I don't know the present condition of the moulds, but they lasted long enough after the sidewinder version to be used for the Bachmann Plus version.  The latter had a can motor and a large flywheel/worm gear.  Not quite up to Spectrum standards, the were, never the less, miles ahead of the sidewinders in terms of smooth operation.  If Bill has super detailled the shell of his sidewinder, a Bachmann Plus Consolidation may be the way to go.  Very little modification of the old shell is required, and it is all on the inside where it does not show. 

Tom, how do you handle the ground side of the amplifier input?  Do you bring a ground out of the Tsunami or do you rely on a virtual ground between the bridge rectifiers in the Tsunami and in the supply for the amplifier?  I have played around using an instumentation style input (high impedance, differential input) using 4 op amps.  It worked, but seemed a bit of an overkill.

There seems to be a lot of the kiddie crowd who believe large numbers of posts show wisdom.  But the inanity of their posts shows otherwise.

Maybe if Bach-Man kills the post count, then the inane posts will cease.

That's the old sidewinder Consolidation with a trailing truck added.  I remember buying one close to 20 years ago.  The trailing truck stayed on it for maybe half an hour after I got it home.  It looks much better as a Connie.

Does yours make a lot of gear noise?  Even after two decades, mine still whines.  Never could get the noise out of it.

H0 - All DCC except for one automatic hidden yard which is still dc.  But it will be a while still before all my locomotives are equpped with decoders.  In the meantime, they wait patiently on a shelf - I do not run decoderless locomotives on DCC at all.

LS - All DCC except for a couple of RC/battery locomotives.

As Andy pointed out and roger echoed, virtually all plastic models in Canadian colours are generic.  But aren't they also generic is most or all of the other colours they wear?  Is the Bachmann GP-35 an accurate model of a Conrail GP-35?  Or a CSX GP-35?  I suspect that if I want an accurate model of, say, a Western Maryland GP-35, and I buy a plastic GP-35, I will have to make some changes.  Alternately, I might be able to buy a more accurate Western Maryland GP-35 in brass.  Either way, I would be in the same position as a Canadian modeller wanting an accurate model of a Canadian locomotive.   

What you are doing is generally called "basic" consisting and it works with any DCC system.  When you talk about rules, I suspect you are talking about consisting in the command station.  Digitrax calls it Universal consisting, and I too find it a pain.  The "what's on top" reminds me of the old "Who's on first" routine.  Decoder aided assisting (Digitrax uses the term Advance consisting) is my favorite.  With on-the-main (OPs mode) programming, you can make up the consist on the fly and it works very much like your Basic consisting in that you can put the consist on a different layout with a different DCC system, and the consist still works.  The biggest difference is that you can also program which functions will work on what locomotive so that if you have 3 or 4 locomotives working together, only one will display a headlight, ditch lights, etc.  Not all of my decoders support Advanced consisting, and it may be a while before they do - I still haven't finished putting decoders in the whole fleet.

Scrolling text is an option with BBC code.  But it slows down your reading and makes your brain rot.  Personally, I suggest you skip any posting that scrolls, including this one.

Bachmann's E-Z Command does not support programing these functions.  They can, however, be programmed using a full featured system.  Perhaps your hobby shop or local train club can help you out.

Hoople, do you think you could find that check box for us and let us know how to get to it?  I think we have all guessed that there is one, but we don't know how to find it.  Telling us how to get to it would be a really useful answer.

Try Googling "sound clips" and "railroad sound clips."  Also cruise YouTube for railroad and model railroad videos.  If you are using Windows XP you can mix and match sound from videos with the included video editor.  With any Windows you can combine .wav sound clips in the audio recorder.

If you would like to use multiple CD players, consider using computer CD-ROM drives.  Look for the ones with playback controls on the front panel.  Feed them with +5 and +12 volts from an old PC power supply and plug in some computer speakers (the powered ones work best, except for sounds that need to be just noticeable.)  I picked up a stack of these CD-ROM drives at garage sales last summer for a dollar or two apiece.  I even got a box full of CD-ROM drives, along with a couple of power supplies, for free.  I figured at least some of these would still work.  It turned out they all did.  What I would ultimately like to do with these is to set them up around the layout with sounds appropriate for the location (an air wrench near a tire shop, laughter near a playground, etc.)  Then install photocells in the facia of the benchwork to start the players whenever someone passes the area. 

How about these CPR locomotives?  DCC equipped and in two road numbers.

Go to your profile.  Select the middle option.  Give the URL for a photo that you have uploaded to a website.  This is a public display of your photo, so you really want to use one that you have taken or at least have the right to display.

At the moment, this forum does not allow you to upload a photo to be stored on the forum.  But with so many places available to upload photos (photo bucket comes to mind,) lack of storage on the forum is not a problem.

For that distance, just about any wire that you can get under the screws will work.  If you have to buy some wire, the bell wire is a good choice.

The Bach-Man himself is listed as a Newbie, with 25 posts.  Maybe it changes at 100 or so?  Maybe never?

New name; same old Gene!  Glad to see you back.