There seems to be a bit of price war on Ebay over On30 stock.

Several On30 rolling stock seem to be bidding up nicely while others are being sold at buy it now prices 1/3 retail.

Am I alone in thinking that we are seeing a sort of "Dumping" of On30 stock or perhaps a shift away from current Bachmann On30 into a yet to be determined future?

I worry about this because I am just now getting into On30 and would hate to see that everyone has stopped selling On30 and moved on to something else.

No answers?

How often do you need to feed and water a choo choo and how far can you pull a train with it?

There. Simple, edited for clarity.

I use Peco On30. It is frightfully expensive but to me it's all good.


Peco On30 is just the same as HO scale code 100 track. No different except that for me it's a little less "Tied up" than normal HO scale track. I intend to bury the stuff in rock, dirt and whatever else anyway.

I was examining Baldwin docs related to export 2-6-6-2 similar to the model that is arriving from Bachmann.

These docs show a capacity of 6 ton coal and 5000 gal water.

How much work (How many tons can be pulled?) can you do with the 2-6-6-2?

How long (In real time) can you last on one tender load of coal and water?

About how far in terms of a round trip can you make in mileage before having to restock the coal/wood/Oil and water?

To throw a big wrench into those of you so inclined, if wood (Oak) is 1089 pounds of wood equal to 600 pounds of coal in terms of energy, is there enough capacity on the tender to carry wood equal to 6 ton of coal by volume>?


Shows what a few hours spent on steam information as understood in Colonial times by those seeking to bring Steam to the USA.

I have found threads dealing with the Big Boy and it's massive coal/water consumption via google on trains dot com but cannot scale down to the small 2-6-6-2.

When I am trying to feed, water, sand and maintain operations around one of these models on the layout what else should I consider?

Finally I am trying to understand the different stacks with the model. The one I ordered happens to have a Diamond stack. (#28701) will there be other options for stacks included?

California should be a WARNING to the rest of the United States of America.

Now with that said, 8 years is fine.

I started off in O standard gauge at 5, never alone. Then HO at 7 never alone. By the time I hit 14 I knew what is what with trains. Kadee coupler good, plastic coupler bad. Metal wheels good, plastic bad etc.

One set in particular almost drove me back into Standard Gauge. It's over 40 years and I aint gotten over it yet.

H***, the HOUSE I played with the train in in those days had a coal bunker converted to fire Oil for the radiators every window was equiptted with. No airconditioning in sight.

Cloth covered electrical wires to the plug in wall with slow acting shotgun fuses give plenty of fry time. A few cooks taught you to stay the h*** away from those.

Heck, vacuum tubes were replaced like Double A batteries today in those days.

H***, the PAINT was nice and shiny, the flakes too.

Need I go on?

The telephone aint where you wanted to be on when the trolley came through or a storm hit.

You might stand there under the coldish water of the shower while the Oil heater monster slowly lifted a slug of hot boiling water three stories to dump onto you.

What else?

Oh yes. How about hot summer days eating blacktop flying off those roaring pavers following street strip machines tearing at the Belgian brick cobblestones 10 yards from your porch?

Or the Arabber bringing up produce and milk by wagon from downtown in the hot sun for a few hours early in the morning?

Yes, those were the days, forget the gawdawful little stickers. Watch out for real life.

If it is a Civil War set for either the North or South, Ebay will provide you with some guidance on value.

If it is any other set, maybe 30 dollars max.

The real value I think is of the Play kind. Does it run well and all parts present?

I cannot tell you how many times people think that something old and dusty in a closet shelf for 40 years will be worth something. Brass yes, trainsets no.

Inheritance is nice. Work off that. I recall one I received with a grand total of 12.50 after all fees and expenses were paid. It worked out great. Come into this world with nothing, leave with nothing.

http://loggingmallets.railfan.net/list/list.htm



That should about do it.

Well, assuming 30 inches radius times pii for circumference works out to roughly 15.8 feet of travel in both helix loops. For a one foot climb in 15 feet that should be about... 3-4%?

If a train in HO Scale moved 16 feet and climbed 4 inches that would be about 2% roughly.

I will have to sit down and think about gradient all over again.

But apparently from your describing how the engine behaves until it runs out of momentum or traction when all 10 loaded cars are on the grade... I would believe it is a nice engine.

I plan to cheat a little when planning my line for it. It will take empty log skels up hill (About 9 total) and bring down 9 loads of logs downgrade.


Another question.

When you attempt to travel the helix downhill with all 10 loaded hoppers on the engine, does the engine resist by "Bucking" or fighting the load imposed onto it?

Or does it retain command of it's train and holds constant answer to your throttle all the way down? (I love Sir Issac Newton, do you?) Over the years I have discovered some models are unable to hold on downgrade and buck.


Pulling power and traction limits have every consideration for engines in my way of thinking. Helpers are great. But I simply dont have money for a second engine and will be limited to what I can cheat, grade, cajole or otherwise work the system to bring decent trains of 9-12 loads down the mountain to the sawmill.

In fact, I will double or triple the grade if I have to. Consider that my railroad only has about... 24 total feet of walls to work with! Any thing that adds time and effort to get the day's work done is worth it.

I am expecting delivery of this engine and caboose as well. I am disappointed greatly to hear of lack of pulling power.

Two questions.

Is there any room inside the boiler to add lead sheet weight?

How high did your train climb on the grade which it needed a pusher and how far did it travel to get that high?

I used kato power routing switches in DCC. To defeat the power routing, I installed a insulated joiner prior to the frog at that end on both the inside short rails.

I would then feed all three sections of track connecting all three routes of the switch. I made sure that the engine had room to stop as sometimes a derailment might bridge the protected rails.

On a loop of track, the rail at the table edge was south rail, the inner rail was north rail. Both rails were color coded blue and white. It was not difficult to keep all rails in phase in DCC this way as long as all rails agreed to north and south.