Item No. 83098 - Painted Unlettered - Black with Green Boiler
Item No. 83099 - Painted Unlettered - Black

As many of you know Bachmann is producing a new magnetic N scale coupler. At this point in time we are including it on Spectrum locomotives starting with the new H4 articulated. It will be available as a separate sale item sometime later this year. As requested here are a few pictures of the new coupler:

Here is a link  to the exploded view drawing for HO Thomas:

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/dwg/dwgs/58741.pdf

I don't know if this will help you since it doesn't show the wiring schematic. My suggestion would be to call our service department for that info . They can be reached Monday through Friday from 8am to 4pm (EST) at (800) 356-3910.

Can't give an exact date but they should be here very soon.

>> "Unique/specialized and cheap/affordable do not go together."

You are correct sir!

I would suggest checking into Blackstone Models made by our friends at Soundtraxx.
http://www.blackstonemodels.com/products.php

Posted some pics of the 2010 Toyfair Displays in the photo gallery

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/gallery.php?set_albumName=2010-New-York-and-Hong-Kong-Toy-Fair-Displays&include=view_album.php

Enjoy!

It is a new DYNAMIS ready-to-run train set. It includes a Spectrum DCC Sound on Board HO scale 2-8-0 Consolidation with freight consist, a Dynamis control system (Item No. 36505) and a 56" x 38" oval of track with a DCC turnout.

No new On30 sets this year. We've given the On30 world it's first articulated steam locomotive, a Baldwin 4-6-0 and a great new caboose within the last 12 months - that's a lot of tooling for On30 fans!

Go to:
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,12394.0.html

Tidmouth Sheds and the expansion pack have not been released yet. It is looking like late spring.

Our announcements at Toy Fair are centered around our new starter sets and Thomas & Friends™ line. This year we added two new HO sets - The Great Northern "Empire Builder" set and a new McKinley Explorer set featuring newly tooled 89' Colorado Railcar full dome passenger cars. In N scale sets we announced 3 new sets - the Royal Blue (B&O/passenger), The Southern Belle (Southern/freight), and the Spirit of Christmas. In Large Scale we announced the Plainsman set (Union Pacific/freight). We've also announced three exciting new Spectrum "Digital/sound" sets featuring a DCC SOUND ON BOARD 2-8-0 and a Dynamis Digital Control system.

New Thomas& Friends™  items include Large Scale James the Red Engine, 4 new Large Scale freight cars, an HO Sodor lighthouse, HO Knapford Station building kit, HO Scale Bill & Ben , and HO Scale Donald & Douglas.

We announce our standard and Spectrum line model railroad products at the NMRA (National Model Railroad Association) national convention in July. These items appear as "New" in the following catalog. This year includes the large scale Forney, the HO Doodlebugs, etc....

If the MTH track had the black coating on the middle rail it was inhibiting electrical conductivity. My experience has been that you need to remove the black coating (by sanding) from the middle rail on realtrax in order to get good contact.

Yes the H4 is equipped with a "dual mode" decoder. It will operate either way.

Are you saying the locomotive came without the counterweights?