This is what is needed here, some stories of intiative! On the other thread Mike used the term 'forumites'. Too much armchair autopsies on other people's failure to ..try... Johnson bar's switch is the 1st 'mechanical'- or 'minimum' job all the new modelers must try. Asking for new lines to be produced even if there are only one or two interested parties on the planet ain't gonna happen. If you need something you can't find RTR, you MAKE it happen, not sit there an moan like a...forumite...,( I like this one, forumite!) I intend to use it often... suits a lot of people on here, too much time at the monitor, not enough at the workbench...btw, I found a Rivarossi Pulman in CPR... didn't know AHM or IHC did this sceme.... but with a jewel's loop, I found that some modeler (bet he wasn't a forumite') airbrushed and decaled and clearcoated this thing to Rivarossi silkscreen standards. I haven't yet heard someone ask how to aply or improve thier painting or decaling skills, but a bunch of 'forumites' demand a production line to suit thier whims...yah, for a price, like, sell the 1st born kid? BTW, forumites need to use search engines more. Someone said there wasn't enough Victorian era models out there, last night on ebay I found everything I bought over the years- Pocher, Rivarossi, AHM, IHC. Mantua, Tyco, Concor, MDC/ Roundhouse. Lifelike and...Bachmann! Those were just the woodburning era RTR's, never mind the craftsman kits. And I don't even have a real computor, this is a msntv affair.  OK folks, log off, get back to the workbench.... come up with some modeling questions........ like the 2-4-4-2 logger mentioned on another thread, like from 2 AHM docksides and a pvc pipe boiler? that was one I did in the 80's, before they even made bra$$ ones... (I like the dollar signs some one typed in a thread too!)

Railtown 1897 has a collection of posters and photos of every film #3 or the Seirra was rented out for. Including a Marx Brother's- 'way out west'? it has come to my attention no one mentioned the late Arnold Ziffel? He appeared on the Hooterville Cannonball several times in his film career.... listening to you guys, the Bachmann would have to retain Arnold's nieghbor, attorney Mr. Oliver Wendal Douglas, due to the fact Mantua Classics still sells the Seirra #3 as a limited production from time to time... yeah... a spectrum quality Jupiter & 119 would be very nice. Yampa, in a way, the roundhouse 2-8-0 is suppose to be one of those 3 foot to standard guage or back to 3 foot one size fit all Rio Grande boilers. The new production of those are 20 times better than the ol' red box kits..   

So Bud is still using brass track? with good results? To tell the truth, I seem to be cleaning my NS on this new layout as much as I had to clean the brass I was using 30-40 years ago... some of that old brass is back down as seldom used sidings, and now that my stash of NS switches is drying up, I am considering using the rest of the old brass ones for future additions or changes. Before- or duing the push for nickel-silver, there was suppose to be a chemical coating for brass rail, whatever happened to that? Someone semi knowledgeable told me it was found to be very toxic- Too bad, 'cause I believe electrically speaking, brass is hard to beat.. please don't make me dig up the elements chart and metalurgical textbooks...

"I'm sorry congessman, I must decline to comment on this matter without the presence of my attorney".......

I don't know if I am any help to Cliff tonight, but here are two more 12 inch to the foot stories, those 'overtons', yeah nice for a old fashioned train on 18 & 15" curves, but as I said in another thread awhile ago, TTBOMK, the only std. guage prototypes made that short were for the Angel's Camp branch of the Seirra Ry, which were used in films over the years. I was in the combine- the  'Hooterville Canonball' star. Well, I'm kinda short, but l could  go from platform to platform in 5 or 6 paces, the baggage compartment was smaller than most new closets. My only encounter with a prototype Athearn 'round roof parlor car' was in New Mexico, on the espee line the 'Sunset limited' took, meeting the Rock Island further north. I had to stop the car and look twice. A "Harriman' round roof chicken coop. I think 6 or 7 oblong windows? Could not have been over 60 feet long. Just grounded in a barnyard alongside the mainline. Awhile later I sat thru a lecture at a 'prototype meet' and found the Harriman cars went from 40 to 80', so they weren't really shortened to fit Athearn's blue box after all.     

