Good Morning All,

         I am looking to get a couple of the new brewery reefers,  in particular,  Berksire and Rohrbach.   My local store tells me they are not available yet.   What is the status of these cars?

Good Morning All,

        Ok,  for the first time I have experienced sticker shock with Bachmann.
My newly arrived Model Railroader has a full page(pg 22) ad for the new pulpwood cars.  Wow.....$55 each,  list!!
        Now,  I fully realize that most no one will pay full price for the cars,  but that still does not reduce the surprise to me.    Now I start to wonder about the prices on the other cars announced at the Chicago show.   Mr. B,  can you give us any indication of what those list prices will be?
       In the back of my mind I was considering adding a smattering of lumber revenue for my On30 railroad,  but even though I know I can get the cars for about $40-45 each,  that is beyond my financial constraints.  I guess ,   if I want to go ahead with plans,  I will be looking for Bachmann flatcars and then getting the kits from Mount Blue Model Company at $10.95 a kit.   
       One more thought and I am very interested in all of your thoughts.....have any of you noticed dramatic increases in product prices?  Working in the store a couple of weeks ago,   I came across the new prebuilt farmhouse from Woodland Scenics.   It lists at $50+ and makes it about $10 more than the barrel factory they offered several months ago.   
      At this point,  I am going to have to keep a wary eye on prices because the way things are going,  I am slowly being squeezed out of the market place.

Good Morning All,

       I use 12 gauge wire for my busses and have a simple question.   Where my yard buss runs,  under the layout,   I may be faced into forming a T so that the buss can be attached to the panel where my power shields are located.   Am I asking for trouble by splicing wire into the buss?

Good Morning all,

      I know that the new product announcements are only a few days old but I found the enclosed pic and would suggest that the lead engine would be a nice fit to the On30 line.....

Good Afternoon All,

     With Mr. B's permission,   I want to share with you some good news from Athearn.    They will be offering the Ford,  Model A pickup trucks,  roadsters and sedans that they currently make in HO scale.  The scale will be 1/50 scale,  much closer to O scale(1/48) than 1/43  Orders should be placed in August and they expect to have them available to the public in November. 
       To me this is GREAT news as I am always on the look for vehicles etc that are not 1/43 scale.

Good Evening All,

      This past Wednesday was a red letter day.   The final wiring was done and the entire out and back mainline on my On30 railroad is fully operational.   Only track work left to day is the final two sides of the wye which the reverse loop is part of and about three short sidings.  Running a train at what I consider resonable speed the trip out and back takes about 10 minutes.   I haven't tried with my Bachmann climax yet because I have not found a window of enough time........hehe.  Anyway, once the track work is complete,  I will then start the process of painting the track,  then ballest,  and then start roughing in scenery.  This is going to really be a fun summer.......

Bob

Good Morning All,

       I am working on an On30 railroad and my turntable is an old Wilson.   The table has been in place and operational for several months now.   Lately I have run into a problem that is a puzzle to me.
       I bring an engine in and onto the table.   Turn the engine 180 degrees.   As I turn the table,  at about 90 degrees a momentary short must occur as I hear the sound cut off and then start up again.   Then,  when I try to move the engine to another track or simply back to the same track,  as the first metal wheel set hits the gap,  a short occurs.   
       I cannot figure this out.   A friend suggested that maybe the Digitrax power reverser needs to have its sensitivity corrected.   I read the manual,  but am not convinced I understand whether to increase or decrease the sensitivity.   I am concerned I may do damage to one of my sound decoders.   Any thoughts?

Bob

Good Morning All,

      Over the years there have several posts about working with Kadee coupler springs from an insertion point of view.   Here is something that drives me crazy.   You open up that little plastic capsule and the springs come out entwined.   I was working with some Kadee narrow gauge couplers this morning and managed to damage at least half the springs trying to seperate them.   Anyone got a good way to do this with doing damage to the springs?

Bob

Good Morning All,

       As I reported earlier,  the annual Kimberton Narrow Gauge Modular meet was held at the Fair Grounds this past weekend,  thankfully in nice weather.
      When I enjoy an event like this it is hard for me to see a negative side,  but thing was striking in its absence.   People.   One has to wonder if the price of gas is starting to really take hold.  My biggest concern is that several of the vendors said this may be their last year at Kimberton if they did not have a decent weekend moving their wares.   Ed Fillion of Deerfield River Laser comes down from West Springfield,  Mass,  Bill Banta comes from a distance as does Joe Fuss(Raggs to Riches) who comes from north central Pa.  If vendors like these cease to attend,  then it could very well spell the end of the event and that would be sad.
       Anyway.....people or not,  the event had its usual selection of wonderful modeling in scale from N to Large scale.   The Friends of the East Broad Top had their modular railroad there and this year it actually ran quite a bit.  In the past the group was always struggling with an electrical problems.   They also had two or three new and different modules which was nice to see.
       As usual,  the Nn3 guys were there as well as a group that models in HOn30 incorporating a great sea front section.  Pictures I took of the event can be seen in my gallery at www.rrpicturearchives.net.
      Some of the usual vendors were there including John Weigal with his large selection of Bachmann On30 equipment.   Ed Fillion of Deerfield River had some new items including building fronts which are not show in his website.   He tells me that it is difficult to update the site as he does it himself and it is very time consuming so I think he may take my idea of putting pictures of those items on his Yahoo Group....Deerfield River Models.
Unfortunetly,  Ed was not able to have the EBT caboose ready for the show so I will continue to wait patiently.  Speaking of EBT equipment,   BTS is bring out several pieces of rolling stock for the EBT and has them listed,  some with pictures on his website.   Be prepared for sticker shock.
       There was a model of a  large scale EBT #14 that is available for $3000.    The model is about three feet long,  so you do the math for the cost per foot.   The model is incredible and assuming the ability to pay for the equipment,  I would be seriously thinking of moving my hobby outside.
       All in all,  I still had a good time and look forward to next year's show.

