Discussions are one of the fun features of model railroading lol. I miss the Friday night arguments (discussions ) at a defunct local train store years ago. But seriously I think morst railroaders want the digital sounds and controls. I have both and Have found some great bargains on the big scale size conventional locomotives. The GP30 is in demand now but later it might drop a little but considering when other companies are charging $200 is a pretty good deal for a sound equiped scale size locomotive and when you compare the Williams By Bachmann trains made today compared to early Williams they really came a long way.

I think WBB will jump on the band wagon one day but your right about prices, you need a second mortage to afford the new brand L trains anymore. I have one williams reverse unit go belly up on me about a year ago and picked up a new one for about $20.00 from a dealer online and it was about a 15 minute job to replace it.

Does Atlas make a Transition section IR to O? If so you can use that. I use MTH Realtrax and I have Street to private right of way on my Trolley line and used the Superstreets transition to O track with a MTH transition Realtrax to O transition section and put ballast over the bare ties on the Superstreets transition section. My layout is based on Philadelphia and PTC had a few trolley lines that ran on private right of ways but were not well ballasted and you would think the cars were going to fly off the track lol.

Post pics when your finished the transformation. I have like 5 of the Scale GG-1s and only kept 2 of the shorty's, I put the rest in the Bay. I'm hopeing they will come out with the original 4899 as built scheme in the scale version. For some reason I always liked it. That is the one I kept on the short versions, It's a MTH the other is a Lionel Penn Central.

Could he have two switches connected back to back? If so the two pick up rollers might be dropping into the gaps at the same time. My E-60 and SD45 used to do that. I had to add a short section between the switches. That was way back when I was using 022 switches.

Possibly a flyer, but the new product announcements will probably be for the 2014 catalog. Some of the items in April can be canceled if they get enough negative feedback on it.

Below is a post from the moderator a when the new catalog came out. I'm sure they have something up there sleeve. And he is right about the same offerings for years.


Calm down guys.  If you look at the 2013 catalog post from a couple of weeks ago, you will see that I posted that we will announce most new items at April York each year.  Many of the items that have been removed from the catalog have been in the line for many, many years.  Wait until April for the new Williams items.

Regards,

3rail

Using two dental probes makes it easy to replace traction tires im most cases. They can be had cheap at dollar up shops at most flea markets. I think I paid like $3.00 for a five pack.

You never know, I think WBB has something planned since there are so many items omitted from the catalog and many of the best items. So maybe there planning to expand the sound system in new production and try to clear the warehouse of existing stock. Rember they keep quiet due to competition. I'm hoping for them to bring back the scale GG1 with sound as well as other locomotives.

Fred you probably seen the new Lionel RTR catalog with a Pennsylvania General set which includes 3 Passenger cars with Clearastory roofs. They will look great behind the Pennsy  4-6-0 the WBB will be bringing out also. I hope they offer extra coaches in the future.

They stretch from pressure depending on how long a train it's pulling and come off. You need to inspect the wheels often to make sure because they can run with a missing tire or two.  The old K Line tires with treads on them seemed to last the longest, I wish they were still available.

I think offering a locomotive in 2 cab numbers will increase sales due to some operators who would like to run a 2 locomotive lash up. Today operators are leaning much more prototyipcal than in the 50s and 60s when you would buy a Diesel any scale and the dummy and powerd unit had the same cab number.  Also 3 rail scale became the thing unlike the old Tinplate size knownn today as semi scale. Jerry Williams did sell the scale Hudson in 2 numbers and I seen people at York asking for the cab number they needed to double head. I have 5205 & 5207 which I use to pull a 20 car milk train.

If they do bring back the Metroliners, I hope they improve the pantograph. The pantographs that they used on the  original Williams Metroliners and E60s were very flimsy and if you would raise them the springs would fly into space never to be seen again. I applied a drop of super glue on them with a pin to prevent this. Maybe one day someone will manufacture a aftermarket pan for the older Williams E60s and Metroliners.

Looks like the NY Toy Fair will be delayed due to the weather. 

The Madison cars are good sellers and i'm sure they wont quit making them.  I wish they would make 1890-1900 era passenger cars to go with the 4-6-0