Mike,

Your reference to a #6 switch tells me that you are on the wrong forum for that question. Bachmann does not make a #6, USA Trains and Aristocraft (now defunct) do, and a couple other of the more specialized manufacturers do.

I suggest you look to either Large Scale Central, My Large Scale or G Scale Central for that question.

Bob C.

Bill, I believe she is referring to Hartland Locomotive Works and MTH.

Hartland has a notice on their web site that due to conditions they are suspending production indefinitely. Suspending does not indicate to me they have tossed in the towel. Hartland is a sub business of a large injection molding company as I understand it, and I believe that they are realigning efforts to maintain the bigger business so that in the future when conditions improve they can bring back the H-L-W line.

MTH is another story. The owner is retiring. I have no doubt that market conditions have had a strong bearing on that decision, but again this is not just quitting. MTH will be taking and filling orders through sometime in 2021. Plenty of advance notice, and I understand that there is some negotiation for the continuation of some of the product line already.

I do wish that if folks are going to make announcements, they would make a complete announcement. You can read the Hartland announcement on their web site, and I understand there is a nice write up on the MTH Facebook page (I don't have access to Facebook).

Milton, please excuse my confusion here. The Consolidation is a 2-8-0 Spectrum locomotive. The common issue with that locomotive is the drive gear on the axle cracks, which is what I suspect is your issue if it is the Spectrum. Bachmann parts sells a new axle shave with a brass gear, if there are any left available. The is not and never has been a replacement chassis for the Consolidation.

The replacement chassis are for the 10-wheeler (4-6-0), and from the rumor mill I hear, they are going fast as well. North West Short Line was sold earlier this year to a new owner. You might try looking them up they have a replacement gear for the Connie that is reported to be fairly robust and reliable.

Hope this helps, good luck with your repair.

A fool and his money are soon parted.  People's desire to own something often over rides their common sense. I recently purchased at an estate sale, a large scale K27 for less than half what I paid Caboose Hobbies for my first one in 2008. I have looked for another for several years, but was not willing, and am still not willing, to pay inflated prices.

I have heard way too many horror stories about eBay sellers to trust eBay listings. I generally don't troll eBay, but trolled the On30 listings last evening. Almost every  listing I looked into said almost nothing in print about the item with the statement "photos are part of the item description". Some were stock photos taken from manufacturer's web sites. How do I know that the photos of the item are photos of the item I am bidding on? Do I trust seller ratings? HELL NO!! The rating system is a sham. I am of the mind set that if I cannot inspect the item before purchase, I don't need it. Years ago eBay was a good place to do business. eBay has become far to commercialized and protects the sellers (who pay the eBay fees) to the extent buyers are left relatively on their own. Yes there is a system, but I don't have weeks or months for my money to be tied up in eBay investigations.

I have always believed that the used market should not draw more than 50% of new STREET price, not MSRP. Pay attention that MSRP is Manufacturer's SUGGESTED Retail Price. That number has all kinds of movement for middle men, wholesalers, and retailers. When the product is new, the price at the retailer is the price that is likely what will make the retailer a reasonable profit margin based on how long he feels he will sit on the item before it sells. In recent years manufacturers have put large minimum orders on retailers making their prices rise to cover the excess inventory they are forced to bear if they wish to market a given product. Manufacturers are moving to these restrictions to assure they recover the manufacturing costs associated with a given product. This has resulted in the blow out sales we see when a retailer has gotten all the profit he believes he is going to make on that product, and now he is selling to recover his actual cost (or very near) and get the inventory out of his possession and off his financial books.

I have no problem with people making a profit on their products. I have a problem with profiteering and gouging, and that is where I see the used market heading.

My opinion for what ever that is worth.

That was exactly my point. My intent was not to 'call you out' but rather to bring to light that what an item costs vs it's perceived expense sometimes needs clarification for those not knowledgeable in the fields of engineering and manufacturing.