Bob

Good Evening All,

     If you own any of the Bachmann 2-8-0s,  and you have an engineer and fireman in the cab,   whose figures did you use and did you have to alter them in anyway?

Bob

Good Morning All,

      This coming weekend,  May 18-20,  will be the annual  Kimberton Narrow Gauge Modular meet at the fairgrounds.    This is a great meet to go to if you are interested in most any scale from N thru G and also interested in narrow gauge and some supurb modeling.
       Over the past two years,  the On30 crowd has really been the major force at this meet.   There will be modules as well as vendors with,  I suspect,  the normal great selection of Bachmann On30 equipment.
       You can get more info on the meet by doing a search for the Mid-Atlantic Narrow Gauge Gild.
        The meet is advertised as Friday thru Sunday,  but in reality,  Friday is basically move in day and Sunday is tear down day,  so Saturday the 19th is the day to be there.
        I will try to post some pix early next week.

Bob

Mr Bach Man,

      Please email me off the forum in reference to some drawings I sent to you last year.   Drawings of a steam engine.

Bob

Good Morning All,

       I am thinking about trying to make my own decals.   For any of you who go this route,  where do you go for your decal paper?  I think Walthers offers it,  but I would like to comparison shop and get your feedback.    Also,  any other info such as printer settings etc would be helpful.

Bob

Good Evening all,

     Well it finally arrived!!   The first of my two K27s from Blackstone(Soundtraxx).   The engine is beautifully done with full cab detail and Tsunami sound.   The volume of the sound coming out of such a small piece is quite amazing!   The engine runs just as good as it looks.   Blackstone includes a brief history of the K27 class as well as a CD that has the Tsunami manual on it.  Also,  not seen by other manufacturers is an exploded view of the engine with all the parts identified.  There is also a nicely done lubricating manual.   Here is a pic of the engine,  sitting next to its On30 big brother.




Bob

Good Morning All,

     I have been thinking about making my first attempt at turning an HO steam engine into an On30 piece.   The candidate would be the 2-6-2.  One question about the cab.   Is it a separate fitting to the boiler or is the cab and boiler all one piece?

Bob

Good Evening All,

       I am looking for something and even though it is a specific scale,  I brought it to the general discussion group in an effort to expand my search.
       I am currently building an On30 railroad and trying to find Walthers' Walton Lumber Co in O scale.   It is a retired item.  I have scanned ebay,  but always only find the N or HO version.
      Please email me at ebtbob@verizon.net if you have one you want to part with or know of a store somewhere that may have one.

Bob

Good Morning all,

       For that select few of you who actually may be interested and may not know,  there are two manufacturers about to put K27s on the market place in HOn3.   One is Blackstone,  a division of Soundtraxx and the other is Mountain Models,  a division of Precision Scale.
       The Blackstone model will be available with or without sound in more than 8-10 varitations of road number,  boiler color,  road name,  and detail.
The original delivery date to customers was  almost a year ago.  The latest word directly from Soundtraxx was either March or April of this year.
       Precisions Scale is making a greater number of variations of the K27,  but they all will come with no sound,  but,  with a GME sound cam installed.  Now,  if you go to the Precision Scale website,  on the home page is a K27 picture and the captions reads..."shipping April 2007"   When you get into the MMI portion of the website it tells you..."Delivery May 2007".   So I sent Percision Scale and email and asked about the two different dates and the reply was that May was the shipping date and that they would correct the website home page,  which to this date has not happened yet.
       Both of the manufactures look like they are coming with wonderful engines and I had the opportunity to see the Blackstone model run at the convention in Philadelphis this past July.
       Now for some questions......one.   word around is that the Blackstone sound models are delayed due to a world wide shortage of electrcal components.   Has anyone else heard of this "problem"?    Some of the Blackstone non sound units have already been shipped.
       Second question,  and probably more towards Mr. B......when Bachmann makes an announcement and if you were to use the term "shipping date",   what would that definition be?    Does that mean shipping to your company from the manufacturer or shipping to distribution for sale to customers.    Also,  has Bachmann ever used the term "delivery date" and what is that definition?

Bob
       

Good Morning All,

       Sorry,  I am having home computer problems and am trying to reach Tim Anders.   Tim,  if you see this,  call Lin's Junction and have Linda give you my phone number and then give me a call about your visit to my layout this Sunday.   If you have sent me any emails,  I cannot see them right now.

Bob Rule,Jr.
Hatboro, Pa.

Mr B,

        I can see you guys have been extremely busy getting this new site up and running and having lost connection to the old site I would like to ask if you ever had a chance to find out whether the new frames for the cars,  allowing them to sit lower,  would be available as a seperate item.   I do not remember seeing anything from you other than the promise to check into the subject for which I am extremely grateful.

Bob Rule, Jr.
Hatboro, Pa.