I am thinking of having a reversing track segment like the Village Street Car set but I don't want a trolley car. Much like the Bach Man's layout with its reversing mine track, I would like to have a MOW engine with a flat car or two running back and forth using the street car controller electronics. I know I can get the reversing track sections separately but can I run from 10 to 12 feet between the reversing points? And do I need that 'trolley barn'? And if so, what function does it provide? 

I do realize that the Lionel and American Flyer guys (and girls?) still buy and use these vintage products on their nostalgic layouts; they are the same as I had as a kid. But I also think that there is a market today for revamped O scale people, cars, trucks and buildings. Bachmann could even clean up some of those old molds and come out with a series of revamped kits. While I have used parts of certain 'old' plasticville kits (farm buildings) to create other railroad buildings, there are many that I won't touch for any use on my On30 layout; they are simply way too toy like for me.
Lee in Tucson

I am sure that Bachmann has a prototype photo that they based their model upon but I looks to be at least 4 boards too high from the pictures I have seen, i.e. it would top heavy. And I agree with David (UK), nothing  can replace real wood car parts and logs. Since none of the offered 'rail/road' names work for me, I would be better off starting with one of those Xmas flats or low-side gondolas, strip it, make my own deck and slat sides, fill it with real 'logs', and use my own decals.
Lee in Tucson

My recollection is that when Bachmann acquired the Plasticville line of buildings, they were stilll the S-O gauge structures that were around in the 1950s. In fact, many of the kits that I have acquired for my On30 layout now are still the same when I was a kid; they have to be using the same molds. Bachmann created their own line of N scale buildings which have nothing to do with the Plasticville line. I do wonder if N-scalers would respond to N-scale versions of the Plasticville line of buildings. Lee

When I looked at the photos, I thought "Why would they show an old model as a new release?" Note the truck mounted couplers; I thought we got rid of those miserable things many years ago. If this is the same engine as their 1987 version, the 2001 MR review of N scale engines noted its "poor proportions".  Personally, I wouldn't buy it as none of the road names are of interest to me but re-releasing old models is a huge step back in my estimation. Please tell me that we aren't headed that way. Lee

My latest project involved a diecast metal 1/43 tanker that I needed to turn into a Texaco truck. Isopropyl alcohol took off the lettering from the body and cab with about a day of soaking; it was so particular that I was able to proceed to reletter the tank body without a repaint. But I had to strip the cab to bare metal to change colors; after soaking in pine sol for about 4 days, about half of the paint came off with heavy scrubbing. Finally, I gave up and used good old paint remover to get down to bare metal. Good thing this truck was metal.
Lee

I agree with amdaylight. It is time for Bachmann to come out with a western narrow gauge box car and caboose at a minimum. Other revenue cars would be great but I would settle for a box car plus a caboose from a rail line west of the Mississippi right now.

Yes, I am talking about the side doors. If you want to talk about thick plastic, try cutting out the plug door of a vintage American Flyer reefer car. I used an Exacto saw and it still took forever. And the door material was so thick, I had to block sand the back with a real course grit to reduce the depth of the door.
I vagely recall that plastic model car builders (1:24) had a method of using thread/fishing line to saw out doors, trunk lids and hoods; today there is some tool called an auto-cutter or whatever. Does anyone know how to do the manual saw method? Lee

Has anyone attemped to open the doors on one of their Bachmann reefer cars? With the opening hatches, it would be nice to have the doors open too. I have seen an O scale reefer with opening roof hatches and doors, but I think it was an Atlas. If you have accomplished this feat, what was your source of hinges and latches? Lee

I noticed that certain scales seem to have Spectrum series and a 'regular' series from Bachmann. But On30 only has Spectrum. So what is the difference? And is there such a thing as regular Bachmann On30 cars, engines, etc.? Thanks, Lee.

I too use 90% isopropyl alcohol as a first step. If that doesn't work, then I will go to pine sol. There are also some commercially available paint removers. Polly S had one that worked very well for me but it was pricey and I haven't seen it for some time. If you do use pine sol, be very careful to clean the object well so that there isn't any smell left or your new paint job will be ruined (voice of experience).
90% isopropyl alcohol  works very quickly on all my recent Bachmann products. But it also destroyed a 1950's vintage AF tank car; now it is part of a wreck/junk yard. Don't use brake fluid as it can take out the component that holds the plastic together. All of a sudden, the plastic crumbles and disintegrates; I destroyed a number of N scale cars that way.
Lee

I have retained Bachmann's steel sheet metal weight with the caboose rebuild. I would like to keep any additional weight inside the caboose but that is just my preference. But I really didn't want to start re-weighting  the other cars --- especially knowing how hard it is to weight down an empty flat car. I just might weight down the passenger cars as they will always be run together and I like the lighting to be constant. Lee

These are good looking improvements although I still would like to see the sliding doors open to the right and those small end doors eliminated. I looked at your site and the body lowering is noticeable; I also looked at the Bachmann on-line catalog and none of these newer cars are shown as far as I can tell. So, if I should order or bid on one of these new boxcars, is there a part number I should look for? And what road names are available? Thanks, Lee.

I too had one of the first Plymouth MDTs but mine ran poorly. And the stalling thru the turnouts drove me crazy --- unless you ran it at a high speed. I made a slug out of a dead Mehano GP30 in order to improve electrical pickup and hard wired it to the Plymouth. That helped but the Plymouth still had problems especially with low speed starts and slow speeds. And then it quit; brushes burned out. Today, it sits outside the repair shop as a yard engine with a headlite on and the engineer leaning out of the cab. Lee

I am nearing completion of a cupola-less Bachmann caboose; yes, I started it before Bachmann came out with their version. NMRA suggested weight for a caboose of this length is 5 ounces but right now, my version is only at 4 ounces. I need to decide now before final assembly: so should I add an ounce of weight? Will I have problems pulling a short (4-5 cars) length of flat cars which will likely be very under-weight? Will the lighting of the caboose be improved? And if I weight the caboose, do I have to the rest of my cars? Thanks, Lee.