I have 6 of these engines and 5 of them have decoders installed. I have never had any trouble with the light boards working with out any modifications.  I have digitrax zephyr controller and the "0" key turns the light on and off.

Try that first if that dont work you might want to check your connections in the soldering. Worse case detach the light board from the decoder and try powering it by sticking the wires to the rails. This should make it work just like it did on DC.  If it dont work you have a bad LED and would need to order a light board from bachmann.

I have the set, although i have parted it out and traded the freight cars for passenger cars.  But its pretty neat, its tough to get it to sit right in the tree. So the last few years ive put it on the floor. The set i have came with a 4-4-0 and 3 old time passenger cars and a caboose. 

I was hoping for a new run of 4-6-0's and 2-8-0's with different road numbers. Especially in Southern. Is there any chance the 2-10-0 will ever make it to production in N scale?

besides doing a #630 lets have another black Southern 2-8-0.  The HO guys have had 3 different road numbers (721, 722, and 724) yet the N scalers have only had 1 Southern 2-8-0 the green #722. 

Besides needing a heavy pacific, how about releasing that russian 2-10-0 that was canceled along with the 4-6-0 that has now been released. 

I could go for a heavy 4-6-2. Perhaps make different shells for multiple roads. Id definitely would like to see a Southern PS-4.

I wouldnt say wait but be ready to do some adjusting, the 2 4-6-0's I have both came out of the factory in pretty fine shape.  They also seem to pull my trains far better than all 6 of my 2-8-0's. 

Actually I have had only one of the 6 2-8-0's that came from the factory in perfect condition. The rest all had drivers out of quarter, eccentrics that were binding the rotation of the drivers, and poor connections between the tender and engine. But with a little patients and some adjustments I now have 6 perfect 2-8-0's that will all pull 25+ cars. But this 4-6-0 is something else, granted Ill be using it for passenger use mostly, but ive already pulled 15 freight cars behind it and not a slip of the drivers or a stall.

Tim

Im in the middle of refurbishing and repainting my 6th 2-8-0.  I got this engine off of a friend that ran it for a while. It had some running gear issues and so forth so he didn't run it much.  Anyways back to the subject at hand. While working on the engine I noticed that one of the ladders is missing from the left side of the boiler. Its the ladder that runs from the smokebox to the pilot beam, that you have pop out to get the shell off.  Ive contacted Bachmann but for one but there is a bit of confusion in finding it and all that. So I thought I would post here and see if anyone might have kitbashed there 2-8-0's or have a parts engine that may have this part. If anyone has this part I would be willing to buy it off of you.  If you have a parts/drawing of the engine it is part *00F03 the right side is *00F04.   

Tim

that looks great with the smaller tender. You did a great job with that! I was looking at doing that but think im going to stick with the large tender as i have found through looking at some pictures the southern had a few 4-6-0's with large tenders in the late days of steam.

I just received my Southern 4-6-0 today, and out the box it did well. The pilot truck looked to be installed correct. The connection between the engine and tender is great. No loose rods so far.  However, when it is going down the track the main driver will wobble and not stay inline with the frame nor the other driving wheels. At high speeds it is not as noticeable but at slow speeds it has a lope and will cause the engine to heave up. I feel as if I have bent axle in my engine. Has anyone dealt with this yet or has any suggestions?

I have been looking for more info on this engine. I found this link to someone that is doing a review on it.

http://www.visi.com/~spookshow/loco/spec460.html

Turns out the engine and tender are wire together instead of the plug that is used on the 2-8-0's.  The only way to separate them is to unsolder the engine from the decoder.

From my experience with the 2-8-0's, you have to make sure all 4 drivers are in sync first.  Make sure the drivers on the right side of the engine are pretty close to 90 degrees ahead of the left side.  If one set is off then it will through the engine off and make it run with a lope.  Also the eccentric which is the main pin that feel out on you has to be precisely positioned so it will not bind up the drivers as it rotates and move the little rod its a attached to back and forth.  If that is off even on one side the engine will run terribly.  The best thing to set it is look at some photos or videos of real engines that have the same valve gear and just start adjusting it a little at a time. you can do that with a simple pair of tweezers.  Send me a pic of the engine and i might be able to help you out. 

thanks termite that was the answer i was looking for.  I have bought one of the medium tenders for one of my 2-8-0's and i kinda thought the others were now being made similar to the medium ones. Now here is another more complicated question has anyone attempted to DCC a 2-6-2.  The one's im refering to is the current release that comes in the plastic box. It has the split frame and the traction tire on the middle set of drive wheels.

Ive been looking at ways to improve my 2-6-2 power pick-up and was curious if the newer tenders offered by bachmann have power pick up on all 4 axles or just the front like the previous verson. Also will these tenders couple to the engines without and modifications to the engine?

TS

Yes #'s 7, 10, 11, 12 and 14 had this paint scheme for about 5 years. I think the 12 looks great but the 11 is nice in its own way. Maybe they can do the 10 and 14 in the future or perhaps the 9