Hello Everyone: 

I love bachmann's 2-8-0, but the 2-8-0's seem too problematic with their belt drives in my opinon,

I have had to use the warranty on them more than once for the belt, I found a small solution using a steel belted vcr belt, it works,

but I heard of a conversion kit that eliminates the belt, does anyone know of it?.

it's a great loco, but the stupid design flaw is the belt in my opinion, there is enough room to use a gear driven system and still keep it hidden, you would have to change the pulleys to gears and somehow mount a gear inbetween the motor and the bottom shaft.

any help is appreciated on this,

take care and thanks
George

Hello Everyone

I am considering a 2-8-4 by bachmann, but here's the kicker,

does it have a belt drive in it? or is it a gear drive?.

I have looked on the net and I haven't found any news about it or tech specs.

I don't subscribe to model railroader so I don't know what their opinion was on it.

I am tired of belt drives, and I want to know in advance what the loco has before I purchase one.


any input is helpful.

take care and thanks
George

Hello Everyone 

that seller epeddeler is a moron, sorry if I sound mean but that guy is always overpriced, he thinks it is gold when he touches it, LOL 

the bachmann passenger cars is nice, I wish bachmann would re-release them with more roadnames, HINT HINT BACHMANN MAKE A NICKEL PLATE ROAD SET

Also bachmann forgot to make a Baggage car for these nice sets, walthers made one in a few roads that matched them, then ihc had some that sort of matched paint wise.

come on bachmann make the sets again, but in more roads,

take care George

Hello Everyone:

Hawaii the guys are right, are you using bachmann e-z turnouts or ??

all of the bachmann e-z track is code 100, where other comapnies use anything from code 100 to code 70,

this is the height of the rail and code 100 is the most common one,

see the small adapter track that comes with the bachmann # 5 turnout has a score on the inside that you cut,

if you are not going to use it, use it to make a template if you plan on cutting another track to join to it.

I will have to take pics in the morning of what I did.

take care
George

Hello Everyone 

I managed to snag one of the bachmann #43-1290 N&W passenger sets that was made by Rivarossi,

one question, what cars are in this set, it's a 6 car set and for what I got it for, I consider it a killer deal.

I want to know what's in it just in case I have to get a few other cars for it.

any help is appreciated, take care and thanks
George 

One thing I did to some of the athearn coupler covers is this.

drill a tiny hole in the center and run a screw through it,

I never glue coupler boxes, I use screws on all of them, force of habit thanks to a coupler box failure on a rivarossi challenger

but most of the time I have never had problems with the athearn coupler covers, I usually use a jewelers rod, basically a metal rod with plastic ends, same idea as one member mentioned with the pliers, and they work.

I have had problems on some of the alco pa's, that's where drilling a hole and adding a screw comes in handy

Hello Everyone:

Sadly in my area one of my favorite hobby shops closed a few years back,
Wings and Things in Chesterton, IN.

so all that is left in my area in my opinion is 1 real hobby shop  G&G in Griffith, IN, Rocky, Larry and the gang are helpful and they go out of their way to help.

there's another hobby shop Called Valpo Pet and Hobby, that store is too overpriced on everything, and I am not saying this because of online prices and such, that place is nuts, I think it is because of it's proximity near the college

there is Hobby Shops in Laporte IN that are great, but that's almost 1hr drive so that's now too feasible with the gas prices at the moment,

so G&G being 20 min away, it's cool,

I admit I love to save money and yes I will shop online,  a brand new 2-8-4 by bachmann for $80.00 versus $105.00 plus tax, what would you do?.

a lot of us have fallen to the internet bug, and when a lot of us are strapped for cash, we try to get the best deals we can.

there's a hobbytown near me, that store sucks, I will never recommend it, and I always steer friends away from it, the owner caters more to model railroaders, but the problem is the fact the owner will not do special orders for people.

I have been screwed over a bunch of times there on special orders, because of it, I stopped shopping there,

I have asked the owner if he needed money down, he said no, so when the item was supposed to arrive he says "OH GREAT PLANES CANCELLED THE ORDER",

well when you go online to tower hobbies website, the item is available, hmmm,

I have heard the same complaint about hobby town from more than one person, this is the reason that store had to relocate 3 times in 5 years, no customers, can't afford the rent,

then you have Hobby Lobby, I do not consider this place a hobby shop, I consider it a bad version of wal mart, LOL.

I remember when I was a kid, there used to be a lot of hobby shops, I just hope the hobby shop is not a dying breed like the drive ins,

take care
George

The Athearn genesis 2-8-2 had the same problem

one solution I did , I cut the stiff black wire cover off, then I disconnected the wires,

used a better more flexible heat shrink tubing, reconnected all of the wires and it worked,

the 2-8-0 I have, I haven't ran it yet, so if it has the same problem as the athearn did, I will do what I did to the athearn

another thing people were doing was cutting off the tubing and painting the wires black,

just a thought

Hello Everyone:

most of the newer bachmann trains that have the screw on covers for their couplers accept a kadee coupler, just like a few of the other board members stated.

as for rolling stock, bachmann 1998? and up , have screw on coupler covers, athearn cars have snap on covers, proto 1000 ( most of them ) have snap on covers,

where a lot of your older HO scale cars have a truck assembly where a horn hook coupler is mounted, kadee makes an adapter kit that works well if you don't want to chop up the trucks.

also if the rolling stock has plastic wheels, you will want to replace them in the near future, bachmann sells metal replacement wheels, as well as other companies, you jut have to remember 33" or 36", most of your freight cars use 33" while the passenger cars usually have 36".

