Rich,
Thank you for your reply. I have dealt with Eldon from Microlocomotion on some N scale projects. I have a similar motor to the Cd drive motor you are talking about. I tried it and it was a little too fast compared to the stock motor. I have a few Faulhaber 1516's that I thought about trying but wasn't sure if they would be strong enough as I have them for N scale projects. I may just have to contact Eldon and pick up something specifically for this loco.

I have a customer with a 4-4-0 that runs like a champ except the motor is starting to give up the ghost. I don't want to send it in for repair or swap because out of 5 tries we got a good one. This loco runs perfectly true, no wobble and wiggle. All the others we tried bobbed and wobble so much they would derail on straight track when you tried to pull a load up a grade.

Has anybody played around with remotoring one of these and possibly improving pickup? I was looking at a way to put all wheel pickup on the tender and possibly putting a gear head motor and flywheel on it. I would like to slow it down and smooth it out some.

I have suggested the new Spec 4-4-0 but he want's the old time look, not the more modern look of the spectrum. We have it pulling a trio of the new excursion cars and I must say it looks perfect for the job.

Tony H

It's minimum radius is smaller than the loco looks good going around. I have had one on 9 3/4 radius and it works fine, just looks odd. Both engines are articulated so minimum radius is not really an issue with these.

Hobo?

Atlas hasn't made a steam loco in over 20 years (unless you count the 2-8-8-2 that they commisioned Samhongosa (SP?) to make). They currently make the Shay (a diesel in sheeps clothing) and the repainted/rebaged Micro Ace 2-6-0.

Kato is now on their second Steam loco in 15 years.

LL/Walthers/Proto Have made 3 loco's and only 2 are currently available with the 2-8-8-2 due shortly. They finally realized that Steam loco's need traction tires and are retrofitting them slowly with new releases.

Bachmann makes 3 different standard line steam locos (4-4-0, 0-6-0, 4-8-4) in a few variations. They make 5 different steam locos in the Spectrum line (2-8-0, 4-8-2 Lt., 4-8-2 Hvy., 2-6-6-2, 4-8-4 Class J).

Who is leading the way with steam?

Also you forgot Model Power who has 4 currently available locos (4-4-0, 2-6-0, 4-6-2, 2-8-2) and Athearn who also has 4 (2-6-0, 2-8-0, 4-6-6-4, 4-8-8-4).

I have been working on bringing one up to standard.





Here is how I cured the height issue and got the bonus of phosor bronze spring pickups.



Unfortunately I started with an undec which didn't have the updated blower duct so I had to build that and redo the railing to match. There is still a lot to go. I am trying to decide if I want to put photo etch fans in it and also how to build working porch mount ditchlights for it.

Adding a decoder to the 0-6-0/2-6-2 is not hard. You just need to insulate the motor and solder a few wires. They don't have lighting so it is just a matter of 4 wires between the tender and loco.

The problem is, you will want to wait till the new tenders arrive. The only thing holding back these loco's is the lack of all wheel pickup on the tender. The current pickup system on the front truck only is draggy and doesn't work very well. Adding DCC to that will not be very satisfying.

When the new all wheel pickup tenders arrive, it should really help these loco's out.

Quote from: nscaler711 on August 08, 2008, 10:06:34 PM
Split frame? can it be changed to DCC? i am going all out on DCC products so i need to know if it can be DCC-inized

Per original release announcement:

N Scale EMD DD40AX Centennial DCC Onboard  avail  NOV     MSRP $110
Item No 62251  UP #6932
Item No 62252  UP #6927
Item No 62253  UP #6915
Item No 62254  UP #6943

If they are like the long distance and vanderbuilt, they have a circuit board in them with solder pads for a decoder and solder pads for the wires from the locomotive with maybe some diodes and resistors for lighting.

I think the biggest thing these hint to is upcomming retooling on the standard line loco's to make them DCC onboard. Also a revamping of the 2-8-0 to move the decoder to the tender, although I would rather have the decoder in the loco so we don't have to deal with a permanently connected tender and wires between the loco and tender but that seems to be the trend.

I could care less about the DCC ability, I am just happy to see these tenders available seprately and have all wheel pickup.

Kitbashers rejoice!!!!!

Bachmann has previously stated that all DCC on board units will have dual mode decoders so they are backward compatible. This should be the same.

I still haven't gotten a straight answer on this but ALL decoders should be dual mode, regardless of manufacture according to the NMRA.

The blue on the RR passenger cars has never been close. I deal with them in N scale and the biggest mistake, other than the baby blue is that they also should have black roofs instead of the gray.

This is the closest I have come using some custom mixed colors:


In HO the Bachmann heavyweights or the various Walthers cars are the best representation of the colors.

Quote from: UP_Modeler on May 14, 2008, 04:40:07 PM
skipgear,

That's exactly why this is news.  The extra domes will (or . . . make that should be) available.


Mike

What I was trying to say was that we have had these on order at our shop for better than six months now. It is not news. Just waiting patiently for Kato to get around to producing them.

9 3/4 is tight for most 6 axle loco's. I have one of the SD45's and it will bog on 9 3/4, even some on 11.

The best solution is to give the loco a good amount of break in. That will help the bogging. Let it run and loosen up a bit before passing judgement on it.

Another problem may be in the trucks, I ran into an issue with an Athearn SD70 where the pickups were restricting the lateral play on the center axle and would cause a bind in just about any corner. Break in helped along with a tweak of the pickups to allow a bit more side play in the center axle.

This is my SD45 as it sets right now, the body is lowered on the frame, brass handrails, a casting off the nose of an Atlas SD to get the ratchet brake, and a Kato SD90 plow and SD45 fuel tank (not shown in this picture).

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/84389

Also not shown is the rear grilles are cut out to be replaced with mesh and ditchlights in process.

Why is this news? The availability of the single dome was announced the same time that the first Chief starter sets was released over a year ago. The problem was the dome never showed up. The big problem is that the starter sets sucked up all the A Chief sets and now the B and C sets are orphans without the dome being available.

 

Although the reskin of the Bachmann catalog is very nice looking, it is not at all functional. Why is there a continuing trend of websites looking nicer and nicer yet becoming harder and harder to use??

The new catalog listings are useless. They give a part number, a price, and a picture so small you can barely tell what you are looking at. The descriptions are generic and contain no information about road name or number so you can't even use them as a reference either. Then about a third of the items don't have pictures at all. Look up a Spectrum N scale Heavy Mountain and tell me which one is the C&O with Vanderbuilt tender, which is the N&W, etc. They have no pictures for reference, no decriptions in the text, nothing to tell you what you are supposed to be looking at.

If you want to promote the product, give some good pictures and usefull information about it. Don't make finding the loco you want a search harder than digging through the swap meet tables at the train show. Right now the only way to find out if a road name is available in the loco you want is to click on each item, one at a time, till you find it or run out of options.

The old version was only slightly better but at least you could tell what version of the loco you were looking at.

Look here -

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/dwg/dwgs/N821X-IS001.PDF

It's not the Mountain but the number code is the same on the boards. The same jumper clips are used on all the new loco's.

Another reference to a loco that uses this wiring scheme -

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/dwg/dwgs/N614X_IS001.PDF