Thanks for all the great info guys.  Im new to the hobby since last November and only have two (working) DC locos.  So I wasnt really thinking about switching back and forth.    I was just going to switch completely to DCC and be done with it............since I can run my DC locos on the DCC set up when I want.  But the performance of the DC locos on the DCC set up isnt as good as when they run on the DC set up.  So I may rethink that since it seems like it would be fairly easy to toggle back and forth.

Just saw on Facebook that Henrietta's painted sample came in... She looks exquisite! Her detailing is excellent and the Fall ETA is good to hear...

Now, with the exception of the Diesel 0-6-0s and Express Coaches, all of the currently undelivered project for N Scale 'Thomas' have a decorated sample and are seemingly expected to come out within the year... You love to see it...

I recently discovered the On30 Kitbash Parts section on the Bachmann website and have been perusing it quite often. Since I enjoy building my own models, both from scratch and from kitbashing, I have found the site to be quite useful. For instance, I was able to pick up the body shell for an 18' box car for $10.00 and am in the process of converting it to some type of crew/shop car (haven't decided which one yet). The latest thing now is that Bachmann is selling the body shell, roof, chassis and interior for some of the passenger cars, which, if you're so inclined, will allow you to build a passenger car on the cheap. Even though each item is priced individually, the total cost for the shell, roof, chassis and interior comes to $29.00. Now, you will still need to add trucks and couplers to the car as well as some type of glazing for the windows (I use the plastic from flat blister packs, so there is no cost).

Anyway, I thought I'd post this as a heads-up for those looking to add to their rolling stock roster and not break the bank.

Does anyone use Dead Rail with their Bachmann On30 equipment?

What has been your experience using Dead Rail?

What was the easiest to install and still use the Bachmann sound?

Is it possible that I need to remove the entire front truck assembly in order to access the gears? Per: https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/repowering-a-bachmann-doodlebug-with-a-kato-power-truck-12247660 

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.