Quote from: trainman203 on January 10, 2024, 05:57:49 PMThst plan looks almost exactly like one end of my short line. And I wasn't copying anything from John Allen either, had never even heard of the time saver plan till last year.

Did I hear somebody say John Allen influenced their layout? Seriously, hr probably did and you didn't even realize it. The Timesaver has been copied and made a part of so many layouts over the years that many people don't realize where it originated.

Bachmann has yet to come out with the track pieces necessary to build this layout as it was designed, or reasonably close to it. My original comment on this subject still stands. You can redesign it using EZ track components, but it will be significantly different than the original.

Specific areas of concern: the Atlas switches used are designed to be drop in replacements for a standard 5" straight and a standard 19" radius curve. EZ track switches take up far more space than those used in the plan. Likewise, the smallest radius EZ track curves are 11.25" which take up far more space than the Atlas 9.75" radius curves called for in the track plan.

Perhaps you could come up with a workable substitution using one of the track planning programs like AnyRail or SCARM?

I don't have experience with O guage trains, but I can tell you that I design in 3" of overhead clearance for things like tunnels and bridges in HO. Since O is almost twice the size, I'd estimate you'd need 6" of clearance to run them.

WHile what Len said about O guage trains using curves of the same radius as HO is true, but due to their massive size they look rediculous doing so. It also brings its own set of problems, You've got a good starter set, that looks good on the track supplied with it. I'd stick with HO, and keep the curves at 18" radius or larger.

The PRR literally had something for everybody. And it was often all close by. For example, in the Altoona area you had the steady parade of trains over the mountain via Horseshoe CUrve. You had the locomotive shop, where almost everything on the system came for heavy repairs. Hollidaysburg was the freight car shop, and a hub of lightly traveled branchlines. It also had its pwn line to the top of the mountain in a mirror image of the mainline, including its own Horseshoe curve (called Muleshoe) but with only two tracks instead of four. At the top of the mountain, Cresson was a terminal which served the coal branchlines, which originated an incredible amount of tonnage, completely different from the ones out of Hollidaysburg.

One thing about PRR in the diesel era. People look at the incredible amount of different types of locomotives PRR had, and try to model one of each kind. But that's not what you would have seen if you were there. Rather than have everything roam the system, they tended to parcel out specific locomotive to certain areas where the shop people were familiar with the oddballs. The most common locomotives, like F7s and GP9s, roamed the system on the high priority trains, but things like Baldwin sharks, Alco Pas and FAs, and anything from Fairbanks Morse worked in specific areas out of specific terminals. This practice continued under Penn Central and Conrail. As these assignments shifted somewhat over the years, your best bet is to look for pjotos of the area you want to model and see what showed up on trains. 

Quote from: 0-6-0 steam mistress on January 07, 2024, 01:47:00 PMIn the future I would like to try getting into the hobby. Space is an issue so I might have to go N for that.

How much space do you have?

One thing about going into the smaller scales is that the smaller you go the more electrical contact becomes an issue. I was in N scale for a while, and though I had an extensive layout in about 5x8, I was constantly cleaning track, and many of the locomotives were finicky, or ran way too fast. I went back to HO and never looked back.

In HO you can do quite alot in less than the area of a sheet of plywood, and using Nickle Silver track will lessen the need to clean it. The locomotive you now have is a great little starter locomotive, and runs better than almost anything in N scale. The only thing I don't like about those little 0-6-0s is that they don't pull much on an upgrade. I have one on my DC test track right now on my kitchen table, and it will easily pull ten cars of the level. But Bachmann's entry level diesel locomotives can be found online at reasonable cost, and they do pull well on hills.

The DC vs DCC debate, particularly when it comes to running multiple trains at one time, is nothing more than a trade off. With DC, to run more than one train on the same track independently requires breaking up your layout into electrically isolated sections called blocks that you can turn on and off at will, similar to the way you can turn on and off the lights in your house. Despite what you may hear from others, the wiring is relatively simple, with the same basic circuit repeated as many times an necessary. Unfortunately, the modular approach Bachmann uses to wiring EZ track does not lend itself to DC block wiring, though it can be modified to do so without many problems.

I am well versed in Dc wiring though I now run DCC on my permanent layout, and would be happy to provide guidance should you choose to go with a multi train DC layout.

