I would love to see a run of new 4-4-0 Americans and 2-6-0s Moguls since they are still being made, even in less of a quantity, but in new road names, and with major upgrades.   They would have improved metal gears, metal tender trucks and tender frame, a metal cylinder saddle and pony truck, and metal bottom cover plate.  The cab, boiler, and tender, cylinders, wheels and pilots can remain the same.   Steel cowcatchers and normal plain foot boards for the front can be offered on some models.  Onion stacks could be added along with straight stacks, Sunflower stacks, and caps stacks as well as keeping the current diamond and balloon stacks.    The would also have an additional oil tank on some models so there would be a choice between wood, oil, or coal fired engines.

And here would be new road names on both engines.

South Pacific Coast (Number 9 which was a green engine)

North Pacific Coast

Santa Cruz (Can't remember the rest of the road name but the engine is on display in Washington)

West Virginia Pulp & Paper Company

Nevada County

Denver & Rio Grande

Rio Grande Southern

Denver South Park & Pacific

Colorado & Southern

Eureka & Palisade (Improved more accurate version on the 4-4-0, and E&P did have a mogul.)

I would love to see new 4-4-0s and 2-6-0s come out, since I am a huge collector of the large scale Spectrum 4-4-0 and 2-6-0, and they are such simple locomotives to operate and maintain.  They are also very beautiful, graceful, eliegant, and smooth running, so I would love to see new 4-4-0s and 2-6-0s come out, and with mechanical improvements.

The engine is actually the newer side tank engine, but I will look into that.

Hello, I am adding a Phoenix PB-11 sound to my 2-4-2.  Managed to get all the wires in, but am not getting any track power to the unit.   Where might I find a source for basic track power to wire up the unit?

Thank you

The brass AMS coaches of course, and Bachmann's plastic coaches wouldn't be light, but would be no where near as heavy as AMS brass coaches.

The problem with the AMS coaches are the fact that, THEY ARE TOO DARN HEAVY.  Too heavy on a 4-4-0 or 2-6-0.   Neither engine would be able to pull 4 cars on a layout, 1 or 2 might be the max because of the heavy brass used in their coaches.

A Westside Lumber Company 3-truck shay locomotive would be awesome, Westside number 7, or 15 both in different road names. 

Road names

Swane Lumber Company (Westside 7)

Westside Lumber Company (Both Westside 7 and 15)

Sierra Nevada Lumber Company (Westside 15

Butte & Flumes Lumber Company (Westside 7)

Painted unlettered steal cab in both with red and white stripes and plain black (Westside 7)

Painted Unlettered wood cab in both red and white stripes (Westside 15)

The price on here would be about $600-$800 but would sell on the market for as low as $350 to about $400 & $500 as an average, and no doubt be hot sell outs since Westside shays are probably the most popular shays with model railroaders, and numbers 7 and 15 given they are 60 tonners that are nearly identical with the exception of the air pump & dynamo location, and cab construction material.  They would be a great size on layouts, and will be great sellers.   I would buy both no doubt since shays 7 and 15 are my favorites (7 being my favorite today in general and 15 a favorite for when she was at Westside). 

They will probably be the hottest things for many model railroaders.


Also a 45 ton Diesel switch, I really want one on my O scale railroad for my On30 section.  They would be awesome.

It's a mini Catatonk Heisler.  It's a cute little engine, and I just bought mine off ebay from the famous, thefavoritespot, in the Colorado Mining Company.  It'll be a great addition to my 2 shays and Climax engine for my O scale Layout (which features On30 and regular Lionel).  The engine looks great, and I'm really looking forward to recieving mine in the mail in a couple days.

Those would be nice.

We really need some Spectrum Passenger cars.

How would you explain the popularity of the 4-4-0s and 2-6-0s since they are from the 1870s, so I'm sure a 2-6-6T Mason Bogie would be just fine.   2 for the Denver South Park & Pacific in different Colors, painted unlettered Lake Russian Iron, Painted Unlettered Olive Green Russian Iron, and painted unlettered Red Russian Iron.   

Bachmann Spectrum Must Consider the Mason Bogie because I really want one on my model railroad collection, and I don't want it to cost an arm and a leg like the Accucraft ones do.

Well, we a lot of beautiful engines out on the Spectrum lines, and I was thinking that an engine we rarely see available on the Market for a decent price is a 2-6-6T Mason Bogie locomotive.  There is one that still survives and that's the famous Torch Lake locomotive at the Henry Ford Museum, although she's a standard gauge, the engine was originally a narrow gauge and a lot of Mason Bogie engines were narrow gauge.  The 2-6-6T was a very beautiful engine, and I would love to see one available from the Spectrum line.  With the list price of $1300-$1500 and an average selling price of about $600-$900 they would sell fairly well, and would no doubt be stunning models, and would probably out sell Accucraft for their high price Mason Bogies.   It's an engine that has been under rated, and it should be made more available on the market, and I would love to see them available from Spectrum because I always wanted a beautiful Mason Bogie engine. 

Spectrum Stock cars would be nice too, and Spectrum large Ore cars.   

Overall, honestly, I think we should get 1:20.3 scale Spectrum coaches for narrow gauge but something different from Jackson Sharp.

Carter Brothers sounds nice.

Hopefully The Bachmann Reads our ideas.

The problem with the Accucraft coaches isn't only the price but also the weight of the brass is too heavy for a Spectrum 4-4-0 or 2-6-0 to pull, and the big Haulers are nice but not as good as what we could get with Spectrum.    They can use the truck designs the 4-4-0 and 2-6-0s have on their tenders, nice burgandy ones too, and the pick ups can lay on top of the axle rather than skim the wheels like they do on the big haulers.  Skimming the wheels adds more friction and reistance, oiling them just makes the tracks too slippery and will cause the locomotives to slip.   Spectrum coaches would be wonderful, Jackson Sharp, Kimball, McKee, Overton, there are a lot to choose from.   We can really have beautiful coaches.    Also road names

Denver & Rio Grande Western

Colorado & Southern

Rio Grande Southern

Eastern Tennessee & North Carolina Western

East Broad Top

South Pacific Coast

North Pacific Coast

Nevada County Narrow Gauge

Eureka & Palisade


As well as painted unlettered in Green, Golden Yellow, Roset Red, Or Creamy white. 

The cost would be about $350 for the normal retail, but the average price per coach out there would more likely be $150-$235.   So that would not be bad, and they would look great behind the C-19, K-27, 4-4-0, 2-6-0, 2-8-0, Forney, and even the Big Haulers 4-6-0.

Well, since a Spectrum Caboose and Spetrum freight cars were made, I was wondering if we would see any Spectrum Passenger Cars in the future.  The current passenger cars we see are nice, but I was they would be nicer if the interior had opening doors, a removable roof to show off the details, LED lighting, metal trucks with better light pick-ups, and better detailed seats.   With the Spectrum 3rd Generation 4-4-0s out, and C-19s out, it would be nice to have Spectrum class coaches with Spectrum Baggage cars, Spectrum Combines, Spectrum Full Coaches, and Spectrum Observations, all in higher quality than the current ones available on the market to compete with Accucraft and their high prices.  Bachmann could make really nice Spectrum Coaches, and I'm willing to pay extra bucks to give my 4-4-0s something nicer to pull.   We could have really beautiful passenger cars out from the Spectrum Series.