Whiff is someone cool that we should see soon . The only other characters that appear in both model and CGI engine wise that Bachmann has yet to do is havery whiff and diesel 10 . Whiff could be hard to put his glasses on his face .Harvey is super tall and I doubt he could happen . Diesel 10 would be a best seller but the claw is hard however diesel 10 could fit NMRA standards if they put his claw infont of the cab windows and make it removable .
So Diesel 10 and whiff could happen if Bachmann figures out a way which I am sure they will considering they have gotten brake rigging on rebbecca .

I do think this years NMRA is gonna be quiet. My picks for this years NMRA for HO is the following

Arry
Bert 
Well wagon with Bert the miniature engine load
Troublesome truck #7

Putting the iron through a plastic shell was basically a joke.

But. Fill me in.  I've not been very aware of availability of separate DCC only Decoders without sound, and a separate sound only decoder. If that's the case, can one piggyback a sound only decoder onto an existing Silent DCC Decoder.  Please elaborate on this for my enlightenment.

I have 3 N Scale DD40AX that I bought around the late 2010's that have DCC but did not have sound at the time.  Is there a board replacement, or some way that I can add sound to these decoders?

Well, I finally finished putting the "Farm" scene together.  My next project will be to
'frame' it in.  Enjoy the pics.  The water tank is a Woodlands Scenic product.









The Oliver 'Super 77' is a Miniprint.com production.


More to follow,

Ken

WHile I agree with Trainman to about having sound professionally installed, or better yet factory installed, i need to ask who leaves a plastic shell laying around near a hot soldering iron? That defies common sense. I have no problems installing DCC in a locomotive. Most are now plug n play anyway, and adding DCC is as simple as plugging in a decoder. DCC with SOUND is a whole other level of complexity. That's a distinction that needs to be made in any discussion about DCC.

Hi Craig, to answer your question, 1991.  This is actually the fifth variation of back when
I laid down that first sheet of plywood.  It started as two pieces of plywood laid end to end.
All the track was a simple pinched oval or dog bone with a few turnouts.

A few years later I added a second level and doubled the track length.  The third level was originally
a return-loop.  After getting tired of all the stop-reverse polarity-and go of manual DC operation,
I added another length of track to have a continuous run up and down all three levels.  That's
where we are today.

Ken

Getting professional installation of DCC is one of the best ways you can spend your money, in my thinking.  Unless you really, really like playing with electronics and extreme micro soldering.  Some folks do, more power to them.  But we have gotten people on here before whose first question is how to make the train go and the next question is how do I install DCC.  I've spent a fair amount of money having a pro install DCC/sound in well over 25 engines, but then, he is a friend and gives me good rates.  Because of that, I've never burned out a decoder or put my soldering iron through a plastic engine shell.

What a great layout!  I'm new to the hobby.  Been working on my small 4 X 8 layout for 6 months........and not close to being finished.  Curious as to just how long you've been working on this?  I can see from this thread it's over 4 years.  But it looks like you were at it for some time when you posted that first pic.

A minor correction, l have discovered that there is another British maker with a small range of quite different ready-to-run O16.5 models, so Bachman is not the first. It looks as though the scale, the British equivalent of On30, is on the increase there.

Hamish

Bachmann Europe have announced a new range of O Scale narrow gauge trains that they are calling NG7 scale. These are British O scale (7mm to the foot or 1/43.5) running on 16.5mm gauge track. Up to now this scale has been called O16.5 in the UK. Bachmann's announcement is the first ready-to-run in this scale, though kits etc have been available from other makers. Bachmann have announced Hunslet quarry locomotives in cab and cabless versions, two types of slate wagons and a coal wagon. Quarry Hunslets are very small 0-4-0 tank locomotives originally used in slate quarries in Wales and now preserved on tourist narrow gauge railways.

The scale is of course larger than ON30 though running on the same track, but given the small size of the prototypes they may look not too out of scale with ON30 equipment, Bachmann has created its own couplers for this range, however the locomotives use NEM 362 coupler pockets, so knuckle style couplers should be able to be fitted. Not sure about the wagons.

I realise that this range may not be of much interest to American modellers, but here in Australia narrow gauge railways often used a mixture od American, British and European equipment, so they could be useful.

In any event it is good to see that at least one branch of Bachmann sees a future for O scale narrow gauge models.

Hamish