My undecorated 2-10-0 came with all the extra parts to assemble any of the available roadnames offered by Bachmann.  It came with two sets of tender truck frames, two smokebox fronts, I think 4 different headlights (2 high, 2 low), 4 different backup lights, two bells, and the doghouse.

Thank you.

wtierce, I am aware of the new Climaxes.  I would like to get a second geared loco at some point in the future, whether it be another Shay, a Climax, or finding a Heisler.

A little more progress.

Been working slow and steady on the foam terrain.  Coming along nicely I think so far.  Also, ballasted all of the track, except what will be inside tunnels.

Upcoming projects are to power turnout frogs to hopefully cure my loco stalling issue and, of course, keep working on the terrain.  Will need to build some trestles soon as well.

I am using the Walthers turntable on my layout also.  I operate it with my DCC system with a decoder to power the drive mechanism and an auto-reversing unit to change track polarity.  When I was still using DC control I had it wired as Jonathan instructed.  I had a momentary switch to operate drive mechanism, though I used my power pack instead of a separate power source, and a DPDT switch wired to change track polarity.

I have been experiencing a similar problem with my Tsunami-equipped Spectrum steam locos.  I also have this problem with my Proto 2000 SD7's and Athearn F7's, all equipped with Soundtraxx DSD decoders.  I have Atlas #6 turnouts and all of my locos will stall intermittently, but always at the frog.  I do have a few #4 turnouts as well, but they have not been a problem.  I noticed that the frogs were slightly higher than the railheads on all of my #6 turnouts by approximately 1/64", checking with a straight edge laid across the turnout at the frog.  This was causing the wheels of my locos to lift from the rails and lose power.  I also searched the Atlas forum and found others with this problem.  My fix was to use a flat file to level the frog with the rails.  This has significantly helped the problem, but not completely cured it.  I think the guardrails may be the rest my problem as they were a little wide when checked with an NMRA gauge.  I haven't had an opportunity to test my hypothesis as of yet. 

For what it's worth, I was in the same predicament when I bought my 2-10-0 Decapod a few months back.  I wanted an undecorated version and liked the doghouse, but it is only shown with the Frisco roadname.  I went ahead and ordered the undecorated version, expecting to have to do without the doghouse or buy one seperately later on.  Much to my surprise, it came with all the necessary parts to detail any of the available roadnames.  Included was two smokebox fronts (for high or low headlights), several different head and backup lights, a different set of tender truck frames, and the doghouse.  The 2-10-2 could be packaged the same way.

I installed a micro tsunami in my Shay and am pretty happy with it.  I adjusted the chuff rate CV so that it would chuff about 3 times per crankshaft revolution when running at slow speed.  At higher speeds it fall out of sync, but isn't that noticable since the crankshaft is turning faster.  It could probably be fixed with more CV adjustment, but I haven't been bored enough to sit and monkey with it.

Thank you.

When I was researching how people were doing their foam scenery, all I saw was the use of the 2" thick foam sheets.  The thicker foam, I think, kind of forces you to build the solid shapes.  Not only is the thinner foam easier to cut (only need a utility knife), but being able to do the strips seems a lot more controllable and less wasteful.  Instead of having a big piece to whittle down a little at a time to make fit, all I have are a few V-shaped pieces where I've notched to make the strip curve.  And as I mentioned, I don't use near as much material.  I figured I would have needed at least 7 sheets to do the terrain on my layout with the solid method and possibly more.  Right now I'm thinking I won't even use more than 2 sheets.  I don't think it builds as fast as using the thicker foam, but I like that it makes me take my time and allows me to step back and check what I'm doing.

Here are a few progress pics.

Started by building the plywood base for my logging spur track.  Bought some foam sheets to start forming terrain.  All my local Lowe's carried was 1/2"x4'x8' so that's what I got.  Also decided to use what I call the strip method instead of making solid forms.  I find it easier to work with the smaller strips as opposed to trying to cut a larger piece to fit a certain area.  I haven't used nearly as much as I thought I would use either.  With what I've done so far, I've only used not even half of a 4'x8' sheet.  Its fairly rigid with the support ribs I added underneath as well.  I'm waiting on a turnout to finish the trackwork and some tunnel portals and retaining walls to build into the terrain.  Should have them in the mail in the next few days.







I also got around to decaling my steam locos.  The 2-6-6-2 and 2-10-0 are decaled for my fictitious Silver Creek RR and the Shay is decaled for the Silver Creek Logging Co.

Thanks Doneldon, I will consider that.  Still have much planning, research, and decision-making to do.

Thanks for the suggestion Jay.  At some point I plan to add a backdrop of some sort and the loop tracks near the front of the layout will be beneath scenery.  So far I have been fairly lucky with my trackwork as far as having derailment issues, though that isn't to say accidents don't happen.  I'll do what I can to prevent them taking a dive.

I basically did the yellowbonnets just as a novelty and conversation piece.  Since seeing them in the MR article years ago, thought they looked like a fun project.  The yellowbonnets were my first attempt at painting and decaling a prototypical paint scheme.

I agree, they are nice to look at.  Not sure which is correct either, nonetheless, they are close enough for the likes of me.

I did incorrectly call out the MR issue I referenced.  Should be the June 1999 issue, written by Gary Hoover.  Previous post corrected.

I was going to suggest what CNE Runner already suggested.  I believe Walther calls them the "Boomtown" series.

http://www.atsfrr.net/resources/BackRalph/Yellow.pdf

This was the article I used.  F7A's #315 and #304 and F3B #319 were painted in the yellow bonnet scheme used in Amtrak service.  #304 however was not used on the Texas Chief as it was based out of Barstow.  Unless I grossly misread that article only my Athearn F7B is incorrect as it should be an F3B.

I'm aware of the blue/yellow freight paint scheme and the blue/silver bluebonnet paint scheme.