engine to the chassis. Two of them where totaly destroyed.
The next step is then to detach the side of the boiges. Those simply slide off by pulling them gently towards you. A plier can be helpful here, but make sure to not pull to hard.
Detaching the side of the bogie reveals the mechanism that holds the bogie into place. You could detach those at this stage, but it is in my opinion better to detach the driving axel first. The way to do that is to pull the axel outwards from the bogie towards the engine while tilting the bogie slightly The axel will then detach from the bogie as shown in the bellow picture. A tweezer might be helpfull, but remember that you could easily scratch your driving axel with the tweezer if you use one made out of metal like I did.
The next step is to detach the bogie by carefully lifting the flaps towards you. You then have to gently take off the pickups before removing the bogie completely. Bellow is an image of the bogie with the broken wire and it's two pickups after I desoldered the rest of the wires. Note that I have taken out the top lid of the bogie. That lid can be taken off by bending the sides gently outwards.
I then soldered on new wires to the pickups and to the circuit board as shown in the two bellow images. Note that I on purpose decided to solder the wires while they where detached from the bogie. I did that for two reasons. Reason one is that it's easier to solder when they lay flat. Reason two is that the plastic will most likely melt if you solder with it attached to the bogie.
The next step I did was to apply some grease to the gears in the bogie. I then went ahead and assembled it back into place. Note how the notch on the top lid of the bogie should be pointing towards the engine. Pointing it the other way will not work.
The first step to attaching the bogie back again is to attach the pickups and align the frame that will hold the bogie into place. You then snap the bogie and the frame togehter. The driving axel can then be attached by first pushing it into the engine followed by pushing it back into the bogie which basically is the oposite of what was done to detach it. Be carefull when attaching the bogie as the wires can easly break. Also make sure that the wires end up on the correct side of the support frame as show in the bellow image.
The sidewalls of the bogie can then be put back and the circuit board can be screwed back into place. Lastly the shell can be put back.
I then ran the model without any issues while at home. What I did next was that I took the model with me down to one of the railroad clubs I am a member of in order to test it there. The model worked fine for the first hours, but the sound in the rear bogie came back again.
One of my railroad friends have a similar model of the BM69a. He told me that the scraping sound is a result of the rear driving axel being pushed backwards. He then showed me by pushing the axel gently forwards by pushing the rod that sticks out of the rear bogie. The sound then dissapeared. Pushing the driving axel is however just a temporary fix. He also told me that the problem can be resolved by applying some oil followed by running the EMU back and forth for some time. Adding oil to that bearing shouldn't be necessary as oil is supposed to flow from the driving axel, but that is unfortunately not the case for this model. I therefor tried out his suggestions the next day.
Just applying some oil at the end of the bogie helped, but there still was some noise. I therefor had to once again unscrew the entire bogie and apply some oil. The bellow pictures shows the rod in question.
I used some cotton swabs to clean out the old oil this time. I applied grease to parts of the axel last time I opened it up, but I did not apply anything to the rod. I used oil and not grease for the rod. I then assembled the model again and drove it back and forth around my layout.
The model was now finally running as one could expect for the time being. It was quite a lot of work though, which is something you shouldn't expect from a "brand new" model. I have contacted NMJ about these issues to get a comment from them. They have at the publication time of this article not responded.
Decoder adjustments
Those of you who have read my articles in the past knows that I do not like lights that change in the direction of travel. I where able to change that using JMRI as this model has an ESU decoder. Bellow is a screenshot showing the six mappings I changed.
The changes I did is in summary as follows:
- Changed F0 to turn on white headlights on the BM69, red on the BS69.
- Changed F1 to turn on white headlights on the BS69, red on the BM69.
- Changed F2 to turn on the engine sound.
- Changed F18 to be used for short horn.
- Changed F4 to turn on the uppper headlight in all directions that have white lights turned on.
I also changed the master volume from 192 to 128 as I personaly find the volume to be way to high. I might do more fine tuning to the volume later on as I am not entirely satisfied with the volume level.
Final thoughts
This model is defintely a nice looking model with decent sound effects. It is a shame though that there are som many issues with it straight out of the box. I have as you have read during this article had to replace the traction tires, add new grease and oil, glue together broken parts and replace some wiring. All of these issues make me belive that this is not a brand new model, but a refurbished one, meaning that someone else have used it before. It's a shame that NMJ sells used models as they where brand new.
Superspeed500 2025