Alright, the other Connie arrived and, after trying it's tender with the defective one, it is indeed the Locomotive that is bad, not the Decoder. Ah well. THe real shame is that the Old ones cost more to repair than the new (standard) ones.

No doubt he was being helpful and I certainly appreciate it.

Regarding ebay, personally, I have found good success on ebay, providing you take care to not what you buy (not that you don't get duds too) Unfortunately, Unless Bachmann does another run of these (hint hint) Previously owned is the most likely place to find one.

Indeed they are, In reality, my search for one is to replace my old one that met with an unkind fate at the hands of a third party. The SY's Run really smoothly and pull a decent load. The most remarkable thing to me was the detail level. As Pacificnorthern said, These Locomotives are more detailed than the NA spectrum line. Having seen the real 142, It is among my favorite Locomotives. One unique part of the design was that The tender and Locomotive were not separable without disassembling (the drawbar and wires were completely encased) So no plugs to worry about.


Also, have seen a few modelers that Import SY and QJ Locomotives from china and rebuild them to look american here because of the Mechanism.

I don't know about the J's but I have heard good things about the Berks, I don't own one myself due to track radius but I hear they run quite nicely.

As said above, NCE systems tend to be the most powerful, you can do a LOT more with them, the difference comes at a cost.

It is true that Most manufacturers have starter sets
NCE has the Powercab
Bachmann The EZ command
Digitrax The Zephyr
and more.

All of the above have their perks. THe NCE system can be found at a reasonable price if you look  I don't care for it personally because I prefer a Knob Throttle to buttons but that may not matter to you. The Zephyr is another good one, stronger than the EZ command, Weaker than the NCE system, a happy medium.

In the end, do research on different Systems and choose what works best for you.

Hello, Does anyone know of a place that may have older Bachmann Spectrum Locomotives? I am trying to find one of the NYSW SY 2-8-2 Locomotives but as they are out of production, I have had no luck. Of  course I monitor the Ebay (Passed on the last one I saw Due to it being unlettered, Regretting it now) So I figured, might as well ask.

Having been considering the switch to DCC myself, i have extensively looked at various systems. The EZ command is, to me,  a great place to start (I  may even do so) A nice feature it has is that you can hook up a DC power pack to it so a kid can drive one locomotive while you do another and so on. It is limited in what it can do but it is a nice starting place.

To be honest, it depends on what you plan to get. If you are going DC, A small starter set may be cheaper for the locomotive and cars, than individually, although you will want to not use the track, you still get a power pack, locomotive, and 2-4 cars.

While it is true that the Locomotives are usually "standard line" They are decent for children. The 0-6-0 for steam and the F7 for Diesel I have found to be relatively durable and run alright.
If you DO want a higher quality locomotive, I would recommend The  Spectrum (now called standard) 2-8-0 for Steam or SD-45 for Diesel. Be aware however that, while they have a lot more detail, they are much easier for kids to damage.

One more thing, keep the following in mind: Smaller Radius Track can't have bigger locomotives, and two: If you run them on a table, leave a few inches between the track and the table edge. Children love to send Trains fast and it would be a shame for them to "take the plunge" and break.

Best of luck and  I am glad you are sharing this with your children!

I think the biggest issue you are running into is that Locomotives in the North east were smaller that those on the west coast and, to a slightly smaller extent, the south. Because they tended to follow the general routes of earlier line, a lot of the area was limited in what it could take. That is why the NYC's largest Steamers (the Niagara's) which still required modifying some of the trackage (turntables especially) were smaller than the UP FEF, SP GS-4/5/6, NW J class, ect. Some of these railroads did make the changes to accommodate larger equipment, some deemed in not cost-effective, especially once diesels started showing up.

I found one here, no idea if it is the right one though. Site says it focuses on 1970's - 1980's  era Bachmann so it seems likely.

http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/bachmannhoscalelocomotives/id59.html

Try to make a quarter circle with the curves. In 18 inch radius, a quarter circle is 3 pieces. In 22 inch, 4 pieces.

The ACL had them according to this article, not many but it is something.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1787&dat=19380408&id=oiAhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hmQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3988,611002

While certainly true, The closest of those options is over 30 miles away so if i were to do so, I'd want to make sure that the problem was that the decoder was set wrong, not that the Loco is bad before making the trip.

PRR had some, as did the Atlantic Coast Line. Not sure but i think UP had a few as well.

The largest CNR Locomotives I could find were the 2-10-2 T-4's unfortunately, and they all had 12 wheeled tenders.

Canadian pacific had the T1 selkirks, 2-10-4's But once again they used 12 wheeled.