I was just at one of the on-line model railroad hobby shops and they indicate that the Spectrum 2-10-2 has now been discontinued.

Can the Bach Man give us an indication of which Spectrum engines are most likely to go back into production.

I have been looking for a Spectrum Heavy Montain 4-8-2 for some time now, it is another discontinued engines, another engine I would like to purchase is the Spectrum 4-6-0 in the low driver version. It is relatively hard to find as well.

Some time back I bought a 4-4-0 in the Russian Iron paint.

The colours are superb, any chance that the Russian Iron paint could be used on other smaller steamers? I had hoped to pick up a few in the 4-6-0 low driver version but that engine is not in production at the moment. If, and when it is again produced could it be produced in the Russian Iron livery?

I came across a posting on another site regarding the most popular steam locomotives made.

That made me wonder which of the Bachmann steam locomotives made were the most popular to date in the US.

I realize that Bachmann will not release any numbers to the public as to the number of each locomotive they made, but it would be interested in hearing what the members of this site think as to the overall popularity of the Bachmann HO steamers.

I would think that the original Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 would be the most popular steam locomotive to date due to its excellent detail and reasonable cost.

As to which locomotive would be next in line I would think that the Bachmann 0-6-0 switcher,

I have been having problems with a couple of Bachmann #6 Switch or actually a few of them.

Using a NMRA template gage on these switches I find that the guard rails are too far from the stock rails.

I am not having any problems with the locomotives going straight through the switch, but am having lots of problems if I run the locomotive through the switch in a turn. The trailing trucks or the tender trucks derail, The gage shows the gap between the stock rail and guard rail is too large.

How can one close the gap distance? As these are n/s rails on plastic it appears heat would not work, are there any proven ways to move the guard rail closer to the stock rail.

I have read a number of postings on various web sites regarding this new locomoitive. A few of these postings have indicated that a number of owners are not satisfied with the speed of this engine. They relate to the slow speed operation of the locomoitve and indicate that on many of these engines right out of the box the speed is to fast to use for switching and that many have had to change CV's in order to obtain adequate performance.

I have a few of these engines, with and without sound. On the DCC ready units I installed Digitrax DH163PS decoders. My controller is Digitrax.

I have great slow speed control on both the sound and DCC ready versions that I have added decoders to.

I have not changed any CV's, other than address changes, everything is right out of the box.

Is it possible that this engine does not run well on certain DCC or DC controllers?

I have also checked performance on DC only with an old MRC DC controller, a 510 unit.

For those who indicated they missed having the Vanderbilt tender available, True Line trains is now offering a Canadian version of the Vanderbilt.

https://sites.google.com/a/truelinetrains.ca/tlt/news/posts.xml

It is of course the CN version.

Having just finished perusing the 2012 Bachmann catalogue I am surprised that with the exception of the Doodlebug there are no older Heavyweight coach sets available this year. There are modern coach sets but nothing that would mate well with steam engines.

Speaking of Steam engines, Bachmann sure has cut back on their Standard steamers that came with DCC, their 4-8-4 series and of course missing this year is their 4-6-0's and both the light and heavy mountain's 4-8-2's. These were mainly passenger locomotives and there are no longer any available? Well I guess that is not guite true as I am sure if one searches around there are still new old stock available.

I am in the process of updating my layout from the 1920's to the 1960's. So my older, small steamer roster will be put in storage and I will be bringing out my EMD diesel roster engines. Same for the older small wood box cars, refers etc, will pack them up and bring out the newer steel freight cars which would be correct for my diesel roster. I will also replace a few buildings as well.

I will run the updated layout for 6 months or so and then change it back to the 1920's time frame.

I had modified the foam in the old black boxes so that I no longer had to disconnect/undo the electrical connections beween the steam engines and tenders. This worked great for my 4-4-0's, 4-6-0's. 2-8-0's and the 2-10-0's as well as the Spectrum 2-8-2's. 

I just noticed that the newer Blue or Red Spectrum boxes with the formed plastic display pieces will not allow me to modify those cases as easily as the old Black box cases. I can cut out some of the plastic holding the tenders in place to accomplish being able to store the steam engines without disconnecting the tenders but the modified case is no where as neat as those which used the foam inserts.

I miss the old black boxes.......

This afternoon I addressed my to do list and found my next chore was to convert five Spectrum 4-6-0's to DCC.

I first cut the capacitors and then installed Digitrax DH163PS in the engines. Some of the 4-6-0's ran erratic when the capacitors were not cut.

These engines are both the high boiler and low boiler versions. . I also added some additional weight to each of the boilers and taped in the decoders and reattached to tender bodies to the frames.

