I received the Silver series track cleaner today. Of course it immediately went to work on my layout and the results were noticable. One question though, how does one order replacment pads. There is no parts lists or any documentation on how to reorder pads.

Is there a reason why the new 2-6-6-2 with the Vanderbilt tender has a recommended 22" radius and the 2-6-6-2 with the standard tender has a 18" recommended radius?

Is the VC12 tender the same as the "old" medium vandy?

Just reviewed the on line catalogue and was disappointed that the Heavy and Light Mountains are no longer being offered in the Spectrum line in HO.

Hopefully, Bachmann wil re-release the Mountain locomotives again in the future.

Also, the passenger steam sets being offered in the Spectrum steamers are now  restricted to the N&W J, no longer being offered is the Pennsy K4 passenger set or the Connie sets in various roadnames. Those were the train sets I was buying and giving to the young model railroaders in my family and with some of my friends youngsters.

The latest acquisition for my layout arrived today,a Spectrum 4-4-0 with the Tsunami sound. I finished breaking the engine in this afternoon on my test track and then moved it to its new home on the layout.

I am happy to report that the 4-4-0 has no trouble pulling four of the old Rivarossi 60' coaches on the layout which has a 2 1/2 % incline. I thought I may need to add weight but that was not necessary.  My other passenger engine a Spectrum 4-6-0  will also pull four of the  60' coaches without any slippage.

The decoder needed no adjustments right out of the box. I am impressed with the quality of sound, sure beats my older BLI and Roundhouse steam units.   

Mr. Bach Man, a question for you.

Now that the Doodlebug and coach have been released will the coach be available seperately and in various names?

Is there consideration for re-releasing the Spectrum Heavyweight passenger car sets?

Please release the Forney locomotive engine in HO scale.

This engine is now available in large scale as well as On30. I certainly would be interested in a couple of these engines if they were available in HO.

I just took delivery of my latest acquisition a Spectrum Shay with sound.

I had previously upgraded another shay with a DCC decoder.  Due to the small space available I  did not even consider adding sound. I, myself would not attempt to add sound to the Shay, I thought I might sometime in the future I might have a professional add sound to a Spectrum Shay.

Came across a great deal on a Spectrum Shay with the sound installed and went for it.

I am amazed at the quality of the Bachmann sound decoder, fantastic sound as far as I am concerned.

I have been lucky with the other Shay as far as the "gear" issue goes.  Does anyone know if Bachmann has addressed the gear issue?  Have  any of the current models have been  reported as experiencing the same gear problems as the earlier production models.
Either way now that NWSL has come up with replacement gearing I am assured of repairs.

I have been buying the various Spectrum steam engines since they first entered the market. Have BLI, IHC, Mantua and Genesis steamers as well and consider the Spectrum engines equal or superior to my other engines.

I just received the only Spectrum steam engine I was missing, the N&W J  4-8-4,  boy what a brute. I was surprised to find it such a large engine.

Once I have finished breaking it in I will be putting it in storage until I add my second level to my layout.  The Tsunami sound decoder certainly has excellent speed control and the sound of course is impressive as well.

I found I just had to fill the roster with all of the various Spectrum engines.

I was recently visitingon of the local model railroaders who is just finishing the trackwork of his layout.  He just bought two of the new 2-8-0's in the new Standard line which recently replaced the Spectrum versions. He also has a couple of the Spectrum 2-8-0's.

I am happy to say that I can see no difference between the two versions of the 2-8-0. Both versions are great running locomotives.

Has anyone swapped the short tender from the 4-4-0 to any other Spectrum steamer?

My active roster consists of the Spectrum 4-4-0, 4-6-0, 2-8-0 and 2-10-0 steam engines.

They are all fine running engines and picking a  favorite is difficult.  But there is just something about the 4-6-0 engines that makes them stand out from the rest. 

They may not be the strongest pullers of the group, but with a bit of extra weight they handle all that I need them to pull.

I recently had the opportunity to visit a couple large model railroad stores and was disappointed that most of the new Spectrum HO engines announced by Bachmann are still not available.

I certainly am wainting to see the new 2-8-0 engine that is the replacement for the Spectrum 2-8-0 as well as the new 2-6-6-2 with the vanderbilt tender and of course the new 0-6-0 tank engine.

Had the engines been available I would have likely bought one of each. At least it was not a total loss I did buy a Heritage 0-6-0 which was marked down for clearance.

I was reading a thread on the Atlas forum about Bachmann and also Kader Industries which is the parent company.

The most interesting comments I found was that the quality of the "Chinese Type" engines sold primarily for the Asian market are considered to be higher in quality than even the Spectrum line of engines sold in North America.

This would certainly explain why my Spectrum 2-8-2 is my best running engine and also has the most added on detail.   

Interesting also is that Kader actually makes most of the other engines marketed by other companies.

I just received two Spectrum Vanderbilt tenders which I forgot were on backorder.

One of the tenders is in the black Spectrum box with the foam insert, the other came in the new red box with the many layered formed plastic insert.

The red box is about four times the size of the old black box, it is hugh for such a small item.

In my opinion the old foam inserts protected the items far better than the hard plastic inserts.

I had thought the new packaging was to be more cost efficient?

Mr. Bach Man would you please confirm if the factory sound equipped steam engines have always had the same series of sound decoders from Soundtraxx with the Tsunami technology?

If Bachmann has used more than one series of sound chips in their factory equipped steam engines how can a purchaser tell which decoder series they are purchasing.?

Are the Spectrum tenders being sold separately are the ready for sound units or would one have to drill out the speaker holes and re-position the PC boards?

I recently received a book based on the mining areas along the BC / US boundary.  (Steam Along the Boundary)

There is an article on the three shays purchased by CPR for their mining lines.  These Shays weight is listed at 124 tons and are rated at 225% and have 40" drivers. That is 1 1/2 times the Bachmann Shay at 80 tons.

The pictures show the engines are very similar to the Spectrum Shays with the exception they have cow catcher pilots installed. 

What are the prototypes for the Bachmann Shay?

. What would the driver size be?

I see that the 2-8-0 is now officially in the Standard product line. The description indicates that it has a 5 pole motor. The Bach Man had indicated sometime ago in this forum that Bachmann had changed the motor to a high effeciency 3 pole motor.

Which motor is in the Standard 2-8-0?  Is it a three pole or a five pole?

I just received my latest Spectrum engine a Heavy Mountain.

There is an additional set of trailing trucks included with the engine.

When did Bachmann start to include extra trailing trucks,?

I have other Specctrum heavy mountains and they did not come with an extra trailing truck.

Has any one added sound to the Medium Vanderbilt tender?

Other than perforating the coal load I see no other way of allowing sound to be heard, not sure what to do with the tender with fuel oil.