Guys its been awhile since I got into the 44 tonners.  I see there is about 3 versions of them. Whats the same on them?, whats compatable and what was the time line on these?. I gather the latest may even have even newer features. Looked at parts page but it showed only one unit. Mechanical improvements any?, I did see brass gear set up different on two units. Not sure though on truck gears and set up.Info on this would be helpfull.Even on Ebay when you purchase you don't know what unit you are getting as you only see picture of unit with shell.Regards . . I have single motor  units with 5 gears showing on bottom and trucks newer versions with smooth bottoms, are the gears same in side?Steve

Guys I have a dcc version .Orangey LED. Anyone changed there LED to soft bright yellow?.If yes any issues such as shinning through plastic. I did rewire unit with TCS decoder soldering to pins on Bachmann board.The resistor on board should handle a different lED I think.Thanks Steve

Guys i have a bag of replacement gears for 44 tonner, they are white.I believe i purchased them when i originally had the two motor 44 tonner.Do these gears fit any other 44 tonners. I have units with SQUARE top brass gear housing and the ROUND top brass gear housing.I did note at least three different truck versions on parts department list but only one diagram. Curious to know if the gears work on each truck or any of them?.Thanks Steve

What i meant by stranded wire use in home was not the mains use of solid but the use of stranded used in everything else in the home. Yes you can screw down and stomp on solid but i tell you if its nicked or cut with strippers or a knife it will break off with little stress. It stands to reason a small gauge of pretty much any thing solid when nicked will snap at the nick point. A nick in solid copper wire is its weakest link. No nick no cut you bend it which ever way you like...............its even worse with smaller gauge cppoer wire. Time to move on. Steve........BC

Made an error on my post mine is the original newish one with flush mount control not the newer model. I have and am enjoying mine.That being said quite often there are trade offs in our complex hobby today.My original turntable and i think everyone had one was the ear deafening Atlas unit.I actually went to the trouble of buiding it into a scratch built pit...............the wall was cork roadbed gluesd to edge with brickwork carved into it.Today another modeler is enjoying it. Steve

The 220 volt line voltage baseboard heaters have high voltage themostats with heavy  stranded wire. I just changed mine all out to digital and the same . i dare say a 110 volt heater will also have heavy wire. Heavy wire as your basically breaking one wire to heater to inplant thermostat................the other straight through to heater. Of course the wire has tobe same or higher gauge as the 14 or 12 gauge 220 volt wire. Not an electrician dont know the criterior for 12 or 14 gauge,We are getting off track hear but the point is stranded wire more common in home and around home than solid,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,its more serviceable lets say for many applications.Steve....................if you are a solid guy thats great.............if you are stranded you are more than solid HA!

To add to Rich reply by snipping the little round devil it improves or does not interfere with maybe reduced low speed operation. These are electrical noise interference suppressors regulated in UK and Europe. I remenber 45 years ago my road race set cars had them...................it was a Scalelextric from England, dont know if they still make them...............best car i had was a FWD Mini British racing green ! Steve

If LED too bright try nail polish opaque neutral kind of  color dabbed onto LED.................works great. If its the far locomotive was not  sure that a very bluey looking LED. I would go with a soft white or yellow glow white LED. Minimum resistor i use is a 1K. The Ik resistor is an all arouind resistor for many uses so a package of them on hand is handy.They are cheap.

If its the  old walthers kit it has not a very good track record. If your talking the walthers DCC unit its great and is fully featured.............i like the IR setting of the tracks as in memmory settings.I have run mine many years and have been very happy. The put together unit had running issues, rubbing issues and was a pain interms of roundness etc.Many folks pulled their hair out over this unit.Steve

