I did tear it up, I cut the floor loose with a exato Knife, the floor is good to go with the new shell, but the Bachmann is good for the scrap pile. I needed some more scrap
for my gondolas any way.

I picked up a Bachmann USRA 0-6-0 and decided to change it. I shortened a a old  Atlas IB 0-8-0 boiler and am mounting it on the 0-6-0 frame also took a spare spectrum
tender floor and put the Atlas tender shell on it .I will post some pictures when I get it done. Largest 0-6-0 I ever seen, since the boiler was only  shortened between the stack and 1st dome the fire box is huge,but too hard to fix now.This is a fun engine to work on and has a lot of kit bashing potential.

By the way the tender was from a  spectrum 2-8-0 and had a plastic floor that  seemed  to be glued to the the shell, had to be cut it off,but is all wheel pick up with
needle point contacts. I thought all spectrum's had metal floors. 

some body told me to use comet cleaner and a soft wood stick to rub the lettering. I have used this method  on may be 8 engine and cars and have been happy with the results so far.The only problem I found is that it leave a slight shinny spot on bare plastic. Only my results you need to test for yourself.

Sorry forgot to mention to make a wet paste out of the comet then rub the lettering a bit then rinse check and repeat if needed. 

Like I mentioned I burned out the light.I tested the connections on the engine with power until I found the one that ran the motor.Because the light is LED it can not take full track voltage you might disconnect it before testing the connections.

looks very good, great work. I think it is a Bachmann H4 with a different shell.If so did you have to remove some metal from the frame.

Can we see a photo with out the shell?

Thanks RGW 

I had  a similar problem after removing the shell (see post ,another J question)it was a intermittent shorting of the wires which had cracked the varnish and frayed.when I dissembled the engine and separated the wires on the test bench it ran fine.

I took my J apart to give it a Milwaukee Hiawatha paint scheme(yes I know, no Js on the Milw,but it's my layout) in removing the shell  I frayed and broke 1 or 2 wires,I tried to solder them back, it very hard and I ended up sending full voltage to the LED light and fried it.The problem is the connections on the engine are extremely close together and it is easy to solder 2 different ones together.
So I just removed all the wires and soldered  2 new ones,works fine on DC.

Bachmann are you going to release the 2-8-8-4 in n scale?

Maybe this has been cover before,but is there plans for Bachmann to produce the HO 2-8-8-4 in n scale .There is many other engines that could be build on the same chassis DM&IR , NP and maybe others  GN ?

I know they sell many but ,maybe they could sell more.If UP restores and  runs a bigboy again athern will probable sell a few more of there model bigboys.

I believe that 611 would need some rebuilding and to be re certified  to run again.

Just a crazy idea for Bachmann  .Help get #611 (class j 4-8-4) running again .Maybe you would  sell a lot more of N and HO J's.
Then even modern day layouts would have a excuse to run one. 

By the way I love the N scale J,runs great and pull over 70 cars.

I model the milwaukee road and I have 2 N&W Js (newer release great engines) one is painted up in Milw colors I also have
2 trix K4s  one dummy undec and one in pennsy colors re-motored .These do not fit with the Milw 1955-1965 but I have a short line that is cooperation with the Milw.
so I can run what I want , they painted there engines in milw colors.  I also run a Y3 mallet and 2 bachmann 2-6-6-2s
This is my story and I am sticking to it.   Yes I will run other railroads loco on my layout   

I am using Kato unitrack now not to realistic for HOn30 but works well,but maybe I will need build another small layout in the future. 

Bachmann has made some On30 locomotives and cars that models of  3 foot gauge trains but run on HO track which is 30".I was saying the same could be done in HO with n scale track. So the track is 6" under scale, but many people model Maine 2 foot trains using On30 or HOn30 which is 6" over scale from the prototype.To many this is a acceptable solution for lower cost and ease of layout building. 

Since Bachmann has made narrow gauge 3 foot gauge (Denver Rio Grande) and the like that run on HO scale track that is only 30"
could the same thing be done in HO that runs on N scale track.However it  is sorta fun modeling something that is uncommon.I am
a N scaler with a large layout but my son is building a small display HOn30 layout and we have enjoyed kitbashing engines and cars.