Jake

The Mantua line is now being produced by Model Power.

The loco's you are interested in are available at many online
hobby shops, and possibly at your LHS.

They are currently available.

Tim Anders
Souderton, Pa

Matt

The guard rail will be of no help except scenically.

The problem is with your loco, the truck on the short hood end
is limited in it's rotation, that's why it derails.

Remove the shell, and looking straight down on it, see if you can
determine what limits the truck rotation.

You may be able to make some adjustment to allow more movement.

Tim Anders
Souderton, Pa

Gene

You can use NCE & Digitrax boosters together, the command stations
all use a different command protocal between the throttles and command
stations.  Each one is the best depending on your point of view.

Jack

I forgot to mention LENZ, their system 90 and system 100 are comparable to
the mid-size systems of digitrax & NCE.

Tim Anders
Souderton, Pa

Gene

The noise filter goes at the very end of the buss.
If you have more than one buss put one at the end of each.

At 50ft run, you may want to consider adding a booster at about 25ft.
It depends on how heavy the load will be near the end of the buss run.

Jack

The Digitrax Zephyr and NCE powercab are directly comparible, as are the
Digitrax Super Chief and NCE Power Pro. The Digitrax systems are more
technically oriented, whereas  the NCE systems are more user friendly.

CVP has two systems, Easy DCC & RailCommand, Easy DCC is NMRA
compatible and can run any decoder as the above systems.
RailCommand requires it's own decoders.

MRC Prodigy is also worth concidering, but lacks expandability

The rest aren't worth looking at.

Tim Anders
Souderton, Pa

Gene

You may have toreset the BLI to the as delivered settings.
That has been my experience with them.

The problems you have experienced with your system are not new
but are not well documented.

The problem is noise on the track buss, it can cause wacky operation
of the decoders, (usually temporary) and can sometimes cause a loco
to forget it's programming.

A good fix is to terminate the track buss (s) with a RC circuit as follows.

At the end of each buss pair , attach a 100 ohm 1w resistor in series with
a 0.01 ufd 100v ceramic capacitor, between the legs of the buss.

Noise can also occur on the control buss in extreme cases, (very long
runs).

The power buss is usually the guilty party.

My E-Mail is in my profile if you have more questions.

Tim Anders
Souderton, Pa

Stan

It is probably an ash collector.

They are found on many small steam loco's.

Tim Anders
Souderton, PA

Bo

The outside bearing truck refers to the axle bearing, outside the wheel
or inside the wheel.

Tim Anders
Souderton, PA

 J

The NCE PowerCab system is compatible with all Decoders From any
manufacturer.  The PowerCab system is a full featured system.

As for a decoder for the 2-8-0 check this site.

http://www.tcsdcc.com/decoderpics/Bachman%20N%20scale%202-8-0/bachman_n_scale_2_8_0.htm

Sound might be possible with one of the LokSound decoders.
They make one of the smallest sound decoders available.  (Expensive)

Tim Anders
Souderton, Pa

Bill

PRR lines west had the headlight mounted at the center of the Smokebox.

Tim Anders
Souderton, Pa

Mark

Before you paint anything, completely assemble and test run
the chassie.

Disasemble and clean with vinegar, the acid in the vinegar will
cause a slight etching of the zamak parts.

Zamak oxidizes rapidly causing the paint to flake off.  So as soon
as you get the parts cleaned and dryed, Paint.

Use a primer on the zamak parts, Floquil gray primer has always
worked well for me.

As for the color, unless you plan to repaint the entire loco, try to
match the superstructure color.  Engine Black ?

Tim Anders
Souderton, Pa

Good Morning Bob

Micro-Mark sells decal paper in clear and white,
for inkjet and laser printers.

Tim
Souderton, PA

Thanks Stephen

Well done I really enjoyed your excellent photo's

Tim Anders
Souderton, Pa

Hi Fellows

The red lead applied to PRR & GN cab roofs and tender decks is to
prevent or at least slow down corrosion.

The cinders from anthracite burning loco's contain small particles of
unburned coal.

When wet coal releases acid, the red lead is not affected by this.

The cab roof and tender deck have a tendancy to collect the cinders,
that is why these are the only surfaces painted with red lead.

BTW red lead is not red, it is a reddish orange.

The color variations seen on the prototype are due to the local
shops using what ever is on hand, often times mixing other colors
of regular paint with the red lead.

Hope this helps.

Tim
Souderton, Pa

Rich

"TCS" Train Control Systems, makes decoders that will fit in the
Keystone 44 ton'r.  The keystone loco has a "NWSL" drive, a very
precision drive, probable the best drive ever put in an H0 44 ton'r.

Just make sure the motor brushes are isolated from the frame.

Go for the DCC.

Tim Anders
Souderton, Pa

Ek

A poor conection at a rail joint acts like a resistor.

An analogy of a resistor is a pressure relief valve on a water or steam line.

At the input of the line is a given pressure lets say 2lb, in the line is a relief
valve (resistor) set for 1lb.

If you try to draw more than 1lb out of the line, the valve will open and release the excess pressure, limiting the pressure to 1lb.

Does this help you understand about poor connections ?

Tim Anders
Souderton. Pa