Quote from: ACY on July 16, 2015, 07:39:31 PM

Quote from: MilwaukeeRoadfan261 on July 16, 2015, 12:39:49 PM
I have the Bachmann ALCo S4 with sound and it runs great and sounds great. Yeah it may not be able to pull as much as other HO scale diesels but keep in mind, it is meant to be a switcher and light branchline or industrial switching engine. So about 10 cars with only one locomotive is about normal for what these engines would have handled on the main or on a branch or in industrial work is quite normal. I myself don't haul more than about 10 (11 with a caboose) at a time to make it look a little more realistic.

If you watch the video I posted you will see that it can only pull 5 short cars on a layout with grades. It will get stuck if I attempt to pull even one more car. Unless your rolling stock is grossly underweight and you have a completely level layout, you probably won't be able to pull 10 cars.

My figure of 10 cars (11 if you have a caboose on the tail end) is based on what I have had it pull on my layout on level track as my model railroads haven't had hills. I tried adding a hill once and I decided to scrap the idea as it would have been to steep a grade for any of my engines at the time, and that includes my Bachmann GS-4 and Bachmann C&O 2-8-4 which where my strongest engines at the time and of coarse are still two of my strongest engines.

I have the Bachmann ALCo S4 with sound and it runs great and sounds great. Yeah it may not be able to pull as much as other HO scale diesels but keep in mind, it is meant to be a switcher and light branchline or industrial switching engine. So about 10 cars with only one locomotive is about normal for what these engines would have handled on the main or on a branch or in industrial work is quite normal. I myself don't haul more than about 10 (11 with a caboose) at a time to make it look a little more realistic.

I have one of the Spectrum DCC On Board version and one of the newer Standard line version and both are nice runners. However the Standard line version could benefit from a better DCC decoder. I would recommend something like even just a plain Soundtraxx DCC (no sound) decoder. The 8 pin 2 function DCC decoder should do the trick. I use one in my Bachmann Spectrum DMIR 2-10-2 and it now starts on speed step 1 on 128 speed step mode with a soundtraxx DCC (no sound) decoder versus speed step 20-ish with the standard Bachmann decoder in 128 speed step mode.

I have one of the DCC on-board 2-8-4 Berks and since the day I got it have never once had any trouble getting it to pull around 30-35 cars on nearly level track (the floor of the room I had my model railroad at the time was slightly angled towards the outside of the house so one side of the layout was a little higher up than the other). And that is with out any added weight as I have never even bothered putting any additional weight in any of my locomotives.

I would recommend a Soundtraxx TSU-AT1000 ALCo 244 Prime Mover sound decoder for the RS-3 as that is the prime mover that particular locomotive had fitted when new way back when. As far as where to put the speaker, some newer Bachmann diesels have holes and a space for the speaker in the fuel tank beneath the model. Others don't have such features and the speaker would the have to be stuffed into the shell of the model (I myself in such a situation would opt for under the exhaust stack or one or two of the radiator fans).

Quote from: sedfred on June 01, 2015, 11:46:20 AM
also how long does anyone think the 2-8-0 and 2-6-0 will last? I WANT THEM ALL! so many lovely locomotives but so little money! another gorgeous locomotive i would love to own is the 4-6-0, i don't think i ever will though. also i started a previous topic about the 2-10-0 and if it could be brought back, i got a reply from yardmaster, here it is: "There are no plans to bring it back at the moment. Perhaps sometime in the future..." do the periods at the end imply something? the way it is written makes it seem that way!

I wouldn't know about the 2-6-0 personally as I don't own one. However I do have 2 of the 2-8-0. One is a Spectrum line Rock Island one as well as a Standard line Union Pacific one and the Spectrum line one runs like a champ and has served as a reliable member of my railway for about 6 years and continues to run like new. The standard line version however is a good engine like the Spectrum version but it could benefit from a soundtraxx decoder in terms of slow speed performance. I however expect them both to last for a long time. My dad had an old smoke unit fitted Reading 2-8-0 from bachmann from around the 1970's or 1980's and it spent around ten or fifteen years in a box and when I discovered it in a box in the basement and placed it on the track and supplied power to the old motor, it came to life and worked well. I made the mistake of trying to get it to pull a train that was too heavy for the old engine though.

Quote from: RAM on April 19, 2015, 04:54:59 PM
How about something that most modelers can run.  A nice 0-6-0, 2-6-2, or maybe a small 4-6-2.

