I don't think the F7A, with sound,  is available in "Canadian Pacific" block lettering, could someone please confirm?

I have two in early CNR colours but would like to switch the bodies to early Canadian Pacific as that better suits my operation procedures.

Cheers

Roger T.

Mr. B.

Why are questions about the future of the Spectrum range of steam locomotives, among the finest and best detailed steam ever produced in rtr plastic, not permitted on the forum and are regularly deleted?

My steam fleet consists mainly of Spectrum steam and I have little interest in less detailed engines.

Cheers

Roger T.

Anyone have any of these new locos and you comments please.  PM me if you feel so inclined.

Has a review been published by one of the major comics yet?

I ask becuase I no longer MR & RMC and if they have rec'd favourable reviews, I'm in the market for a  couple

Cheers

Roger T.

As some of you may recall, I had an industrial accident April 01 and broke my hip, which has slowed progress on building the new GER.  However, I recently managed to paint most of backdrop as seen in the following photos.  Not 100% happy with the results so I will need to break out the 3" fan brush and add some clouds to the sky.

Here's why.  This amply demonstrates why you should install and paint a backdrop first.

I was impatient so this serves me right.

Job about half done here on the portion of the railway that's been built so far.





Cheers

Roger T.

Have Bachmann considered installing a Keep/Stay alive capacitor as part of their standard circuit board?

I for one would not mind paying a little extra if such a useful feature was a standard fixture on circuit boards, especially on steam engines.

What's the general consensus, yes or no?

Cheers

Roger T.

 

Mr. B.

I have three Bachmann 2-10-0s  one with sound and two without.

The one with sound is original, as it came from the box, while the other two have been detailed, painted and slightly kitbashed.  They are what, ten years old?

What I'd like to do is to run the new sound equipped tender chassis behind one of my detailed locos and swap tender bodies so the sound tender is now weathered and carries the number of the detailed loco.

However, when I plug the sound tender into the detailed loco, I get a dead short.  This should not happen, or should it?  If so, why?  Did Bachmann make wiring changes to the sound equipped tenders so they will not be electrically compatible with older run, non sound locos?

This is very frustrating as it hasn't happened to other engines where I've swapped tender bodies and chassis so I can have a matched engine and sound tender.


Cheers

Roger T.

Thought I'd put a 2-10-0 that I'd purchase a little over a year ago into service today.

So I fire up JMRI so as to program the CVs to tune the engine up.

When it came to the head and back up lights I noticed that like many (all?) Bachmann steam, they don't seem to work.

I tried both the LED and Incandescent setting in JMRI but with no luck.

Anyone else have this issue and did you solve it?  If you did, how?

Cheers.

Roger T.

Latest addition to the GER rolling stock fleet, thanks to friend WoundedBear.



Thanks Sid.


Cheers

Roger T.

Anyone seen any magazine reviews of the 2-8-2, if so what magazine and what issue?

Anyone have the 2-8-2 and what do you think?

Running quality, amount of detail, accuracy etc., etc.?

Cheers

Roger T.

Subject line say's it all Mr. B.  The 2-8-2 seems to have slipped from the radar.

The only new release I was looking forward to.

Cheers

Roger T.

A few days ago, someone posted photos of a kitbash showing how they converted a Bachmann kettle, the 4-6-0(?), from slide valves to the more modern piston valves.

I've trawled through a bunch of topics but cannot find it.

Anyone recall what the topic was named or can the OP please repost?

I have three or four 4-6-0s I want to modernise and the kitbashing of the valves seems easier than trying to replace the cylinder castings with new ones.

Thanks.

Roger T.

As this is Bachmann site I thought I'd post some images of what I've done to Bachmann Locos.





Here we have GER No. 163.  A Spectrum 2-10-0 that has been un-Russianed.  New stack, steam dome, sand box, air tank on pilot deck and kitbashed tender.  I've done this to three of my 2-10-0s with one more to go.

=====================================



GER No. 355.  A Spectrum 2-8-0.  This was a simple kitbash of the tender to reduce its length.  I kitbashed two tenders to this design. No. 355 also has the GER standard air tank on the pilot deck.

=====================================



GER No. 371.  Another Spectrum 2-8-0 this time with the tender from a P2K 0-6-0 switcher.  I thought this tender behind an 0-6-0 was too large for a yard engine so I transferred to No. 371, where it looks much better.  This was a minor kitbash mainly to accommodate the Bachmann circuit board and a new drawbar.

=====================================



This is really a tender kitbash.  The tender started out as a Bachmann Hicken oil tender.  Sadly, Bachmann no longer sells tender separately. The Hicken tender has been shortened by one water tank ring, had the front end modified for use behind a vestibule cab and converted to coal.   The engine is a President's Choice/IHC 2-10-2 that was part of a promotion by a Canadian supermarket chain.  I bought three, gave away the cars and track and just kept the engines.

======================================



Finally, my current project,  Canadianising a Spectrum Heavy Mountain 4-8-2.  Running board skirts and vestibule cab a la CPR.  Kitbashed Hicken tender.  Still to be added are the air tank on the pilot deck, decaling, numbers, road name and striping on the running board skirts. I have another two, I think, Heavy Mountains that will also undergo this surgery when more Hicken Tenders can be found.

