Oh, here's the car on the back of the Amtrak in the previous photo:



Speeder on the V&T Reconstruction line:


And of course, my user image to the left is another favorite.

I've never posted images here, hope it works...

Girl looks out window on Santa Train at NSRM in Carson City, NV


Shadow train -- Virginia and Truckee Railroad


Amtrak on bridge over Truckee River at Verdi, NV:

Thanks for asking, I'll let you know how it turns out. The shipping each direction is about as expensive as the track itself, I am hoping for a full refund plus shipping both directions. It takes a long time (at this time of year) for disputes on Ebay and Paypal to get worked out. Typically they promise an initial response in 48 hrs., the last time I emailed Ebay a question it took them six days to get back to me.

Plus most of the track is curved. Plus I already have a couple local friends laying claim on the LGB track if a return is not accepted.

Having said that, if I don't return the track I could send you about five sections of straights that would be good for a coat of paint. I'll let you know within a couple weeks, if so you could just have it for free and I'll ship it to you.

Thanks,

Jim

Quote from: TrainArts on December 16, 2009, 01:06:39 AM

Some of the track has brass colored rails with fancy connectors, like they have little model rivets on them.

Now that I have looked really carefully at each piece, I find another surprise. The track mentioned above is apparently all-plastic track made by Bachmann. It's brass in color but is way to flexible to be metal.

I have to admit my ignorance of all these track styles from Bachmann, at least ignorance can be cured (unlike stupidity). So far we have:

"tinplate" G track with black ties
"tinplate" G track with brown ties
LGB track, heavy brass with plastic ties
battery train track? with plastic rails and black ties

The other thing I couldn't see in the Ebay photo is that all the track is worn out, the shiny finish is mostly gone, and it's pretty much unusable.

The ebay seller claimed a "full bid price satisfaction guarantee," now that I'm asking about returning the product there's a restocking fee (big surprise).

I stand by my claim that Ebay can be like Internet dating, people hold back the truth for a later date. Most of the transactions work out well, but occasionally there's a doozy. Next time I'll buy new track.

I forgot to mention in this thread that I was using N scale Kato Unitrack with track attached to a grey plastic roadbed, very much like EZ-track.

The glue/alcohol/water mix worked very well holding the plastic roadbed to the foam and plywood surfaces, and the ballast made the track look that much better.

I had a nice little 10x10 empire built in N scale, too bad I had to tear it up when I moved.

Well, I only got a few pieces of LGB track, so at a minimun I'd have to spend a lot of money buying a lot more of it!

I don't see getting the wrong track as a bargain, but I appreciate the sentiment

For tac -- the LGB track I received indeed has plastic ties. It's marked LGB by Lehmann, made in West Germany.

#94 -- given that the LGB track referenced above has plastic ties, it too would melt as fast as Bachmann track is used outdoors on a hot day here in Reno, NV.

Luckily this is for an indoor set, my problem is the LGB track, no matter the quality, will not work with my Christmas set.

Chuckger, thanks for confirming the timeframe of the brown ties, I will have to hide the stuff in a tunnel or on the back forty.

Thanks everyone for helping me sort this out.

Jim

As I noted in another post tonight on a different thread, in N scale I would cover the track with ballast, spread it out, then spray and/or drip a mix of rubbing alcohol, elmers and water. After it dried out, it held the track down and the alcohol spread the glue all through the ballast.

If not using ballast I would still think rubbing alcohol mixed in with the glue would help it spread better than detergent.

I'm sure that "sensible people will disagree" with this approach but it worked for me.

Jim

Thanks for the fast response. When I got the package the track was taped together in a bundle. After your response I untaped it to take a closer look.

Turns out the brass colored track is LGB, when the Ebay listing said Bachmann track for the whole lot.

The track with the brown ties indeed does say "Bachmann China" underneath.

I've had many good transactions on Ebay, but this one makes me realize that Ebay is like online dating. People either lie or don't tell the whole truth.

Thanks again for the fast response, I'm still curious when Bachmann made the track with brown ties, I've never seen it sold anywhere else.

Jim

Just my two cents worth, the last time I "glued" track was N scale Kato unitrack (not much different, in theory, from Bachmann EZ-track).

I have not seen anyone refer to alcohol in this thread. I'm sure others may not agree, but I would water down elmer's glue and add rubbing alcohol in about equal parts.

Then I would spread ballast over the tracks and spray or drip the boozed up glue and water. The alcohol really helps it spread and the end result sticks very well.

I'm sure people will find holes in my process but it worked very well for me.

Jim

In my opinion, while the locomotive *might* run on tighter radius, what's also important is the stress it puts on the cars coupled to it.

For example, I have an explorer set where the locomotive can run on 18" curves.

But the three very long passenger cars that came with it have great difficulty on these curves and really need to run on 22" or bigger radius.

Make sure you're not stressing out the couplers, over time they will wear out. If you don't have tiny hands it's not easy to repair HO scale trains.

Hope that helps.

Hi,

I will post this here first, if no answer then I will put it under general discussion.

I bought some supposedly Bachmann G scale track from a seller on Ebay with over 100000 transactions. You would think this person would be reputable.

The photo looked like a lot of regular G scale track. When I received the package, I was bummed out to see that most of the track has brown ties.

Some of the track has brass colored rails with fancy connectors, like they have little model rivets on them.

So the question, did Bachmann ever make G scale track with brown ties or brass colored rails?

Thanks in advance,

Jim

Thanks that makes perfect sense based on my limited study of digital circuits about twenty years ago. Great explanation.

I don't get what you mean by jumpers? I would prefer to have the turnouts keep their previous setting.

It's not a big deal, just something I always wondered about. I realized there's a lot of knowledge here on this board and thought I'd throw it out.

I wonder if the number of locomotives and lighted cars has anything to do with it?

Thanks again.

Yeah, the basic EZ-Command controller does this. You press button 9, then Function, and then each button switches it's corresponding turnout.

Standard disclaimer, I searched a year back for a previous answer to this issue and didn't find one. If I missed it please feel free to point me at the proper thread...

My DCC layout has five turnouts. #1 is a number 6 crossover, #2-5 are standard number 4 turnouts. I have the basic EZ-command controller. For what it's worth, I have four locomotives, a rail truck, and three lighted passenger cars. Amazingly I can run all these at once, but that's a different story.

QUESTION: When I plug in my controller, at startup, some of the DCC turnouts will switch. This is random, I hear it happen and have to inspect the track to see what was changed. It happens to different turnouts at different times, and has occurred with from one to three random turnouts. It happens every time I plug in the controller.

I can live with this, but has anyone else seen this? Is there a firmware upgrade? Where's the Ethernet port on my controller? (Just kidding on those last two)

Thanks,

Jim