One is just a little bit faster. It might take 4 or 5 laps to catch up to the other one after it pulls away.

Quote from: Terry Toenges on April 26, 2024, 12:40:04 PMI have pair of identical Bachmann 4-4-0's that I consisted. I only used one address for both of them. One of them is slower than the other even though they are identical so "like" locos aren't always equal in speed.

This is where adjusting CV5 and CV6 work wonders. One locomotive runs 20% faster than the other? Adjust CV5 downward by 20% and you should be close. Run them at mid speed and make a similar adjustment to CV6. I've used a stopwatch to time locomotives over a known length of track to calculate speed differences and made adjustments based on those.

One thing I didn't see mentioned at all is converting the existing DC locomotives to DCC. If you're handy with a soldering iron Bachmann locomotives made within the past 25 years or so are pretty simple to add a decoder to.

That video is an incredible insight into railroading of the days of yore.  Although it's labeled 1950s, the Missouri Pacific had gotten rid of almost all of its steam engines by 1952 except for isolated pockets here and there, like where I grew up. I believe most of that video was from the late 1940s actually.

Look at what you get to see.  You not only get a detailed look at taking on water and coal, you also get many glimpses of the rolling stock of the period.  You never really see the whole car because the focus is not the cars, but I saw brakemen walking around several corners of double sheathed wood box cars, which I thought were mostly gone by that time, their day having been around WW 1.   Also, there was the slightest glimpse, before they cut it off, of an even earlier 36 foot truss rodded box car which I thought were gone by those days, but there it is to see, right there.  Lots of views of wood four-window cabooses.  And full five man train crews standing at the head end checking their watches and orders before starting the run.  All dressed in overalls and caps and looking like Railroad men are supposed to look. 

There were a couple of views of some safety task in which way down the line in the distance you could see the classic smoke rising from an oncoming steam freight, I always wondered, which engine that was that we'll never know.  Most of the engines we saw there were 1200 and 1300 class Mikados but some of the 9000 class 0-8-0's were there. The distinctive MP crossbucks with striped posts at grade crossings appear several times, there were a few back home in those long-ago days.  This was a safety film, of course, but it was the same as all historical photographs are to historians, the most valuable stuff is always right in the corners, just barely visible and nearly completely cut off.

I have always thought that railroading of that period, around when I was born, was a perfect art form.  Except for the loss of the steam engines, railroads looked just like that until I finished high school in the mid-1960s.  It's all so simultaneously familiar, nostalgic, and wistful in its loss.

Ah yes!  I knew that some electrogenius would know how to do all that.

I replied to your question about the driveshaft on your other post on another forum.

Please excuse my novice question.

I purchased a Bachmann Spektrum HO Doodlebug and want to check the gear lubrication in its main truck.  To do so, it appears as though I need to remove truck's bottom cover (see below image ) by prying on it, but I am afraid that prying will break the cover.

Can one of you kind forum-dwellers tell me how to remove the cover without breaking it.  Do I pry on the front and rear tabs or the two slotted side slots? The side slots appear to be the appropriate ones but they have protruding, soldered wires.

Or, is my thinking flawed and I instead need to remove the entire truck assembly, or somthing completely different.

Thanks in advance for any advice, RobertR
You cannot view this attachment.

I need a Yoke Assembly for a g-scale Bachmann Shay.  Anyone have the part for sale? 

https://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=69_629&products_id=10027

It should be an LED in the pole. So, polarity matters. If you wire the pole up aand it doesn't work, reverse the wires.

Craig and Trainman, all you need is a DPDT (Double Pole, Double Throw) toggle switch. For this application, stay away from the mini or micro switches since, depending on the size of your layout and number of engines running, you may be pulling a few amps through the switch and the standard size switches can handle a greater amp load.

A DPDT switch has six terminals. Connect the center two to your track, one to each rail. Connect one set of the side terminals to the output of your DC power supply. Connect the other side to the output of your DCC controller. Now, depending to which side you flip the switch, you will either supply DC or DCC to your track. However, it is important that both the DC and DCC controllers be set to 0 before you switch power to the track just to be sure that everything is turned off in order to avoid shorts. If you you want to be a little more sure, they make DPDT switches with a CO (Center Off) position. In this position, the switch conducts no power to either side and your track is completely dead.

                   DC  Track  DCC
                       |     |     |
                     __    __    __
           Contacts             
                     __    __    __

Hope this helps.

P.S. One thing that just came to mind is that I have no idea how the decoders in DCC-ready turnouts react to straight DC current. So, if you have any of those turnouts you may want to do some research on the subject before you fry the decoders.