Forney coupled nose first is much less likely to derail cars.

One could offset the issue at the rear with a long shank shelf coupler. 

Is the peaked cab roof actual production?

Looked at a ton of photos and saw none that had a peaked roof. 

Bachmann seems to favor Baldwin in it's On30 offerings - even the Whitcomb comes from what became a division of Baldwin before going out of business entirely.

Forney will pull like a beast but it does not like tight curves or sloppy ups and downs because of the length. 

The small 4-4-0 I've had some issues with lead truck popping off, although some other things have given problems in the same place (an old AHM/Lima curved switch). 

A logging road would likely have had a Climax, Shay, or other geared locomotive, although when the Catskill Mountain Railroad quit, some of it's 4-4-0s went to logging roads - they got fitted with a planetary gear adapter on the drive wheels, though, to allow slower speed operation. 

My experience has been until you have a bad experience you'll think they're great too.  My first experience with them was to ask if they could run a particular piece as an auction.  They sent a generic email back that did not answer the question, and when I emailed back indicating that was nice, but you did not answer the question, can you list an item number xxxxx in auction format, not only did I get an obnoxious answer back, I found that account blocked from bidding.   

So, as long as you don't expect any real effort out of them, I'm sure they're great, but if you have a problem, frankly, they're jerks about it, and the feedback I looked at backs that up.  No customer service skills.  Why? They're big enough and sell enough they don't have to care if they get a few bad feedback comments. 

I think the only one with any lettering on it is the one that comes black.

It would certainly make reworking one easier.  I actually bought one in part because someone took it all apart - by the looks of it he'd intended to bash it with a Mantua HO 2-6-6-2, but must have stopped when Bachmann released one. 

The Favorite Spot needs to buy another container load of them.

Not particularly nice or decent guys (read their bad feedback) but you can't argue with $0.01 and no reserve. 

By coincidence I picked up a Bachmann 2-8-0 cheap yesterday so I tried this swap.

The weght on the 2-8-0 chassis is a tad too wide to fit inside the 2-6-0 boiler.  I may give it a few passes on the bench grinder to see if I can slim it down to fit.  Length is okay, some work is needed at the rear as well.  I think once done it will look better than the 2-10-0 because the drivers are larger. 

Of course, after I post in this topic I see the Whitcomb due out in January. 

Is the hopper out of production for some reason?  I don't even see it in the catalog, at least not online.  I got curious because I see someone on eBay looking for $160 for a two-pack of them, what the current list is, given I bought all mine for like $40.

It's looking like they're doing shorter runs and tightening up production on some of this stuff to keep the prices higher. 

The cream and orange one is a real paint scheme, used by the Salzberg group on their shortlines - Wellsville, Addison & Galeton, Des Moines & Central Iowa, Lousiana & North West, Southern New York, and many others.   No narrow gauge that I'm aware of, but it's not that much of a stretch.   

Be nice if there was an undecorated, though, I got the little gas-mechanical in undec and painted it, if this came undec I could paint it to match.

Quote from: Woody Elmore on October 21, 2013, 08:04:53 AM
If old trains had value I'd be a millionaire!

Seriously look for old Athearn kits - also a company named Bev-Bel used Athearn cars to customize.

Kadee has nice older equipment - just save your pennies to buy one!

A few weeks back I watched a plastic HO bobber caboose get bid up to $202.00.  Sometimes they have more value than you realize. 


As for the OP, there are plenty of steam era items available from multiple manufacturers.  Accurail and Bowser are probably the most readily available/least expensive lines. 

I tend to think if I had to straighten one of these frames I'd put a weight on it and maybe heat it up some. 

But then if I busted the coupler ear off I think I'd just convert it to shell mounted couplers, like so many engines come now.  Unless I planned to pull 100-car trains with it, that should be fine.

They make these things overseas by the thousands, once in a while you get a bad one, too.  I had an On30 Forney that just about caught fire due to a defect with the decoder.  It was glowing white-hot when I opened it up and tested it again. 

Worst case see if they'll warranty it for a decoder replacement.