Quote from: john tricarico on January 17, 2009, 09:10:23 PM
the car your looking for was made by
MANTUA back in the 1990s
it was part of there super bowl series of
pro football cars

good luck  john t  brooklyn ny

You may have to check with *bay or a LHS that buys used trains. A vendor at the GTE show had a NFL set with cars decorated for all the teams. They may have sold an AFC or NFC set.

Quote from: the Bach-man on January 09, 2009, 11:38:56 PM
Dear Jim,
I'll try to bring a sample with me.
Have fun!
the Bach-man

I hope to see some at the WGH Nashville show! Should be a fun event!

You could build a table with 1/2" ply & foamboard. Makes a lightweight frame to put the track on. Cork with the plastic track should not be necessary unless you want it higher than the branchline. Cork could mainly be used if you need to shim Atlas or Peco turnouts & track to the EZtrak.

Are you sure you want this posted in Nscale Forum? A 17.5" curve is very broad for Nscale.
You may have a problem with some models at 11.5".

The Blue Board is made by Dow
Pink Board is made by Owens/Corning

You may find White Board Bead Board, like a hot cup
Don't use that unless you want a mess

The Dow & Owens/Corning website could link you to nearby dealers.
You may have to go to a real lumberyard, not HD or L's.
Even in the South, some insulation may help reduce cooling costs?

1)The Rail connectors or rail joiners by Atlas should be at your LHS. You also should find some plastic ones if you want to electrically isolate the sidetrack. In my experience, the "missing" joiner may be on the other piece of track taken apart. It may be easier to put all the track on a table or something and join it there so you don't have any vertical movement when joining the track. Been there & done that.
2) The couplers on the freight cars should all be short shank. The couplers on the locos could have a longer shank. Shorter shanks bring the cars closer together. Longer shanks let you take tighter curves. The 11" EZ curves will be fine for most shorter equipment. 18" will be better for longer passenger cars & modern equipment. Atlas may have some 9" curves in their snaptrak.

The Spell Checker for this site depends on the Browser you are using.
A Spell Checker is part of the FireFox 3.05 browser.
I see a red line under the goofed up words. You hafta hit the right buttons to get it to work. If you use IE, MS may have a similar option.

Don't forget the big label on the plastic bag that tells you the box wrapping isn't the toy, or part of the toy, and not to put it over your head.

The numbers for steamers do have meaning:
1) Number of pilot wheels, from 0,2,4,6
0 will be for slow service, usually switching
2 will be for freight
4 will be for passenger, as the truck guides the loco along the rail
2) Number of drivers, 2-4-6-8-10-12
power to move the train
3) Number of trailing wheels,, from 0,2,4,6
the larger the number, the bigger the firebox used to make steam!

Saturday & Sunday Jan 10-11 the GTE comes to Nashville Auditorium
Saturday & Sunday Feb 14-15 the WGH show comes to Nashville Convention

This will be the first appearance of both shows for several years!

Anyone arriving/departing on a weekday have the opportunity to come ride our little commuter train, Music City Star.

A standard length is 39 ft.  That amount would fit into a gondola.

I don't know if sometimes the locos tend to sit longer when in a set instead of a single unit. Older locos may need to be cleaned & relubed before going to work. This is a little more obvious in N scale where Bachmann is using different packaging and the newer rolling stock comes with the "new" knuckle couplers. If you know the tag system at Hobby Lobby, you can tell how long a box may sit on the shelf before being sold.

In either case, it would be easy to call Bachmann Service should your loco need any TLC.

The Bachmann F9 in the explorer set may just be good enough to get a train up & operating. Older F9's have a bad habit of cracking gears, so are not worth the bother to convert to DCC.

What you can do in the future is to buy DCC equipped locos onsale from Atlas, Kato, & the others. Buy quality motors and avoid the junk of the past. Bachmann seems to have improved greatly with their J class Northern & the heavy mountain. I hope all future Bachmann Spectrum locos can be made with the same quality.

The question about plastic or standard track depends on what kind of layout you want to build. So far, Kato's Unitrack is the best plastic track. There is some debate if Atlas Code 80 or 55 is better. Depends if you have old rolling stock with pizza cutter wheels. Bachmann's EZtrack is good fora basic layout, but their turnouts need some work.

Quote from: pamardon on December 01, 2008, 10:46:15 AM
hi
i'm new at this... I was wondering about the different radios and what will be the smallest circumference.
also i want to make a railroad with elevation and i would like to know what would me the maximum inclination.

A radio is a different thing. AM or FM. No sirius or digital.

With the 11.25radius curve, 3 will make a 12" corner. 6 will make 2 12" ends, or 24" wide.
With the 19" radius curve, you will need 6 to make a corner, 12 to make an end. This will fill a 40" end. You want to keep any track at least 4" from the edge of the world.

I don't know what scale you are in, but UP equipment is easy to find. Your choice of Kato, Walthers, etc. MTL is coming out with a Zscale set. Get a baggage car, a dome or 2, a bunch of coaches/sleepers to fill out your train.