For the 2-6-2 idea. It would be nice to have a non-"USRA" (I have USRA in air quotes as the Bachmann "USRA" 2-6-2 never existed in real life just like it's fellow "USRA" 2-6-0. There was however a USRA 0-6-0 tender engine). I myself wouldn't mind a Northern Pacific 2-6-2 such as T class #2435 (which is preserved in the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, MN and is the only remaining Northern Pacific engine of this wheel arrangement since there are a good two or three dozen 2-6-2's preserved throughout the US) or even a Great Northern 2-6-2 or Soo Line 2-6-2 to in a similar manner as the Northern Pacific 2-6-2, to add a couple more Upper Midwestern/Pacific Northwest area road names to the line up of steam locomotives from the different manufacturers. As far as a logging version though, I wouldn't mind seeing a Saddle Tank one as I rode behind one on the Black Hills Central in South Dakota a few years ago and NO ONE makes an engine like that in any scale. Here is a picture of the 2-6-2ST I am talking about.
http://steamlocomotive.com/prairie/pt104-fellner.jpg
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/pictures%5C37514%5CP-3107.JPG

You never know. It may become available awhile down the road if it turns out to be a good seller over in the UK. We have the original Dynamis as that was made as a joint effort by Bachmann US, Bachmann Europe (Bachmann UK, and Lilliput) and ESU which is a German Model railroad manufacturer that makes only DC and DCC systems and DCC/DCC Sound decoders. Most people here in the states use a Digitrax, MRC, or ESU system.

Quote from: GN.2-6-8-0 on April 18, 2015, 01:06:39 PM

Quote from: union pacific 4014 on April 18, 2015, 12:08:40 PM
make 4-12-2    all  tho are brass and cost $$$$$

Soooo' the one just brought out by BLI doesn't count? Lol

Or the one made by MTH a couple years ago?

From the Articulated engine front, I would love to see some other types of Yellowstone engines other than the B&O EM-1. For example the DMIR M3 and M4 classes (of which the ONLY 3 remaining 2-8-8-4s in North America are DMIR M3 class #225 and 227 and M4 class #229) or the Northern Pacific originals.

For the Bachmann engines you listed, any sound decoder will do (usually people will go with a Soundtraxx TSU-1000 light steam decoder since it is only a 4-4-0 but you could also use a TCS WOW sound Steam decoder or even a Digitrax or ESU sound decoder as long as you have the decoder programmer that matches the brand of decoder. In other words, the Digitrax programmer with the digitrax decoder, and the ESU programmer with the ESU decoder) as long as you have the NMRA 8-Pin to 9-Pin JST wiring harness for the decoder otherwise you could solder the bare wire ends directly to the decoder socket on the PCB in the tender. As for the Mantua 2-6-0, I can't give any advice there as I do not own one of those nor have I ever fitted one with a sound decoder because of the fact I don't have one.

The pre-production model looks good. Can't wait to see what the production model will look like with all the details and a nice coat of paint. Any pics of the center headlight Union Pacific version?

You could also see if Amazon still has some floating around there.

The 2-8-2 is looking good. I hope that the USRA Heavy version will eventually be made as well since the Heavy version would be able to use the same chassis, wheels and tenders as the Light version and would only need a new boiler shell.

Quote from: Trainman203 on April 01, 2015, 05:37:13 PM
Milwaukee, when you study railroad and steam locomotive history, you see that until  "super-power" engines (4 wheel trailing truck supporting a big firebox that could keep the engine supplied with steam at high speeds) were developed by Lima in 1924, freights powered by 2-8-2s and 2-10-2s just never ran above 35 MPH much.  It was highway competition and customer schedule demands that created high speed freight engines.  Of course they were  too late, the embryonic diesel  was already present by then.  Superpower combined with the depression and WW II probably extended steam power's life by 10 years ..... long enough for me to see it, yee-haw!!!!!!

I know. I was just using the DMIR as an example since it was a local-ish roadname for me as I live in Minnesota (other than the Milwaukee Road, Northern Pacific, Great Northern, CB&Q, Rock Island, C&NW, CMStP&O, and many others) and the various wheels arrangements I listed as random, yet realistic, examples of what happened with steam after diesels took over the main freight and passenger trains in as short an explanation as possible without making it sound overly complicated. I of coarse left out examples of High Speed Freight engines like the Challengers and Big Boys (which were both designed to work nearly mile long frieght trains at around 50 MPH over Sherman Hill or up to 70 MPH on level, wide open main line), however the Big Boys were exclusive to the Union Pacific while the Challengers, like most wheel arrangements that were used here in the US such as the Northern Pacific, SP&S, Great Northern (as they had purchased two challengers from the SP&S but sold them back to the SP&S a few years later), the Rio Grande, and Clinchfield in addition to the Union Pacific, not all railroads used them in fast freight as on the Clinchfield they were used for the heavy coal and heavy freight trains in that area. And I can see local freight trains running at around 35 to 40 MPH on the major Class 1 railroads, but the DMIR being an ore hauling railroad it used 35 MPH speed limits for safer running and shorter stopping distance just in case, and the speed limit extended to passenger trains on the line as well.