The cost per piece is governed by many factors, but one that is not usually considered is 'how many pieces in a production run. All the costs associated with manufacturing that part are borne out over the number of parts manufactured. The same burden cost (engineering, tooling, machine set up, etc) to manufacture an axle gear for the Bachmann mogul is there regardless of making one piece or 1000 pieces. However when you distribute that cost over 1000 pieces plus the actual part cost (material), the per part cost is much less for the multi part run than for making one.

Considering that the modeling time to generate the file for a 3D printed part is really not readily distributed over a large run, that cost is going to make the part seem expensive. And consider that when someone says an item is expensive, it is based on his perception. You as a student should understand the restrictions of fixed income vs escalation cost of products. Bill's perception of cost relative to his income situation is likely far different from folks still working and making a good living or those in the high income bracket that think $5K for a live steam loco is a drop in the bucket.

Perception IS reality.

I wish you well in your studies, and I would encourage you to continue on to your degree and beyond. As an old fart, I wish schools taught more of the basics I learned oh so many years ago. I believe it would make better designers and engineers of young people.

I take issue with that statement. Obviously you have NEVER spent any time reverse engineering a product on the drawing board with real drafting tools. Try working in india ink on 4 mil mylar in a white shirt and tie....and don't get the ink on the shirt or tie. (Oh wait, you probably don't even know what either one of those mediums are.) I can do in modern CAD in 25% of the time what it took to do engineering on the drawing board.

Yes, doing the reverse engineering to make the models of the parts takes time. I have reverse engineered hundreds of items in my career, and know well what time it takes. It takes more time to engineer the original than the copy. Reverse engineering the parts is only a small part of the cost associated with generating a production part. Cost one - getting the reverse engineered part RIGHT.  When you reverse engineer a part, you are measuring a part that is usually already worn to some degree, and was originally built within some tolerance range to make the part both manufacturable, and cost efficient. Where are the measurements you are taking relative to those unknown numbers.

Next, when you are generating 3D stl files, dependent on the size and shape of the part there will be bridging elements that will be put in by the printing software to keep the part's shape during printing. If there, someone has to remove them after print. Now you test fit you part and hope you guessed right on the critical dimensions the first time. If not, it goes back the the model and adjustment are made and a second round of print and test.

Now add the cost of the printer into the mix. If you are aiming for production level capability you are looking at a moderately priced piece of gear, somewhere in the $20K range (this being for a machine with a large enough bed to produce near anything in one piece or quantities of pieces). Then quantities of parts in one pass requires an assembly model to be produced to move forward with multipart prints.

Oh, and did we discuss the individual who is doing all the work? I will venture a bet that he would like some compensation for his time and investment in the hardware and filament to generate the parts.

I think if you break all that information out and do an honest analysis, the price for those otherwise unobtainable parts is not so steep after all.

I have spent 49 years in the engineering profession. Started in 1971 as a drafter making hand drawn  ink on mylar drawings, and worked my way through AutoCAD, AutoDesk Inventor, Solid Edge, SolidWorks and PTC ProE/Creo. I know how long models take to make, they are a breeze next to board drawings, patterns/casting/machining/welding/etc to get a part.

And I thought profiling was illegal 

Fred, therein lies the rub for many of the senior modelers. I, like many, do not get on Facebook. Aside of the fact that my employer HIGHLY RECOMMENDS us NOT open our security to a medium that has many time displayed it's inability or lack of desire to secure folks PII.

Beyond that, Facebook is a 'Gossip Fence' in that it is 'here today gone tomorrow'. There is no effective search feature to locate a single piece of data you are interested in. I don't have hours to scroll through hundreds of posts to find the one item I want. As a hobbyist Facebook is useless to me for finding parts, etc.

Sorry to offend the Facebook foamers, but that is my thoughts. By the way, it would have been nice if you included a means to find this Facebook provider for those who wish to pursue that avenue.

BT, my first question to you is do you have and are you using the Kadee 880 'G' coupler height gauge for you mounting? If not, before you spend a butt load of time and effort, purchase one. First step in mounting Kadee couplers of any shape for reliable operation.