IHC made a wierd knuckle coupler that works with horn hook and knuckle couplers, they work, but they are a pain to uncouple at times.

as for the bachmann e-z mate couplers, they are the same thing as mchenry couplers,  just make sure you get the ones with the springs on them, the ones without the springs are junk, they don't last long and have a bad habit of uncoupling when they go bad.

hope this helps
take care
George

I found something neat that works,

auto parts stores sell this new material for sound deadening, it is a plastic like stuff with an adhesive backing that comes in 12" x 12" sheets, I think there's 30 sheets to a box?

I have to find out, the stuff is about a 1/16th" thick and you can cut it to any shape or size.

a friend of mine used it on his lionel layout and it works, and you all know how noisey lionel trains are on a table.

hope this helps
take care
George

Hello Everyone:

I realize bachmann makes 2 diesels and a 2-8-4 for the Nickel Plate road,

but what ever happened to the 2-8-0?, when the spectrum lines upgraded, this roadname was left behind and because of it, people pay an arm and a leg on ebay for it.

how about using most of the tooling from the prr 4-6-2 to make a NKP 4-6-2?.

or how about the 4-8-2, your company makes that loco, and the Nickel plate used them as well.

I know your company made the articulated 2-6-6-2, but those were leftovers from the W&LE.

you could issue a new explorer train set with the 2-8-0 and the passenger cars in the nickel plate livery.

it would sell,

any help is appreciated

take care and thanks
George

Hello Everyone 

I thank all of you for your input and help,

it seems that a 26" outer radius with a 22" inner radius would be the safest route, I would have clearance between the trains, and the loops would look interesting.

I will have to see, as it develops, I will pickup some 26" radius curves this April to get an idea and go from there.

switch wise, I have a bunch of the # 5 switches, picked them up on clearance for $9.99 each, I really like them and they serve the purpose I want.

I know there is a lot of people out there with elaborate layouts, I just want something simple in the garage for now, there is wheels on the table so it is mobile, so cutting out access panels is no biggy.

if all goes well, I plan on adding on, it's in the garage and I have a lot of spaceI can utilize.

but thanks to all of you, I have an idea.

I am surprised bachmann did'nt make any 24" radius curves.

have to jet

take care
George

Hello Everyone 

I have been working on a layout off and on for the past few years, and I have finally decided on 26" and 28" radius curves.

I know a lot of people like to hand laid layouts, I did it a while back and I had too many problems so I decided to go with E-Z track.

I am using a 6' x 10' table, I can easily make it 7' x 10' if I have to,

I am trying to use track planning software atlas rts, but the problem is the fact they don't have radius curves that large, so I really don't have a clear idea on how it is all going to line up.

I am going with the idea of two basic ovals, # 5 L and R switches, then adding a few sidings and a roundhouse,

I decided on the larger radius mainly because of the passenger cars, a lot of them are asking for 24" radius curves, so now I am going to tear down the old layout and start building the new one.

anyone have any ideas on some layout software that might be able to help, possibly freeware?

any help is appreciated

take care and thanks
George

Hi Guys:

Thanks for the heads up on those, I had a 4-8-2 C&O last year, but due to unforseen circumstances I had to sell it prior to actually trying it.

I am a berkshire nut, but it seems more and more I am gonna get the proto 2000 version of the berk,

so far I have had 7 negative comments about it's pulling power, not counting this site.

even if the Nickel plate ones are rail fan versions, you figure they should pull at least 6 passenger cars,

one guy I chatted with told me on a 1 percent grade the engine was having a heck of a time pulling 10 40' reefers.

I have a 2-8-0 spectrum UP  and I had 25 cars hooked up to it on a 1 percent grade, so I know the berkshire is weak for sure.

as for the 4-8-2. all I have is about 4 IHC ones, I have only used one so far and it pulled 8 heavy weights by spectrum without a problem.

I like the level of detail on the new berkshires by bachmann, but if it can pull, it's not worth it to me.

I have an older rivarossi berk, probably 10 years old??? it is the one with the safety express coal tender, I had it hooked up to 15 cars about a month ago and no problem

most of my freight cars are the old TM kits, I love them, I have a soft spot for the old TM cars.

so if I get a berk, it seems I will have to spend $150 to get the proto instead of the $95 for the bachmann, no sound or no dcc doesn't matter to me as long as I can run it and park it at the round house when not in use.

thanks for the input

take care
George

Hi Al

try Train world or Wholesale Trains, they usually have these locos in stock, if not look on ebay, a lot of spectrum locos have been popping on ebay.

take care
George