Cheers

Roger T.  

These are from my now demolished Great Eastern Railway.



Berger Yard,  Awater.  Looking timetable west, geographically south.  It was planned to extend through the wall under the distant bridge to provide a Rutland Road staging yard but I moved instead.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



GER No. 25 shoves a cut of cars onto the Siding at Berger Yard in Atwater.

________________________________________________________



Dorset Centre with GER 2-10-0 No. 163 on the westbound way freight.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Nos 334 and 329 arrive in Granville Junction with the daily Montreal (CPR) freight.

Cheers

Roger T,

Any suggestions for a preferably plug and play sound decoder for the
Bachmann doodlebug?

I only have one eye and my close up vision sucks so fine soldering for
connections is out of the picture, so to speak.  So plug and play is preferred. 

One that approximates a doodlebug prime mover.  After that just need bell and horns
and headlight.  Really I just need bell and horns and headlight, I can turn
the prime mover down so it's barely audible.

Cheers

Roger T.

Just sorting out boxes and came across this in progress kitbash that I started going on five years ago now.

Guess I'll finish it one day.






Cheers

Roger T.

Here's a photo I took recently of GER Slug No. 4 that I kitbashed some 15 or more years ago when I used to model 1977.

Kitbashed from a Baldwin switcher body IIRC.  I still have it is anyone's interested in more detailed photos?



Cheers

Roger T.

I bought this loco a few months ago and have had nothing but problems with it.

First, the wiring harness between engine and tender was way too long and it was dragging along the ties so I had to tie a knot in the harness so I could run the loco without it snagging my track.  Then I had two wires in the harness inside the tender break.  One probably broke when I was tieing the knot in the harness so I managed to solder back.  The other I discovered  when I was removing the tender shell so as to add the usually required weights over the front of the tender to stop it lifting up from the torsion of the wiring harness, a common fix on Bachmann steam.

This black wire goes under the circuit board to goodness knows where but now the head and backup lights don't work.  I didn't feel like farting around with the circuit board so I installed the weights and put the tender shell back on.  I model the late 1950s so steam headlights in daylight aren't that important.

Then, this morning, I go to fire up the loco five minutes ago.  Won't move.  Sound all works just fine but motion?  Noticeable by its absence. 

It was running fine a couple of day ago but today?  Nada.

Any suggestions regarding DCC?  If push comes to shove I could reset the decoder but before I do that I'll ask here as there are others more knowledgeable than I regarding DCC.

Oh, and BTW, two of my old, early issue,  2-10-0s that are DCC but not sound, took them out of the their storage boxes yesterday, where they've been for three years put them on the track and, they could both free wheel.  Gears not engaging in either of them.  Fixed one, I think, as it does run but got feed up and left the other until later.  Anyone else had these issues with the 2-10-0?

Cheers

Roger T.

Mr. B.

Is it possible to return only a tender for repair?

I have accidentally broken the connection of a wire in one of my DCC sound tenders.  I cannot see where the other end of the wire was connected.

Although the engine is only six months old, I do not have the receipt as I never keep receipts.  Mostly I repair all my own engines but this one has me beat so I'm willing to pay the repair fee.

I don't want to return the entire engine as it's been detailed and weathered and I know the repair department's policy is not to repair but to replace.

Re-decaling and weathering a tender is far less work that doing loco and tender and also saves decals.  .

So, can I return just the tender?

Thanks in advance.

Roger T.

Quote from: jbrock27 on October 30, 2014, 03:28:39 PM
Smiley

Got it, thank you J.  Sorry I misundertood which one you were referring to.  Yes, polarity is important to determine when you want the LED lit.

Do you steam guys usually have the headlight stay on when the loco is moving in reverse or do you set it up to go off?

This business of the headlight going on and off when the loco changes direction is purely a toy train thing perpetrated by toy train manufacturers.

Most of the times, the headlight stays on when the loco changes directions.  The rear light may come on as that is turned on and off, just like the headlight, by the engineer but if it's a back up move when still coupled to cars, the odds are the engineer will keep the back up light off as on high beam, it will reflect back from the cars he is coupled to and dazzle him and on low beam it serves no function.

Note.  Headlight rant follows: -

Yard switchers generally run with BOTH headlights on DIM.  Yard switchers do NOT (usually) run with the lights on full as that both dazzles the engineer when coupling up to cars and dazzles the guys working on the ground.  Again, model yard switchers where the lights automatically change direction with the locomotive's direction is a toy train effect.  Bachmann please note.  If your DCC switchers do this, then that is wrong and should be corrected.

Also, automatically changing lights are also a toy train effect.  The selection of which headlight is on or off or whether both headlights are on and whether the headlight or headlights are bright of dim is up to the locomotive engineer, it's not automatic and should not be automatic on scale models.  It may be acceptable on toy trains but it's not acceptable on scale models.

Headlight rant ends.

Cheers

Roger T.