Sorry about that i was thinking 220 volt baseboard heaters as i just changed mine.We only have source in Canada no Radio Shack. Limited selection and i like the larger spools of Automotive and color choices. Not sure on pricing in a small town i was just happy to find what i was needing.I think the brand was PICO. Seems to me if one thinks 18 gauge for feeders is a bit big nothing wrong with 20 gauge stranded. The key is to twist it tight shape it trim the... L ...  if necessary tin the wire shove down the hole beside tie and solder to rail. Scrape side of rail with file to clean and give bite and brush on a dab of rosin flux. I only use a 25 watt pencil soldering iron others use the big guns!Hold wire tight to rail with whatever you find handy.You will find wire as heated will mold to the rail...............you get the feel after a couple of goes. Sure you may melt a tie or deface them  once in a while but once painted and ballasted it fades away. So dont get your wires mixed up.Use old box car and mark R for red one side and b for black on the other.............follow it around and you wll not get your reds and blacks mixed up. For a neat power tester take aligator clip wire pair and cut in 1/2 or so, shorten them to say 6 to 8 inches add an LED and a resistor to one leg wrap with tape or shrink tubing and use that as a handy do i have power by cliping to rails. Use a 1k resistor. For DCC i i use a bi polar LED i think for straight Dc you could use regular LED. Such a handy tool to have and a trouble shooting tool for sure.I actually just had 3 days under the layout............stiff neck and a sore but!I tested as i went along especially the quarter test for instant shorting to the command.Remember dont loop the main buss back on itself.If your command is center of layout break the run into two like T..............the shortest route to your destination maybe a T type Buss...........so if a circle dont go al the way around in one direction split it down the middle and go left and right of the command.No looping back...........two dead ends.Steve

Think about it house wire is put into place and left.................even in a electrical box a novice has a hard time working with it. Ever notice how hard the wire has become over time when you have to change a plug or switch. Whats easier to nick and break a single strand or multiple strands?. Would you rather work with stiff wire or plyable wire?Big question is how you tie into your buss..............chances are out of all the feeders your going to splice into your solid wire buss you are  going to nick the wire sometime when removing the insulation. A nick in solid wire results in it breaking...................note when stripping solid house wire when attaching to plugin or switch if the strippers nick the wire and you bend the wire or twist on a connector the wire will snap.I have a small layout 17 by 13 wired with spools of automotive 14 gauge wire main buss and 18 gauge feeders.This wire is some of the softest cased wire i have seen ,very plyable and a joy to work with.I use 3m IDC or suitcase connectors with feeders every length of track and every leg of Peco insul frog switches. The room is a ground level room same as any other room in house................no temperature or humidity issues and rock solid bench work.It works great.If you like solid wire thats great but if starting out consider the fact that the benefits of stranded wire far outway solid wire. Nothing wrong with solid wire if used as intended but note even wall thermostats and most electrical items all have stranded wire for ease of use and less chance of breaking............i dont know how they compare on electrical carrying current.Like many aspects of the hobby we all have our own way of doing things......whatever works for you and your comfortable with.That being said please consider stranded wire on your layout if starting out.The spools of automotive wire are easy to work with and as i say very plyable and there is an aray of colors for you to keep things oprganised and seperated. Talking house wire i did run a loop around fasia of layout of 120 volt plugins attaching to legs..................this loop has a master switch with light.Everything layout is plugged into this loop of plug ins................when the lighted switch is off everything on layout is off.................nothing left on and peace of mind all is off and safe.The lighted switch really helps as a reminder. Steve

Thanks Thomas! I was thinking maybe that but thought i should ask first. Thanks steve,..............so minimum 30 dollars to fix trucks plus  30 for cylinder plus S and H should just about kill the slush fund. The truck parts i need maybe i will just take them off new units when they arrive  as i just sweated out the NWSL procedure on gear replacements.That was a killer.Those universals should slide off???.Steve

Thanks Thomas.Ok i follow that but how do you get to the two side screws to remove cylinder.............unless you squeeze between the rods with small screw driver............that looks chancy unless the rods slip off. Doesnt seem right tring to slide screw driver between the rods to reach the two screws which are alos supplied with replacement cylinder.Maybe i am missing something here.Thanks steve

Ok Sid! Looking at my Shay how do you get to the two screws holding on cylinder?. Not sure how to tackle that. I might bite the bullet and oderc ylinder too!.Thanks Steve

On another note a flywheel is probably only as good or helpfiull as its neighbouring components..............motor, drive , gears etc. Seems tome you could put a gold plated flywheel in some locos and it wouldnt make a difference on performance!