Quote from: JayDee.4014 on January 06, 2024, 08:47:31 PMHow can you tell the difference between black roadbed steel and black roadbed nickel silver

Simple. There is no such thing as black roadbed nickle silver in EZ track. Black is steel, grey is NS.

In both SCARM and AnyRail, you can go under Settings and adjust the tolerances to allow tracks with mismatched angles to connect, within reason of course.


In SCARM, go to Settings> Edit> Tolerances and set them. I have mine set to 5 degrees, and .25" which will allow connections to any track within those settings.

I live along the PRR mainline just east of Pittsburgh. The sheer scale of this railroad makes the mainline difficult to model. This was a 4 track mainline, with junctions like freeway interchanges in many places, signals everywhere and trains that ran like streetcars. In the Philly area you'd also have to model the overhead wires for the electric locomotives, and the incredible number of commuter trains in addition to what we have where I live. If you have alot of room I'd say go for it. It would be quite impressive if done right.

Quote from: 0-6-0 steam mistress on January 05, 2024, 11:48:42 AMThank you for the information jward.
The more I learn about this the more I realize it's better to buy a locomotive or set with sound installed.
Thanks again.

That is my conclusion as well. I have no problem adding a non sound decoder to most of these locomotives, but for sound I'd rather buy one with it already installed. That, and if you have a layout with alot of locomotives like I do, a little sound goes a long way. It can get quite noisy otherwise, especially if most of them are sitting around idling.

The Pacific FLyer has the USRA o-6-o. I have this set, along with several other examples of this locomotive. Every one of them has a smole unit already installed. I know this because I pull them out when I convert mine to DCC. The cavity where the smoke unit sits is more than enough room for a Z scale decoder. I do this to keep all wiring on the locomotive itself, to keep from running wires between the locomotive and tender.


To install sound would entail putting a speaker in the tender, and if you're going to do that you may as well put the sound decoder in there as well. Now you have to run wires between the locomotive and tender, at least 6 of them: 2 each for headlight, motor, and electrical pickup from the wheels. The smoke unit would have to be pulled anyway since it is in direct contact with the two halves of the locomotive frame, and will possibly short out the locomotive on DCC. If you want to keep it then it needs to be wired to one of the function leads on the decoder, which means a seventh wire between locomotive and tender. All of these wires would need to be routed in such a way as to not interfere with the slot and pin connection between locomotive and tender. Unlike most other locomotives which use a drawbar connection with pivot points on both locomotive and tender, this connection slides in the sloton the locomotive. That's why I avoid any electrical connection between locomotive and tender on this particular locomotive.

To be honest, you may be better off getting a similar sized locomotive, like the Alco 2-6-0, which already has both DCC and sound already installed. But that one, as with most DCC steam, does not come with a smoke unit.

Quote from: Ralph S on January 04, 2024, 12:18:59 PMEveryone beats up on Bachmann for not supporting the intermediate users (which sounds like where you're headed toward).  Most serious modelers will push or state that moving up to the advanced controllers will provide more than the limitations of Bachmann.  This is true, Bachmann is limited.  But!  (as in my case), being around small kids (less than 4 years old) handing an advanced controller to these little guys will create more problems and headaches for you and the kids.  The  EZ Bachmann controllers and walkaround perform and satisfy these little ones with ease. 

The situation you describe would be perfect for a couple of EZ App locomotives controlled by old cell phones. I don't think I've met a kid yet that doesn't know how to play games on a cell phone so they're already familiar with the interface.

Happy New Year. And may this be the year Bachmann rereleases the U36B with the upgrades 8 wheel drive similar to the B23-7s.

yes it is. Simply expand your oval of track to include the other room and you don't even need a switch at all.

Top speed can be lowered to your preference by programming CV5 which controls max voltage. Unfortunately for you this is one of the things your EZ Command cannot do. If you know somebody who has another DCC system, ask them to lower the value of CV5 for you.

Model railroading is and always has been a do it yourself hobby. If you don't see what you want, it is usally easy enough to modify or build something that fits where you want it to. Curved road crossings are not that hard to build yourself. And the modified bridge Terry showed you is just what the real railroads do. Unlike highway bridges, railroad bridges on curves consist of straight bridge spans with a curved track on them.