I then tested the engines on my layouts and much to my surprise I had no problems with any of the 4 wheel lead trucks or with the wiring bundles between the tender and engine I find this surprising as with my other Spectrum 4-6-0's I was having problems (like many others had) with the wiring bundle between the engine and tender.

I checked with one of the 4-6-0's that I had previously converted and noticed that there is a difference with the wiring bundles between the engine and tender. The older 4-6-0's do not have the small rubber rings that hold the wiring bundles in place.

When did Bachmann update their wiring?

The difference is night and day I remember spending what I thought was hours bending and placing the wiring bundles in various positions before I would get these engines running properly without any derailing or other problems.

I was surprised to see that the new 2-6-0 with DCC/Sound has a one piece electrical connection between the tender and locomotive.

Now if Bachmann would just change the Spectrum connections to a one piece as well. Better yet would be metal connectors but the one piece is a step up.

Now that I know the DCC ready version of the new 2-6-0 comes with an 8 pin plug I must ask the question will BAchmann be releasing a DCC with sound board for this new 2-6-0 or will buyers of this engine who want to add DCC and sound have to go with third party sound boards to upgrade this engine to DCC and sound?

Mr Bachmann or Administrator please answer my question.

Thanks

Not sure if this has been asked before but is the new 2-6-0 DCC plug an 8 plug as were the Spectrum DCC ready locomotives or is it something different?

I have been looking around for a ATSF 2-6-2 locomotive. There is nothing available other than brass locomotives.

I did find the Bachmann 2-6-2 locomotives but they are not based on any real locomotive. Where the Bachmann 2-6-2 engine is simply a 0-6-0 with added pony truck and a trailing truck.

The real 2-6-2 locomotives were not small engines, they were the forerunners of the 4-6-2's.

If Bachmann brings out a 2-6-2 in the future I certainly hope it will not be their forthcoming 2-6-0 mogul will an added trailing truck.

I finally solved my locomotive shortage with acquiring a couple of brass 2-6-2's as well as 4-6-2's. The uncanny resemblance between the locomotives is very family like and to be expected. For now I am running these on DC, in the near future I will change out the open frame motor that came in a couple and add can motors and DCC, perhaps even sound as well.

I have all of the Bachmann 2-8-0's that I will ever need, otherwise I would pick these up myself.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bachmann-Silver-HO-UP-Passenger-Set-w-Spectrum-2-8-0-/400253554202?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item5d30f88e1a

It appears to be the whole set. What a good buy for someone

When running a DC controller with the EZ Command DCC control unit does one run the risk of burning out a DC locomotive if it is left on the layout no being used for long periods of time?

I know that the owners of DC locomotives are warned about burning out the motors if the DC locomotives are left on the layout without being used if the layout is being powered by the Bachmann EZ DCC control unit.

Please advise.

Mr. Bachmann,

Not sure if the Bachmann FA2 locomotive recently announced was a preproduction unit but I have a question. The picture from the train show seems to show a blanked out numberboard.

http://www.pbase.com/tracktime/image/136311266

Will the production units have illuminated numberboards?

Also, what will the CN livery be, the green, yellow and black or the red, black and white colours?

Waiting for your response.

Well my order of the new Con-Cor Coach sets arrived today.

I ordered several sets of these coaches and I am glad to say that all of the coaches ran right out of the box without any problems. I did follow the Con-Cor instructions and lightly oiled the wheel sets as recommended.

http://www.con-cor.com/HO-1920-1950-Heavyweight-Passenger-Cars.html

The detail on these coaches is on a parity with Walthers.  The only item I am watching carefully is the couplers, they are not kadee and for what ever reason Con-Cor has not said what brand they are. For now they are holding great.

My layout had 2% to 3% grades and the coaches have no problem, I can easily run six to seven coaches and an express car anywhere on the layout without the slightest hesitation or slipping.

The coaches all have interiors and lighting. Glad to say that with the lights off I do not see any light leakage from any of the cars. I do not normally run with lights out art all, still a nice feature. Also the cars are easily opened, so adding passengers, etc is easy to do.

Modle Railroader did a review and also posted a video of the Baldwin 4-4-0. Passing marks all around. The one thing that I had hoped would be covered in an interview was the differences between the Richmond 4-4-0 and the new Baldwin version.

I am curious why it is possible to purchase a Bachmann NW Spectrum J with a combine, coach and observation car in the train set or a Doodlebug which comes with a coach as well.

Why does Bachmann not make these Heavyweights available for sale?

Would love to see this engine produced in HO.

http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/cgi-bin/www2i/.visual/img_med/dir_117/c_09228.gif