Dear Bach-Man,
Are there any plans to make more Midwestern steam engines like the Milwaukee Road S-3 Class 4-8-4's? A class of 10 splendid mixed use engines made in 1944 by ALCO with 4 being modified to be oil burners and sent out west (#'s 262, 263, 267, and 269) while the other 6 (#'s 260, 261, 264,265, 266, and 268 were left as coal burners and stayed in the Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska area pulling not only freight but the Hiawatha Passenger trains. Only 2 survive. The 261 and 265 (the bold and italicized ones listed with the remaining 6 not made oil burners). The 261 almost done with it's 15 year boiler inspection and as of 3 days ago, as of this post, is back on its drivers fresh back from the TVRR who turned the wheels back to a round shape and based out of Minneapolis and the 265 in the Illinois Railroad Museum in Union, IL. Just wanted to know if you had any more Midwestern engines in the works in HO scale.

MilwaukeeRoadfan261

For decals, you can also try woodland scenic's numeral decals. I have used them in the past and they are super easy to apply and they look great.

Might already existing Standard Line engines at some point be offered in a sound-value on board and DCC ready versions as well?

Last I checked, the N&W J was still in production. Just without a few of the road numbers like the 611. The 611 can still be acquired in the set called the Cavalier.

You could try an MRC Universal Steam or Diesel sound decoder but I have heard that they aren't that good. Soundtraxx does offer a wide variety of sound decoders for steam and diesel with various loco-size oriented sound decoder (Small, Medium, Large, SP Articulated, Southern Steam) or various prime mover sound decoders and the Soundtraxx decoders may be expensive but they are worth it. Hope this helps.

You would have to use the sped controller for non-DCC engines and you could run DC engines if you had the EZ-Command 10 address controller but for the sake of the DC engine, the EZ-Command 10 address controller recommended for use with DC engines as it will burn out the motor. So your best bet would be to run the dc engines with the speed controller OR you could send the dc engines to DCCInstalled (also known as White Rose Hobbies) and have them converted to be DCC equipped and you could then use them with your dynamis system. Hope this helps.

I have found ones for athearn streamlined and heavyweight coaches but none for the Bachmann FT. Walthers has none in stock but the last place that has gotten shipments of the heavyweight diaphram 6 pack are Al's Hobby Shop in Elmhusrt, IL and Beckers Model Railroad Supply in New Brighton, MN.

From what I have heard, it isn't a tsunami sound decoder but a PC Board that is instead of having a decoder that plugs into it, the PC Board IS the decoder (for the S4 and FA-A and FA-B units. Not sure about the 2-6-0 though.)

Quote from: Woody Elmore on November 02, 2011, 01:46:41 PM
Jon - you can never have too many engines, or trains. It is an unwritten rule of model railroading. (I'm sure the Bachmann Company would not disagree with the rule.)

I agree. I am ALWAYS looking at new engines that I could get from all companies. Mainly Bachman. I have even looked at getting some Bachmann Branchline engines and coaches and freight cars.

Quote from: jward on October 24, 2011, 04:25:41 PM
the 539 non turbo would be inappropriate for an s4. not only did the s4 and s2 use the turbo 539, the turbo whistle was one of the most distinctive features of the s4. they didn't sound like anything else out there. having grown up around s2s and s4s, i can say that the quickest way not to sell me a sound equipped s4 is to leave the turbo whistle out.

I made that post before I compared what soundtraxx offered compared to what the S2 and S4 had for a prime mover. And it was my PERSONAL opinion from listening to the 5 different (yet for differant variations of the same prime mover [i.e. the 539 Non Turbo/539 Turbo, and the 251 12 Cylinder/251 Super-Charged/251 16 Cylinder]) yet similar sounding prime movers. Plus I have never seen one in action. I would love to though. I love ALCO engines. Later Steam and ALCO diesels mainly.

What Tsunami Sound dcoder will the S-4 have? I personally think the ALCO 539 Non-Turbocharged would sound the best in the S-4.

I have only seen the K-4 in a DCC-Ready and a DCC on-board version. Not yet have I seen a DCC with sound version available anywhere. Where might I be able to find one.

Quote from: richg on October 19, 2011, 12:31:35 PM

Quote from: Royce Wilson on October 19, 2011, 10:51:20 AM
Is there a sufficent market for some real 19th Century motive power? Remember the Colorado Midland 2-8-0 and 4-6-0 made by Hallmark, you can't touch any of those for under $400 if you can find one and what about updating the old time 4-4-0 to a Specturm standards instead of a tender driven growler.come on folks!

Royce

There are a few being made but cannot mention the brand here. I have some of them that are around $100 depending on where you buy them from.
Bachmann only goes back to about 1913 with a couple steamers.
With a motor replacement and fine tuning, the old Bachmann tender drive can be made to run very well. I have done it and made them DCC.

Rich

I have a 4-6-0 from Bachmann in HO that is a 1907 Baldwin C&NW steamer.

You could try ordering a spare body shell from bachmann in the same roadname as your 4-6-0 and swap the body shells. That would be my suggestion for the situation.

I agree. Athearn still produces the Roundhouse line as I think they use it as their line of pre-WWII engines and rolling stock while Athearn is more WWII and later. As far as the web site thing, They will most likely merge the two pages together under the Athearn name since what would be Roundhouse in HO Scale, for example the old-time 2-6-0's and 2-8-0's and various pieces of old-time rolling stock, are sold as Athearn products in N scale. Some of the new Athearn releases like the arched roof coaches and 24' ore cars are based off of the old MDC/Roundhouse molds of the same cars. So even if the Roundhouse name dissapears, the products will still live on under the Athearn name. Either way, both lines of engines and rolling stock are good quality, well made products.