Hi old vet,
                  Yes it is a bit confusing when you first get started in this hobby and some of us forget we were in your shoes once.

                The numbers you refer to apply only to steam locomotives, and refer to the numbers of wheels and the arrangement of them under the locomotive.

          To start with the  4-8-4 has 4 relatively small wheels in the front ( 2 each side)
they are mounted on a movable part of the loco called the PILOT.
         Next we have 8 large driving wheels ( 4 each side )
         and lastly 4 more smaller wheels ( 2 each side ) on another movable part called the Trailing Truck. This is usually under the cab.

         As for the 0-6-0  it is a much smaller loco and does not have the Pilot or the Trailing Truck just the 6 large driving wheels.

      Hope this helps.  From another once very confused old vet.

  Regards, Limey.

Hi guys and gals,
                            I recently purchased Bachmanns Spectrum Ballast Regulator which is DCC ready.  It appears that there is very little space to install a decoder alongside the motor. Has anyone done an install on one of these and if so what decoder did you use.  The install is straight forward enough, no soldering, but the size of the decoder would seem to be a problem.

Thanks, Limey

blwfish and ryeguyisme

Thanks guys THAT is exactly what I wanted to find out, I thought the sound decoder should work as a stand alone but wasn't quite sure.

regards, Limey

Many thanks to all for the informative replies.
I guess I should have added a bit more to my original post.
My little 0-6-0 saddle tank Midwest Quarry loco was a DCC ready to which I installed a Digitrax DZ121.  Needless to say this was a tight fit, so when I thought about a sound install I really didn't relish the thought of wrestling it into so small a loco.
As I have never seen a prototypical 0-6-0, and seeing that the model has a built in coal bunker I thought that a regular tender would look out of place and besides how would the fireman get the coal from the tender to the loco. So then I thought that these locos would probably be doing just short hauls of gondolas full of quarried material within the quarry itself. I have a few gondolas with removable coal loads so I thought of installing the sound works in a gondola and then repainting the coal load to resemble quarried stone.  The removable load would cover the sound works but still be removable to access them should the need arise in future.
      I think the changes to the trucks,wheels and installation of wiring would be an easier job than trying to put a larger decoder and speaker in a tiny engine.
Being a bit older and arthritic my fingers are not as nimble as they should be so fine motor skills are limited but I still try.
     Once again, many thanks to all.

Regards, Limey.

I have an 0-6-0 Midwest Quarry loco with DCC. am I right in assuming that if I were to put a sound module in a gondola behind it and program it to the same ID # that it would work O.K.
    I realise of course that I would have to have power pickups from the gondola trucks and also that this would have to be a fairly permanent hookup btn, the 0-6-0 and the gondola but it would seem to be the only way to get sound for this tiny loco.
     BTW does anyone know of a typical sound unit for this 0-6-0.

Thanks. Limey.

I have one of the oil tanks that is " Supposed " to make the sound of a diesel, it runs off the auxiliary output and is so pitsy in sound ( like a frog with a sore throat) I cut it off and just left the oil tank on the scenery.

Regards, Limey.

Once again Rich, many thanks from me and no doubt many others on this forum.
A picture is worth a thousand words.

Regards, Limey.

Thanks Rich,
                      The pins on my meter couldn't make contact inside the plugs.
  Can you remember which wire was for which rail in relation to the protrusion on the plug? 
         Since some of the other folks on this board have had trouble switching tenders, I was wondering if Bachmann was consistant with the wiring or if the pickup wires may be switched sometimes. It sure would be nice if the wires were standardised and colour coded.

question for the Bachmann,
The plugs that connect the tenders to the loco have a small protrusion on them, relative to this protrusion what is the orientation of the wires.
Am I right in assuming that the 4 wire plug is power supply to the motor and to the headlight and that the two wire plug is for the light at the back of the tender. If so which wires of the four are to the motor and which one is for the right and left rail.

Thanks. Limey.

Trainworld had a bunch of Bachmann tenders on sale a couple of weeks ago, try them.

Regards, Limey

Hi Jerry,
              I like your track plan and would like to borrow some aspects of it. Although you are on the HO site is your layout actually HO ?  What is the scale of your track plan ?  Minimum Radius of curves ?  Room Dimensions ?

Thanks, Limey.

Doneldon,
                  I have Bachmann 0-6-0 and 2-6-0 ( As yet unused ) with smokers and would very much like to disconnect them, do you know if they have the switch to turn off the smoke unit, and do I have to take them apart to get at it ?

Thanks, Limey.

Richg
          That's  8v DC no load voltage. I have a 4 way crossover where all 4 machines operate simultaneously and they all work just great. I don't forsee any time when I would operate any more machines than that at one time. Sequentially yes, maybe.

   If anyone is interested I just picked up a NOKIA phone charger ( Wall Wart Transformer ) for  $1 at the local thrift store. It shows the output as 3.7v.DC at 350 m.amps. When I metered it the voltage was actually 8v.DC. It works great for powering 12 Tortoise switch machines on my HO layout. They are quiet and operate at a moderate speed.

Just my 2cents. worth.
Limey.

Hi John,
             I also live close to a hump yard up here in Canada and looked at constructing one, I also studied the hump yard in the suggested plan HO36. Oregon Pass Line. That one is quite simplistic in design in as much as it is merely a section of plywood and cork road bed which is raised up above its surrounding area by a bolt screwed up from underneath. This will make the cars roll down by gravity, however, as was pointed out to me by a friend who was a track foreman for C.N., you have to have some method of slowing the momentum of the cars so that they don't crash into each other but rather couple up more gently. In the prototype this is accomplished by some kind of braking system attached to the track though I am not sure how it works. I was toying with the idea of a sort of brush set up mid track to brush against the underside of the car or perhaps even a magnetic system. I am still in the thinking stage regarding the whole thing.
    In retrospect there must be a reason why there are so few hump yards and so many flat track sorting yards in the real world, perhaps even in the real world the complexity, maintenance and cost are just not worth the trouble.

Regards, Limey.