I don't know if you ran across this one Rich, but 2 or 3 years ago at the big E there was a young lady with a crate, well, crates, of bachmann Reading boiler shells, just the shells, I guess its tender shells and some other diesel shell stuff, but she could do well on this thread huh? A dollar a piece. I fired up my 2-8-0 with one of those shells, as a D&H superhog, I guess just like the real ones, she fills up the loading guage, high wide and not so handsome.....

This is how I got my ear wax vibrated out of my skull a few weeks ago- mentioning the NMRA standardizing electronics, atleast voluntarilly, I was all but accused of anti-capitalist behavior, btw, I was told by a little bird that the Bachmann factory in Shanghai sub contracts for many if not all other brands, so if you don't like Bachmann products, you won't like too many others either....

A glimmer of hope in the gloom of long gone dies and tooling, the old Reading shells WILL fit the specrum 2-8-0's with no real work to speak of. A good idea to get it fixed to the chassis rather than just sit there with gravity, but they do look like a massive machine, especially if you swap tender shells with a taller one.

I thought you were singing along with Neal Diamond for a minute there, if the noise is only in forward, there must be a burr of plastic rubbing in there, probably against a gear, examine it closely and try to devise a way to power it up while craddled upside down, you might spot the problem on the outside some where, you had better ask the Bachmann what to do next if it is coming form the inside of the chassis, if the noise was either direction I would say it was electrical, then definitely send it back.

Yes, well, I thought this was the HO page... I read down and see that you have a 'GEE' scale mogul, wow, I've seen those, awesome machines! enough to make some one spend some money laying track outdoors... well, disregard everything I said up to the point of buying reference books, if you have a particular road or area in mind, search for books on that subject, I had good luck with ABE books? and a couple other 'consignment ' style websites. For real authentic colors that don't seem right to the 'purist' try the nevada state RR museum in Carson City. Yellows bordering on off white for freight cars and caboose combines that never had cuppolas, and the engines are all spit and polish to the day they were made. Again Cal RR mus. as well, B&O museum has lots of stuff in this age group too. But go for the books.... let us know how you are making out .... btw, pst this question on the large scale page too....   

1st a question, where did you get an 1860's mogul? Is it brass? I don't know if I can link it here, but there is a good website in about detailing RTR cars and locos accurately- search for 'modeling the 1870's in HO/OO' something like that, and I will try to locate it too. Bachman freights are good, all the 'IHC/AHM/Rivarossi' generations of passenger and freights, are good starting points for more details, and the Mantua/Tyco cars, all of this stuff is on Ebay cheap. The MDC stuff is more 1880's and up, and their short passenger cars...too short really. They ae based on the one of a kind Seirra RR 'Hooterville Cannonball' shorties, which were made for a logging branch with very sharp curves and close rock cuttings, but look very good going around 15 or 18 inch curves. I picked up a recent poduction Bachmann Jupiter, and was impressed how much better it was from the ones I bought 20 odd years ago. As far as web sites, the Central Pacific / Cal RR museum has a site with pics, but there's nothing like owning books, tons of older well illustrated books out there cheap, that is the best resourse.   

WILD WEST? anytown could become deserted over night, I would say 'no paint', like yampa Bob said, the grey of unpainted pine.... google yerself some ghost towns partner...btw- A freind of mine has the paint gypsies do the aluminum coating on his barn roof every 5 years almost to the day- they do a circut, but with mostly repeat customers, they don't advertise much. They are still out there.. up a a ladder, someplace warm and sunny... come to think of it, his wife and a few tools disappeared about that time.....