That said, there is no short answer as Kadee does not make a direct converson for the Bachmann bobber caboose. A qick answer would be to use an 830 body mount coupler and shim as required to get the proper coupler height. I have one that has a Kadee 830 on one end and a Bachmann Big Hauler knuckle on the other - flexible operation .

Personally, if it were me, I would invest the time into converting to all body mount #830 couplers (unless you plan to run solely on the 24" radius track). They will operate much better, especially if you plan to do switching where pushing more than one or two cars is in the ops.

A little more info on location, indoor/outdoor, persona/club laout, etc. helps give better answers. OH!!! and pictures too.

Elvis - It would help if more detailed information could be provided on your needs. Viewing the video, I am assuming that the contacts you are referring to are in the power trucks of the Climax loco in the video. That said, I am not sure they are available as spare parts for the loco. One option might be to purchase the spare part passenger truck with power pickups and see if those will work. You may be left with the option of "necessity is the mother of all invention" and generate your own.

A search on the internet for "spring power contact" may also provide some alternatives for the creative solution option.

A secondary observation is that the additional weight of one or more cold ones will significantly increase the wear on the axle journals in the trucks on the delivery car. Be prepared to replace those trucks frequently. The additional wear on the journals will allow more slop in the truck and increase the probabilities of derailments, usually in the least accessible location on the layout.  To slow the wear process make certain you keep the journals lubricated. I personally use a plastic compatible white lithium grease available at you local auto parts store.

Bill, I have had this issue for quite some time. Farcebook, Flickr, Ransom Bucket, etc all don't want you to link to their sites, unless you are a meber, and therefore trackable. Personally I will forego seeing the pics rather than be tracked by some of the most invasive platforms online. This issue will only get worse as time moves forward.

I have the same issue as Joe, Nadda.

Chuck,

Do you pay to belong to those fora? There are very few model railroad fora that allow direct posting for the simple reason your 'direct link' is not a link. A link would mean that every time someone went to view that picture, YOUR COMPUTER would have to upload that picture to the site requesting the picture. I am certain your computer is not on and linked to the internet 24/7/365. Those sites that appear to allow direct links are gracious enough to store your photos for you.

Copied from a thread on the Large Scale Central forum:

Dear friends,
Flickr—the world's most-beloved, money-losing business—needs your help.

Two years ago, Flickr was losing tens of millions of dollars a year. Our company, SmugMug, stepped in to rescue it from being shut down and to save tens of billions of your precious photos from being erased.

Why? We've spent 17 years lovingly building our company into a thriving, family-owned and -operated business that cares deeply about photographers. SmugMug has always been the place for photographers to showcase their photography, and we've long admired how Flickr has been the community where they connect with each other. We couldn't stand by and watch Flickr vanish.

So we took a big risk, stepped in, and saved Flickr. Together, we created the world's largest photographer-focused community: a place where photographers can stand out and fit in.

We've been hard at work improving Flickr. We hired an excellent, large staff of Support Heroes who now deliver support with an average customer satisfaction rating of above 90%. We got rid of Yahoo's login. We moved the platform and every photo to Amazon Web Services (AWS), the industry leader in cloud computing, and modernized its technology along the way. As a result, pages are already 20% faster and photos load 30% more quickly. Platform outages, including Pandas, are way down. Flickr continues to get faster and more stable, and important new features are being built once again.

Our work is never done, but we've made tremendous progress.

Now Flickr needs your help. It's still losing money. Hundreds of thousands of loyal Flickr members stepped up and joined Flickr Pro, for which we are eternally grateful. It's losing a lot less money than it was. But it's not yet making enough.

We need more Flickr Pro members if we want to keep the Flickr dream alive.

We didn't buy Flickr because we thought it was a cash cow. Unlike platforms like Facebook, we also didn't buy it to invade your privacy and sell your data. We bought it because we love photographers, we love photography, and we believe Flickr deserves not only to live on but thrive. We think the world agrees; and we think the Flickr community does, too. But we cannot continue to operate it at a loss as we've been doing.

