I just measured my Bachmann and Rivarossi passenger cars.

Bachmann cars are about 80' if you measure from coupler to coupler. Rivarossi's are about 85' coupler to coupler

Side by side, the Bachmann cars are about 5 feet shorter than the Rivarossi's and the so is the wheelbase.

My Rivarossi's will run on 22" radius if they have long shank couplers.

My Bachmann cars have no problems at all on 22" radius track. They might work OK on 18" radius with long shank couplers.

When I got my Bachmann cars about 10 years ago, they had a little pivoting coupler mechanism that didn't work too well because they drooped. I removed them and body mounted the couplers instead.

Do they still use those pivoting couplers on Bachmann cars?

How do you know they came weathered? Can you show us a photo of the car and the box?

It is possible to modify the bottom of the turnout and make it route selective. I had a very old brass Atlas snap switch that somehow became route selective because the contacts in the frog area were damaged.  The power was transmitted by the switch points, but wasn't very reliable.

One other solution is to use a Peco "route selective" turnout and somehow adapt it to fit onto the EZ Track ballast. It will be almost impossible to power the switch machine, but it could be used manually.

Wipers on the axle doesn't make any sense. Only one side or half the wheels would pick up the track voltage.  The axle has to be insulated on at least one side so you don't have a short across the wheels.

Older steam engines and brass use the axles in a metal frame for pickup.  Plastic framed engines all have some sort of wiper that contacts the back of the driving wheels.

Jake, can you show us a photo of your loco?

My EZ Track #6 crossover has powered frogs.

The instrctions didn't say anything but there were two loose wires taped to the bottom of the turnout. There was also two electrical connections on the bottom and if you connected the wires, the frogs became powered.

Here it is at Tower Hobbies for $211.99 USD

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXPMW7&P=WR

I tried to "modify" the post to remove the 250 size restriction, but that doesn't work now either..... 

When you buy a pack of Kadees, they include extra springs in the package.

You can also buy them by the dozen:

http://kadee.com/htmbord/page136.htm

There are 2 types of pilots on K-4 Pacifics.... Slatted and Solid:

Like I said before, you have to edit your post and remove the 250 limit.

width=250 height=187

I am having the same problem even when the image was downloaded to my photobucket account.

If you go back and modify the image, you will see that there is a image size added to the link. I just deleted it and now it is full size again.

Very strange.

More poles means better slow speed running because there should be less "cogging" as the poles rotate past the magnets. Another way to reduce "cogging" is the skew the armature.

Here is photo of a regular and skewed armature. They are not model railroad motors but illustrate the difference well.

Quote from: msowsun on February 03, 2007, 09:17:59 AM
E-R Models Sharks are HO scale. They share the same drive as the E-R Models FP-7. They have Roco trucks, a very nice can motor, and come with a DCC ready plug.

I think Roco built the Model Power Sharks and E-R Models used the Roco design in their Sharks. They just  upgraded the motor and added a DCC ready circuit board. 

http://www.tcsdcc.com/decoderpics/erm.html