Mr. Yampa, remember one thing about the www, garbage in, garbage out. Remember another thing about Confusius, a picture tells a thousand words... well, maybe it was chairman mao, I forgot, but I have more books and photograghs of railroads than I do websites by a long shot. Me & DRW gots books.. even if I 'am' illiterate, I like ta look at the pictures... I have seen several pictures of Rutland, NYC and others, with tenders that did not match the engine #. No big deal, it was a piece of the pie, a train had better not be identified by whay ever end is coming at you, but by the number on the engine- yes, Woody is right, SR and several -many- others, Virgina and Truckee come to mind, who used engine numbers as train numbers, many- if not all extra trains went by the engine #, like "DRGW X-144 to Durango", and the espee had individual slits on those # boards- so it was like a bus with the roller affair. Or the people at the gas station wearing out that pole...  As GG said, 'at one point in time' the B&M had big tender #'s, then logos, and like the New Haven in the first Morgan/ Mellon empire, nothing on the tenders .... 'blank tanks'. But there had to be #'s on the cab or dome, as well as up front. As for Rogertra's concern about 'a number', I would think a piece of chalk from the call board took care of that formality, but, by the book, the leading locomotive # was the one they had to go by. Seen a few snapshots of that chalk work too. Except for a 'dynamo' I would say the USRA lost all control of these inhouse issues, and it -was- extra worry for station agents and tower crews on a line with foreign power trackage rights, and lots of wrecks because of it. A Central Vermont/ B&M fatal cornfield meet in the early 70's was blamed on a misunderstanding of numbers. They were entering train numbers in a log book in a 'non agent' closed station.  B&M also had espee style number board slots... As for nowadays... when I 1st saw an 'NdeM' chugg past me, I figure all bets are off.... 

Well, another take on this was, early engines with the square headlight with a kerosene lamp and polished reflector usually didn't have an illuminated numberboard, 'cause it was useless, just too dim. With acetylene it was sometimes visible to a station agent or interlocking tower as it rolled by in darkness. So, huge numbers on the side of the tender had a better chance of being read by the dim light of a kerosene lamp on a platform etc. As electricity became manditory on trains in US & Can. after WW1, numberboards were bright and clear, and as juice reached further into the wopwops, and onto the platforms, huge white and silver #'s on the tenders weren't necessary, but SF and a few others prefered to keep them, handy for workers at night or in the distance in a big yard with a 100 of these things stuck all over the place. And, about repairs, a tender is miserable thing, a plumber's putty squished between lines of 1 inch rivet holes, maybe thousand's of them, and the 'bad water', rust, vibration, hard hits when coupling - wooden flatcars were all that's under the early ones, lots of down time. Some roads just hand painted small numbers to match whichever engine it was hook to at the moment. On the back, again to save steps for hosler's and yard men. Like DRW just said, maybe just an inventory code #. Many UK lines and other countries had 'one size fits all', no numbers, no special functions, just grab a good one and let's get back on the board. As Gene stated, not an easy coupling, water hoses, brake and heat lines and more. Hours insted of minutes. But, whenever, however often as necessary, if the locomotive was roadworthy, hanging around a day for tender repairs was money down the tubes. Many people don't realize the selling point of diesels, the final $$$ nail in the coffin. One diesel, atleast one run, two jobs?, or more?, in 24 hours. Steam, for every two needed for traffic, atleast one in the shop getting ready to fill in. And maybe another one stone cold in the 'back shop' possibly ready later that week....or month. Hum.. Seems tenders are not a very romantic subject....      

There should be no problem, unless they are old as that TV show stuff, ( I didn't see it, saw one on real RR's last night??) somewhere on the bottom of all of them should have a maker's mark, and usually the country. Seems as soon as the iron curtain came down , Solvenia, Slovokia, new names cropped up. I really don't curse any brand, each company has made-or still makes- good and accurate models. Not all of them all the time, and as you get used to customizing and improving the low quality ones into nice models, it becomes very satisfying without breaking the bank...some of my nicest F units are nasty ol' shells superdetailed, repainted and decaled, weathered a little... and a new nice running chassis under it, from a completely different maker. Try to hit some train shows near you, a good education for the price of admission.