Flickr is the world's largest photographer-focused community. It's the world's best way to find great photography and connect with amazing photographers. Flickr hosts some of the world's most iconic, most priceless photos, freely available to the entire world. This community is home to more than 100 million accounts and tens of billions of photos. It serves billions of photos every single day. It's huge. It's a priceless treasure for the whole world. And it costs money to operate. Lots of money.

Flickr is not a charity, and we're not asking you for a donation. Flickr is the best value in photo sharing anywhere in the world. Flickr Pro members get ad-free browsing for themselves and their visitors, advanced stats, unlimited full-quality storage for all their photos, plus premium features and access to the world's largest photographer-focused community for less than $5 per month.

You likely pay services such as Netflix and Spotify at least $9 per month. I love services like these, and I'm a happy paying customer, but they don't keep your priceless photos safe and let you share them with the most important people in your world. Flickr does, and a Flickr Pro membership costs less than $1 per week.

Please, help us make Flickr thrive. Help us ensure it has a bright future. Every Flickr Pro subscription goes directly to keeping Flickr alive and creating great new experiences for photographers like you. We are building lots of great things for the Flickr community, but we need your help. We can do this together.

We're launching our end-of-year Pro subscription campaign on Thursday, December 26, but I want to invite you to subscribe to Flickr Pro today for the same 25% discount.

We've gone to great lengths to optimize Flickr for cost savings wherever possible, but the increasing cost of operating this enormous community and continuing to invest in its future will require a small price increase early in the new year, so this is truly the very best time to upgrade your membership to Pro.

If you value Flickr finally being independent, built for photographers and by photographers, we ask you to join us, and to share this offer with those who share your love of photography and community.

With gratitude,

Don MacAskill
Co-Founder, CEO & Chief Geek
SmugMug + Flickr

And from one of my posts in the same thread:

Greg said it best in his first post - "There is no such thing as a free lunch." I will say it a different way - "You get what you pay for."



If you value your pictures as part of your hobby experience, INVEST in a storage method that suits your stye and budget. I personally have several web domains, so I pay for a hosting service which provides me with both a large storage capacity and the benefit of a backup service so even if there is a catastrophic event at the hosting service, all my data is backed up and recoverable. No, the service is not particularly cheap, but I consider it an investment in my enjoyment of sharing with others.

As for the myriad of photo hosting services available, I would recommend trying to read the EULA before committing funds. I would bet most, like Photobucket, that storing photos on their site gives them the right to use your photos as they see fit. And as was found out by many hobbyists of all genres, free means you are subject to the whim of the provider.

As for Cloud services, they are a growing storage media, even in the business world. I work for a Government sub contractor, with lots of security and my company has moved lots of our data storage to Cloud services. Tongue in cheek "where is that cloud anyway?". Seriously though, cloud services are really no different than any  other storage medium, you need to do your homework to determine the security and reliability of the service.

These are my thoughts and opinions for what they are worth to the reader.

Those are two of the most pertinent posts in my opinion. For the whole read https://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/30080/picture-problems-something-changed?page=1

Times are changing. Twice in recent memory congress (pressured by big money interests) have tried to remove Net Neutrality, your reasonably priced service. How long will you be surfing the internet if you are required to 'pay by the minute' for usage? Remember my statements, it is coming. It is just a matter of time before the money interests garner enough votes to accomplish the removal of Net Neutrality.

FWIW

AY - I am a Hurricane Michael survivor and most of my stuff is in storage. I thought I still had the tub with my parts in my garage, but apparently I also put them in storage. my next best recommendation would be to post this request with the pictures on Large Scale Central www.largescalecentral.com forum. There are lots of folks there with pretty deep junk boxes.

Goos luck and sorry I couldn't help.

Bob C.

AY - Now that I see what you need I will dig in the parts box this weekend. Been a busy week.

AY - If you can post a pic of the part you need I have several chassis I picked up in a bulk purchase, I might have what you need.

Bob C