I have a couple of older B-mann gons. Thesae have plastic wheels and axles. I'm putting McHenrys on them and repaintingthem and wanted to do something about the trucks so they are more free rolling. They exert much more resistance then other cars and don't roll down the hump as well.

I have Athearn trucks and wheelssets. Unfortuneately the trucks don't fit over the existing screw post, I guess I couls sand these down, and the Athearn axles in the wheelsets seem a bit longer than the B-manns, the fit tight and don't seem to give much advantage.ell except that they are metal and well tapered. The originals are bluntish and fuzzy.

Just file and sand the existing ones, do others work, any tricks folks?

Frank

Finally have a basic double loop with an up and over setup. Going to make a portable yard next to plug in. I've bought over the years 5 F7A and 4 F7B I believe they are all Spectrum or Plus, though I only have 4 of the pacages right now.

While testing/breaking in the engines I noticed that the F7A is noticeably faster than the Bs. When running 1 A with 2 Bs I got to a spot in the track that needs work and the A separated from the 2 Bs and just walked away.

Are the Bs supposed to be geared the same or are geared to be real helpers meaning lower ratios - less speed more power.

Come to think of it are the B engines physically diffferent from then As other than the shells and lights? I hadn't compared them side by side and I'm at work now so can't check.

I would think that if you put an A-B-B-A combo on the track uncoupled they should all move off in formation without running each oher down or pulling away.

Frank

I was running mine this weekend and had a similar proble. I found the pilot (cowcatcher) was bent down a bit and that was catching. Bend it up slightly.

It did better than some of the more expensive engines through break in.

Frank

I've decided on an era for my HO layout - WWII. I figure coal loads to factories, military trains with flat cars of tanks, etc, troop trains, tank cars, and various other crs carrying freight for the war effort and homeland civilian usage. Mixes my military modeling interest with trains.

I quickly realized that half or more of the rolling stock I have is wrong (to new) and my engines may be questionable.

I'm looking for

1) A general reference on locos and rolling stock that would give general characteristics and dates of introduction. Meaning 40' boxcars are good, some 50' boxcara are good but PS-1s aren't ca 1947.

2) Some books on railroads during the war. I found "America's Fighting Railroads: A World War II Pictorial History (Paperback)" and a few others on Amazon. This one is mostly photos.

I'm thinking some kind of interchange area with coal drags going north to factories, tank cars from the west bound for east coast ports, tanks, etc from factories and/or military bases for the east coast ports, plus troop trains and miscelaneous freight. Maybe one main railroad, maybe two or three being routed through. I imagine the earliest EMD diesels (FT, F3) would have been present and I want to find the smallest reasonably realistic steam engines that would run on say 22" radius plus mainlines. And which company would have run what equipment.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Frank

Easy Lift Off (ELO) from Polly Scale. I used it to strip some Bachmann N scale F7/F9 shells so i can repaint them for Santa Fe freight blue and yellow. Dab it, soak it scrub a bit and flush. Get's down to the bare plastic.

It will ruin the clear pieces though so be aware of this. I'm trying to find out I I can order a handful of them as replacements.

Frank

One, do you provide customer service? I emailed a week ago and no answer. I tried calling, the phone rang for some time before someone answered. She sounded busy and abrupt. Sent me off to an extension presumably in customer service which again rang for quite some time and was never answered. I have an N 4-4-0 that has been missing the rear truck from the tender since I bought it and put it up a few years back, must have not really noticed it at the time as I'd bought 2. The screw is there, but the head appears smaller than the other screw on the tender or the 2 on the second one.

2 On the EZ Track, Frankly I like it. I want to have something to play around with until a more permanent layout is possible. I have HO and N and am using both. Seems to be a major bias toward the HO Nickel Silver grey. Will there be more selections in the black steel alloy, which works fine for me so far. In particular the insulator sections, more curve options and more switch options. I like the black, I think it looks better unfinished and will weather nicely. Plus I'm cheap (to many interests not enough resources).

Last. I bought a train set for my son a while ago plus some extras. The set came with and/or I bought extra 40' open hoppers (I'm a sucker for an ore load). The cars are in red marked MStL. This was fine at the time, but he's not so intersted and I'd like to integrate them into my layout as Norfolk and Western cars. They are the short list for kadees, a repaint and a coal load. Would Bachmann sell sets of the decal markings? Are they decals or are they applied in a different way? How?

Frank