My Hobby shop gives me a discount. However I have found eBay to be quite good in pricing of new or like new bachmann items. I try to get rolling stock for 20 dollars instead of 50, 60 or whatever they might be at full retail. I might pay 30 dollars max for any of the bachmann On30 freight cars.

Call me a cheapskate but there is no contest when Ebay or other sources have engines at 140-200 like new versus same engines still sitting on the hobby shop shelf at 350-500 retail.

Sometimes other hobby shops dump stock going back to 2006 or whatever at 20 or less online. I try to be ready for those.

On the other hand, I think there is a mess going on regarding split gears or whatnot and certain engines are dumped onto Ebay in quantity.

In this economy, it will be a long time before pricing drops... and probably NOT until the same products are re-released with sound and DCC.

I must say the Mason looks very good. The entire facility looks really good. Last time I saw pictures was after the President Day Collapse and it was nothing but rubble.

Traffic where I am started to pick up pretty good last few weeks. Used to be one stacktrain, one coal train and a morning slow plus evening slow and amtrack.

Now we have several mornings, several evenings and possibly even rolling meets where one train overtakes another on that dual track main. Those shake the house.

It is not as intense as Operation Iraqi Freedom was in 2003. I can still hear the screech of hundreds of empty flats buster to the wall behind worn out CSX and UP units.

The rear half of the engine is Fixed. The front engine appears to swivel around the third axle.

The bare wood is quite... kitty.

What to stain or prime with before assembly?

Wonderful Story!

If memory serves, American Steam quite robust in winter blizzards, as long as the switches were kept in working order.

Diesel is not so simple to turnkey operate.

Take a 400 Cat on a Pete 379 of an earlier time before computer control.

Air start. You had to deliver fuel to the engine during start a certain way there were only a few seconds crank time.

Once lit, you needed to be above 10 PSI oil pressure within a few seconds and keep it there. You cannot want to take the engine from 600 rpm idle to above 1200 until the water temperature gauge started to move past 130 degrees. Best wait about 16 minutes until 185 degrees.

After you got warmed up and rolling, you could not operate the jake for a while, not until the Oil temperature came up. You rig was also stiff in the drive train until the transmission, both back axles and other sensors reported near normal operating temperature.

You had about... 45 to 60 gauges in a rig depending on number of sensors, some gauges were a gauge within a gauge.

Etc etc etc etc.. and you aint even 10 miles along your day yet.

Those air breathing diesels I am familiar with were quite personality. Some were cranky and others racy.

Give me steam any day. Once you are hot and raring to go....

I followed your link and made some wonderful discovery.

I might build some of these kits myself. They probably will fit right in even though the 1880's is a tad early for my 30's road.

I was thinking how good it is to get away from HO scale and generic large distributor/China factory shipping and deal directly with little mom and pops around the USA who are making On30 stuff right here at home.

Quote from: NarrowMinded on October 18, 2009, 08:04:02 PM
Here's a little bit of a "Dark" pro for steam vs diesel A steamer would keep running through the middle of a nuclear war the diesel's would be disrupted by the electromagnetic wave and radiation.

NM

Keep that in mind.

We may need them steamers someday.

I recieved the 2010 On30 Annual and am happy with the issue.

However, I will admit to feeling intimidated by the craftsmanship of the people present in the issue. I am a plastic kit man, have been all my life... but the thought of .. assembling a building stone by stone is driving me crazy.

Much to learn but on the other token, I learned much from this one issue.

Well, for me the sounds are two sets of 4 beats until about 17 smph on the DCC. After that it's all a solid buzz of 4 beat at any speed to top.

I think the model is not a Compound because the cylinders are of the same size.

There are a number of flea markets in my area. Second hand stuff. You can find old style cameras, typewriters, singer sewing machines etc dating back 50+ years and still functional.

Where I am, all three are availible for a few hundred dollars max and you only need human power and a knowledge of the old ways to make these things work just as good as the new stuff imported from China today. And you dont need Batteries or Electric power to do it.

I fondly remember those train gardens in Baltimore. Quite a few back in the day.

The Fire Halls were very good about it. One in particular is near the oldest bridge inside Baltimore (Close to the old Ma & Pa line towards Jones Falls) and they dedicate a whole bay to trains each year when we would visit among others.

A traditional way of keeping wiring straight is to draw a circle of track on a piece of paper.

Put a dot in the middle of your circle. That is your "North"

Inside rail = North rail.

Outside rail = south rail.

Give a color to north and another to south and all will be well.

Once you have north and south on that circle then you will see that clockwise traffic is eastbound and counter = westbound.

Quote from: jestor on December 23, 2009, 12:38:45 AM

Quote from: Heave on December 22, 2009, 12:57:32 PM
Hm.

I'm beginning to consider either the little runt climax or the 4-4-0 to go with the big runt mallet.

Heh.

There is a significant size difference between the IF 4-4-0 and the OF 4-4-0.

That is true. I think the IF is smaller than the OF one.

One must wonder if Bachmann just cranked out engines in On30 without regard to scaling to a 6 foot 1/48 human.