Wish I could see these, but I don't have Flash player and it doesn't seem to be available to download, unless I missed something.

Jeff:  Where do go - Bolivar?  Or down the other end?

Jeff:  Yeah I agree.  I got out for the afternoon on Friday.  Caught two trains passing each other at South Fork.  The eastbound was a loaded coal train, which I was able to chase and catch at Lily and Cresson.  A pair of helpers went west.  Shortly thereafter two more eastbounds came through Cresson, one right behind the other on 1 and 2 tracks.  The trailing train was oil/ethanol tanks.  I headed up to Gallitzen to see if a westbound would show, but had to head back to McK.  As I was rolling down US 22 I did see a westbound heading up. Oh well.

I visited the Curve this holiday weekend.  Traffic was light, as expected for the holiday and the business recession related to the covid virus.  The automated lift was closed due to lack of social distancing so you had to climb the stairs to get to the viewing area.  Probably been 30 years since I did that and it took several brief rest stops for this 70+ body to get there.  The Geep 9 on display really needs to be scraped and repainted.  Probably hasn't had any maintenance since it replaced the K-4.

Congrats on a successful repair job!

Hate to say this, but that sounds like a split gear.  If it is still under warranty you may have to send it to Bachmann.  Don't know if installing DCC voids the warranty. 

There are several factors that are in play.  First is driver size.  Smaller drivers have a shorter rigid wheelbase and therefore can use a smaller radius.  On both the prototype and models blind drivers are used for the same purpose.  For models, it depends mostly on the amount of "slop" in the mechanism.  Tightly built models (mostly brass in my experience) will have trouble on tight curves.  Most all of Bachmann's models are designed to pass around their EZ Track 18" curves.  One other limiting factor is the swing of pilot trucks and/or trailing trucks which may limit curve acceptance. 

That's a great piece of film.  I'd seen it once many years ago.  Glad to have it accessible now.  Thank goodness some of the equipment was saved by Ellis Atwood and is still around today.

Re:  Flagmen - As recently as the late '70's there were two flagmen guarding the crossings in Perth Amboy, NJ on the Coast line.  They were likely staffed by injured railroaders working out their pensions.  The GG-1's came in and traded for diesels down to Bay Head.  You can probably locate some footage on Youtube.

As a general rule, a No. 6 turnout will handle all but the most rigid or long-driver wheelbase locos.  No. 8's will work with virtually any loco. 
Any of Bachmann's models will do fine with No. 6's.

I noticed that the pilot truck on my Mike was just barely touching the rails and didn't have any vertical movement.  If there were any minor imperfections in the track, especially on a curve, the pilot truck would float off the rails and derail the loco.  I made a little circle washer out of fine brass wire and placed it over the shank of the screw which gave me that needed extra bit of vertical movement.   

AFAIK, the old Bachmann Reading I-10 was never upgraded.  Some modelers went to the trouble of remotoring the loco, or even putting a new mechanism under the boiler and adding superdetailing parts.  Other than brass, the only other I-10 model I am aware of is the ancient Varney "Super" Consolidation kit.  We're talking 1950's here.  They are scarcer than the brass models. 

It's all good Jonathon.  Keep at it. 

If the issue is with a particular piece of rolling stock, check to make sure the wheels are in gauge.  You will need an NMRA standards gauge to do this, and you should have one anyhow.  They are usually available at a good hobby shop, or can be ordered direct from the NMRA,

I've run across an occasional Baker coupler, though never used them.  However, early operators like John Allen and Whit Towers used them because they functioned quite well, appearances not withstanding.  Back in the dark ages MEW produced some dummy HOn3 couplers in soft metal that I used because there was nothing else close to scale.  Kadee finally solved that problem.  But again, back in the early days dummy couplers were used because there were few decent options, and also because back then for the most part simply getting something to run was sufficient cause for celebration.