I am very happy with the decision to bring a mike in the standard range as instead in the Spectrum one.
The sound value version will cost me in Austria 289 € (app. 325 USD). With rising labour cost the additional detail of a Spectrum one would bring the price in heights I am not willing to climb. As the locos are shipped from China to the US and than to my hobby shop in Germany and than to Austria the more additional detail the more likely that I will receive a damaged one. When collecting OO gauge British models a lot of the hobby magazines and modellers on the forums asked for more and more details and the manufacturers delivered. Than the prices went through the sky and most of the locos I ordered had detail parts broken when they arrived. I am happy that there are no corners cut regarding performance as I like to play with my trains and therefore the locos should run well.
I really like the Bachmann range as I think it is great value for money and the sound value decoders have a lot of programming options and offer great motor control.
My only quibble with the Bachmann range of mikes is that by murphy`s law the road that I want (Rock Island) is not offered as sound value and that the motive power department of the Santa Fe did not have the foresight to order some of these locos so that Bachmann could bring it.

If you wedge a piece of wood in place than the pedal is pressed down - but if it is pressed down for more then 1000 yards of pressed down longer than 30 seconds the train will brake -  or is this system different from Austria/Germany?
In Austria you have to release the pedal for a moment after 30s, failing to do so an audible warning reminds you. Failing to aknowledge the warning will apply the brakes and bring the train to stop.

Thomas

I am sorry if my question caused some confusion, maybe I should have been more precise. I thought that the type of equipment mentioned ( 52ft flat car / 35ft ) would have put it into the early era of piggy back service.
I am not very strict in prototype fidelity, not enough skill and kwowledge, but I want to avoid very obvious mistakes, for example I would not use a Santa Fe GE Dash 9-44CW for these early piggy back trains.
And I was not sure whether these trains did run using wagons from different railroads or whether there was a pool of dedicated wagons from just one or two railroads that had been used for one certain service day for day - like a unit train between coal mine and power station nowadays.
As I said I am not very strict but I would like to avoid mistakes like buying piggy back equipment with 5 or 6 different road names only to learn later that the Santa Fe only ran these trains with their own equipment.

Thomas

The foot pedal can easily be over ridden by placing a heavy lunch box of even better, a joint bar on the pedal.  Don't ask how I know.

Cheers

Roger T.


[/quote]

How can the foot pedal be over ridden by placing a lunch box on the pedal? Will the loco not not automatically apply the brakes if the pedal is not released after 30s or some hundred yards?

Thomas

I want to exchange the plastic axles of my Bachmann H0 trainset wagons but the 33" flat back wheel sets (item 42904) I bought do not fit - the axles are too long. Then I tried some Kadee 520 wheel sets but these again have axles that are too long so the wheels would not turn.
Any recommandations?

Thomas

When I run a piggyback train, can I mix roadnames and use the 52ft flat car / 35ft trailer from different roads or do I have to use only my home road? I would like some variety, for example add some NYC cars to my Santa Fe ones.

Thank you!

Thomas

I have sent an email on april 2nd and again on april 9th to parts@bachmanntrains.com but until now not have  received an answer. So maybe this is not the right address. Please could someone tell me another address? Thanx!

I think I like this one best:



The yard on the right side is the staging yard.

I think I could restore the wye but the bridge would create a duck-under that I do not want as I want to move along the boards.

Maybe this picture makes it clear:

Quote from: Jerrys HO on April 06, 2015, 08:41:55 AM

Do you have any plans to turn the loco around? I do not see any place to reverse the direction.

I am not sure that turning is necessary for RS-2 and GP 7/9 and will use F7/FT in A-A configuration. Turntable would be nice but the price.......

Had another try on the track plan, still undicided.....

Bachmann, what about bringing back the F40PH? I would like it in Ski Train livery as I think it looks really good in Rio Grande colours. You could even use it in a Ski Train trainset. And please, do it as sound value!

Thomas

The Thunder Chief trainset has arrived in time for the easter holidays and the F7 really looks nice in blue yellow. And the loco was the main reason to buy the trainset (the EZ command controller the other one).



But what to do if you have a nice blue Santa Fe diesel that is only available in a trainset and your son likes the colour and wants another one? Repaint one? Me? You are kidding?

Fortunately my long years in armchairmodelling have trained me enough to give me confidence in trying the most difficult of operations: open 4 screws, remove SP F7 body, put SF FT body (from Bachmann spares) on chassis, fasten 4 screws.









Now we have a nice sound value Santa Fe FT - and it is already speed matched to the F7s we have ;-)

Thomas

What are the chances I get a Santa Fe mike? Did Santa Fe use this type of mikados?

And what is the difference between the mogul/consolidation and a Spectrum steamer?
If it is just that the Spectrum ones have more sound features, than I prefer the sound value locos as for me they offer enough and I can (just) afford them - in Europe  even "value" get pricy.

What I really dislike is that some roads are offered as sound value and some not - and of course the ones I want are not.

Wouldn`t it be possible to offer all as sound value and as not fitted? So modellers on a tight budget get sound and really good motor control and other modellers wishing more features could use the decoder of choice. And modellers using DC control would not think they pay for something they will not use.
Another option would be to offer sound value modules for retrofitting.

Thomas