Although On30 is 1:48th scale, it is not much bigger than HO because narrow gauge railroad equipment was not as big as standard gauge equipment in real life. There is not anything to gain from switching from HO to On30, it is harder to find, more expensive, and if you need help, you may have trouble finding a knowledgeable person locally. Unless narrow gauge is what you are looking for, stick to HO or if you want larger (and more durable) buy a Williams O gauge set.

Quote from: DoubleDAZ on January 02, 2011, 01:05:27 PM
Besides, I bought it mostly for my 4-yr old granddaughter and all she's interested in doing right now is turning the speed dial to maximum.

This was not the best choice for a set for a 4 year old, furthermore turning the dial up all the way before a locomotive is properly broken in, can cause issues down the road. To break in a loco properly, run it at a medium speed in both directions, switching directions every 15 or 20 minutes. After I properly broke in the loco in the set, it ran great. The key to a good running loco is keeping everything clean, well lubed and have it broken in before any running. Once you over-lube a loco, which is very easy to do, then it is 10 times worse than doing nothing at all. Without seeing your loco in person and what is going on exactly I cannot give any specific advice.

They will not run on 18" radius, stick with 22" radius or greater, the bigger the better.

Remove the fuel tank cover and the screws under the cover.

N scale is very delicate and it is difficult to work on something if you can't see it. Have patience and see if you can't get some pointers from the hobby shop or a local club.

The A unit and B unit are almost exactly the same space-wise and it is just as difficult. What you need is an non-powered/dummy B unit to permanently latch to the A unit(s). This can be an old powered unit with the motor and other parts removed or a dummy with provisions to wire it for pickup, if permanently latched, the wires can go through to one of the A units.

Here is the GP40 HO diagram:
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/dwg/dwgs/H635X_IS005.pdf

Quote from: ericw95 on January 01, 2011, 07:39:30 PM
gotcha, so then could a 4-8-4 navigate a curve arranged in a radius of:
11" radius section-9.75" radius section-11" radius section-9.75" radius section-11" radius section
without too many derailments? I am trying to fit as many switches as I can into a small layout.

Nope, you need to use 11" radius curves, otherwise you will lose a great deal of reliability.

It is a low end DCC loco, not a Spectrum, don't expect a ton.

It is the dummy plug, also know as the jumper plug. If you replace the decoder with the jumpers, the locomotive will operate better on DC, and not require as much power to get moving.

The 4-8-4 has a huge wheelbase which is much larger than the 2-8-0. The 4 lead and trailing wheels also cause issues of tighter radius curves.

Not without modifying the E-Z track or the other track, but if you are comfortable ballasting your track and have cork roadbed that matches the height of the E-Z track roadbed then you can use flex track with it.

Yes, all the sets that come with 22" radius track are that way for a reason. It is because either the loco or passenger cars cannot negotiate 18" radius or anything smaller than 22" radius. Some sets can barely negotiate the 22" radius they come with, like the 4-8-4 from the Overland Limited set seems to reliably negotiate 24" radius or greater, but can (but unreliably) negotiate 22" radius curves.

In general, unsupervised children and electric trains do not go together, at 10-12 years of age, most kids can safely operate an electric train with no or minimal supervision. Before that you would need to constantly keep an eye on him because kids do not always have good judgment and tend to be prone to creating dangerous situations when no one is there, even for a few seconds to watch him.

The Dewitt Clinton & Pegasus, which he said he had have enough trouble as it is on DC, I do not think it would be a good idea especially if he has insulfrog turnouts or has trouble keeping his track and pickups clean (IIRC the pickups have trouble maintaining adequate contact on these locos, unless they have been redesigned to correct this).