i need a light bulb for an older bachmann Spectrum 4-8-4 niagara. i looked on the parts section & didn't see anything for any 4-8-4. this engine has the two piece frame that is split down the middle & uses the headlight bulb with some kind of locater. does anyone have any of these, or does bachmann still have them & just not have them listed?

i also need a smoke unit for it too.

well that sucks!!

Quote from: Joe Satnik on April 11, 2011, 12:30:47 PM
Look for holes to access the bottom side of the sound board. 

If that doesn't help, put up pictures of the sound board.   

Is there a forum dedicated to MTH where you can ask?

i'll try & get pictures up in a day or two. i don't know of any mth forums just dedicated to just mth. might be, but i haven't looked.

mine's not protosound. i wish they were.

I pooped the shell off again & I didn't see anything that looked like a mechanical control. I did raise the volume on my Williams girls steam engine though.

these don't seen to have a volume control knob.

Williams would, but i don't know about wbb. i have a sweet sd24 NS. williams bosy on a lionel sd chassis. sweet.

anyone know if the older mth railking stuff is like this? i have a berk & a mohawk, the berk is louder.

again, i by passed the board that the smoke unit plugged into. you reduce the voltage going to the motor to get it to work with the zw, but run the smoke unit off of track power (before the rectifier diodes). this will give you the smooth start/stop using your zw275, & it will smoke like a "train".

i just went through it all last week, & now it's fixed.

i just went through everything you are. this link will tell you what to do. spend $5.00 at radio shack & it will be fixed. if you don't understand the instructions let me know & i'll post pictures.

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,15415.0.html

put four sets of diode pairs on the motor to reduce the power, then run the smoke unit off track current. ground one to the motor ground frame nut, & the other to the wire that comes from the center rail. it should smoke like crazy.

i just bought 2 packs of 276-1661 diodes no more than 3-4 days ago from radio shack. they do have them online. & there is 5-6 packs on ebay right now. just put in the part number on the search.

i've noticed with my zw, i can't push the horn bottun all the way forward & get the newer stuff to work. it runs my postwar stuff great, but anything with a circuit board i have to push it only about half way. i guess it because the newer stuff uses so much less current?

yes, top speed it still very good. it will still run off the tracks if i opened it all the way up. now pulling ten cars, i can turn it up to 12 on the zw & it's flying. it runs good on 8-9.

the diodes do get a little warm, but not hot. i had to put two pair on each of the wires. four pairs was to long to fit anywhere without smooshing wires.

i did put the smoke unit back the way it was, because it spit a little bit of smoke fluid out & i just don't like that oil getting on the purty pink paint. i would rather it not smoke than to make a mess. I've heard this is normal for this kind of smoke unit.

as far as i know, all 3-rail trains will interchange (Lionel, mth, Williams, k line, etc.). they all have the same coupler type that will work together, any brand of track will work as long as the radius is big enough for the engine & cars. some will need wider radius track. some Lionel mpc era stuff is dc current, but most (99.9%) are ac. other than that any transformer will be fine as long as it has enough watts to operate the train correctly.