If you live in the tri-state area of the mid atlantic, don't forget now that it's June, every weekend there are RR's for us to visit!

http://www.gardenrropenhouse.com/

Bob,
I've never had any problems with my Shay even during break-in. She's a smooth runner especially at slow speed.
There will be others chime in, but is yours surging on level track or while on a downhill area?

yep!,  That's why we both use our initials so we can be told apart

Garden RR open house tours, then possibly taking a ride up to Strasburg!

True,
Wet decals do prefer a glossy surface, but I have also had some great results applying them to Krylon semi-flat when painting a steam engine. I do use a setting solution to help soften the decal to form around rivets and wood grain details. After the decals have dried for two days, I then coat them with dul-cote. The lines dissapear once the topcoat is applied.

Frisco,
CCSII is right, Bachmann track is for indoor use ONLY! It will even rust if in a room with high humidity.
Choose either brass, aluminum, or stainless for outside running.

Brian,
Hopefully you will get another chance later this year. If you never been, Dick's layout is incredible. I'll actually be taking up my MOW set that I kitbashed and do some running and photo ops.

And to add to Brian's post, those of you on the East coast in the tri-state area, it's also the beginning of open house garden RR tours

http://www.gardenrropenhouse.com/

There are really some awesome layouts to be seen, and several posters from this board as well.

Hope to see you there!

JD,
nice job on the Shay! Looks like that one is due for it's turn in the shop for service. I thought my Porter looked overdue, but your Shay beats mine!

Did you spray the entire engine with rust color, or did you just overspray the black with a dusting of rust color?

Here it is,

http://gold.mylargescale.com/StanCedarleaf/WebPageDecals/CustomDecalsx.html

Stan really does a great job. He will take your idea and design a logo that works for you. He has done several jobs for me, and they all look great. I gave him the wording, and an idea of what I was looking for, and he did the rest.
I'm actually doing the decal work on a tender right now.

Stan sends instructions with the decals, and if you follow them, the results will look great!

Good luck

Granpab,
I also paint with Krylon when I repaint locomotives and rolling stock.  I use wet decals, and dry transfers for lettering and numbering.
I haven't had any issues with getting them to stick. Once they dry, I do spray them with dull cote to seal and protect them.

Hope this helps, if you want the link to custom decals, let me know and I'll post a link.

Here is the info from the large scale forum

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,3567.0.html

Pyroteck1A,
welcome to large scale trains. This topic has recently been discussed on the large scale forum. You should also post under that forum vs this one as you will get the answers from the folks that run these trains.

Nice job Kevin!

I guess they could be planning a diesel, but I personnally wouldn't think so. After the unpopularity of the center cab in 1:20, I just don't see them making another huge beast. They are great runners, and work out well for kitbashes, but when coupled to standard rolling stock, they are BIG.
Heck, they've been out of production for several years now, and warehouses are still trying to unload them!