Bachmann has been selling engines with simplified versions of the Tsunami sound decoder for quite a while now, and those decoders aren't available separately. I suspect the maker of the decoders included in the deal with Bachmann that the decoders they supply to Bachmann will only be used in Bachmann engines. I'm sure they'd want you to buy one of their regular Tsunamis if you want to add sound to a non-sound equipped engine.

Spectrum is Bachmann's "top of the line" for train products. The Silver Series products are maybe a bit less detailed etc. I guess in Olympic medal terms, Spectrum would be "gold" and Silver Series would be "silver". 

Quote from: MarkInLA on November 16, 2012, 07:54:16 PM
So, I understand correctly that no sound is on board as yet with new S2 ..? If so, it looks as if all S's will never have sound due to shape/size of unit..I guess one could have a dummy trailer or always coupled to say, a gondola with a 'load' in middle...I have a now mothballed' analog Proto S1 I could add a decoder to. But, I'm only interested in locos with sound now..I don't want to work that hard...Mark

No reason you couldn't add a sound decoder and speaker yourself. A lightboard replacement decoder takes up the same space as the light board it replaces, so takes up no more space. Then you just need to find a spot in the body or cab for a 1/2" by 1/4" speaker and enclosure. A lot of things in DCC (and model railroading in general) seem hard at first, but turn out to be pretty easy once you try it.

28mm shouldn't be too big, it's about 1". Many recent HO steam engines have an opening in the tender floor for such a speaker. The tender shell acts as the enclosure.

Quote from: Len on November 25, 2012, 11:43:43 AM
The 'why' of 30" gauge is simple, ever since home computers became commercially available the "1/2" and "1/4" keys typewriters and Wang Word Processors used to use have disappeared. Which made it harder to specifiy the correct Xn2-1/2 foot gauge (Where X=O/S/HO/TT/N/Z) in publications, so it got 'shorthanded' into Xn30 inch gauge.

Well, the problem there is On3 and On30 were in common usage many decades before PCs were available. Kalmbach Publications (MR, Trains) takes the stand that since On2 and On3 are in feet, On30 would mean 30 feet instead of 30 inches, so they use On2-1/2 for "two and a half feet". 

Generally, everyone else (including Bachmann) uses On30 and aren't confused by it.  

Back in 'the olden days' someone worked out that the then-new HO scale standard gauge track worked out to be about 30" in US O scale (where 1/4" = 1 foot). This meant narrow gaugers could use HO trucks and engine chassis in creating O narrow gauge models, instead of having to build those from scratch themselves.

Bachmann introduced their On30 line about 15 years ago or so, and it created an easy way for modellers to get into narrow gauge, since the trains could run on standard HO track like Bachmann's E-Z track, rather than having to fiddle with O narrow-gauge flex track, cork roadbed, ballast etc.

I think from looking at the Bachmann catalogue that all their HO engines will go around a 22" radius curve, but I think only a few of the smaller ones will go around an 18" radius.

I'm currently building an around-the-walls layout in my basement, which will have 28-30" radius curves, but have temporarily set up an oval of 22" radius "click track" as a break-in / test track. The only things I can't run on it are my BLI 2-10-4 and my Walthers passenger cars, both of which need 24" radius.

It's pretty easy to add a decoder to an Atlas engine. I have Atlas engines dating back to the 1990's, and all have the motor isolated from the chassis. Just remove the lightboard and use one of the several available lightboard - replacement decoders. If you do a sound decoder, like Tsunami, all you have to do is find a spot for a 1/2" by 1" oval speaker and enclosure. I have two Atlas GP-7s and an RS-1 that were converted to DCC/sound that way with no problems.

I think it's been a long time since you'd see a quarantined building, maybe the 1950's?? I don't know that there would be much external evidence except notices posted on all the doors.

You could take a sharp hobby knife or single-edged razor blade and cut plastic window glazing in a jagged way, so it looked like a broken window. Perhaps a few small pieces on the sidewalk or porch representing broken glass.

You could have a front door partially knocked off it's hinges, so say it was still attached at the bottom but loose on the top and leaning at an odd angle.

The "bulk" price is usually what a hobby shop would have to buy - i.e., they can't just order say 3 pieces of track, they'd have to buy a box of 10 or 12 or whatever.

Well if you stopped the engine with the side rod (that connects the drivers to each other) all the way down on one side, the eccentric on that side should not be pointing straight up. It should be leaning a bit towards the front of the engine.

I'd put the rods back in as they were, and then check all of them carefully to see if any other rods are slightly bent in and brushing against another rod.

The info I've seen has had Bachmann using their N-scale F unit as a stand in to show what the HO one will look like, and that engine was in the black and gray freight paint scheme.

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products/images/uploads/81261.jpg

22" radius make a circle 44" wide, so should fit on a 4-foot wide table (which is 48" wide).

Be sure that everything is OK on the engine. Many Spectrum engines have an apron behind the cab that connects the engine and the tender. With the engine on the track, you should be able to reach in with a pencil or screwdriver and raise the apron all the way up. If not, it could be catching on the 'lip' on the front of the tender, lifting up the engine and making it derail more easily.

Some Spectrum steam engines have an "apron" that on the real engine allows the fireman to go from the engine cab to the tender (the car with coal and water right behind the engine.) When you put the engine on the track, be sure the apron is all the way up. Then when all the rails are on the track, reach in (I usually use a small screwdriver or pencil) and lower the apron. If you don't do it that way, the apron can get stuck under the "lip" at the front of the coal tender, and lift up the front wheels of the tender, making it derail.