I watched about half that video and it was enough.  I'm not denying that it was a masterpiece of all masterpieces, it just is not my kind of layout.  It very much was the old spaghetti bowl track plan concept very popular about 40 or 50 years ago where you twisted as much track as you could into your space.  I could never figure out his track plan and how operated but a lot of people did and he had lots of realistic concepts in place, unlike so many spaghetti bowl layouts where the trains zipped around in and out of tunnels and over trestles and came out of a tunnel you didn't expect it to, but always ended up at the same place. Maybe it was just the photography at the time, but the whole layout and room in general was too dark for me, a natural light fanatic who can't get enough light, not unlike a plant.  Which probably comes from working 10 years in a  windowless office.

It filled his basement.  Track plans are online. Google.

Quote from: trainbuf on March 08, 2024, 02:59:12 AMCan anyone tell me which DCC decoder was used on the 50 ton Climax please   loco runs fine on DC  but converting whole layout to DCC and want sound as well.
Similar with the three truck shay..... what decoder gives me the correct sound.

Lou A Hocken
Blenheim  NZ.

I answered this in another post.

Walthers has many 36 inch wheels if you can't get them from the Bach Man.

The ones I am talking about have 90 whistles, DDE, EQ, over 20 bells, at least 10 chuffs including geared engines, choice of sounds of coal fired vs oil vs wood, cylinder cocks, wheel slipping, choice of coupler crash.  And each controllable by the operator.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. I've done everything but name the company, which I don't feel right doing on someone else's forum. You ought to be able to figure it out.

Convert your layout to DCC ASAP.  Trying to run DCC engines on a DC layout is really awkward, literally a square peg and round hole kind of thing, possible, but not truly intended.  Not unlike going coast to coast on a tricycle. It's not possible to fully utilize all of the wonderful features that DCC brings to the table. 

About the sounds for geared locomotives.... My favorite company's newest decoder has complete options for every geared engine under the sun and nearly 100 whistles you can choose from.  But I'm not going to name them in someone else's house.  Contact the various vendors and you'll find out who I'm talking about.  It won't take long.  They have great customer service and  can tell you not only exactly which decoder will fit in your engine but can also provide you with detailed and extensive information about installation.

Advice from someone who's been down the wrong road:  Have your decoder installed professionally.

You can call any of the decoder vendors and get a much better and completely updated decoder then the ones that were used in that engine when it was made back in the digital Jurassic.  I have a feeling that you probably cannot even get an identical direct replacement item anymore, except on the used market.

Unlike wine, decoder technology does not age well but is regularly superseded with better.  Much better.

All of us that choose to operate with DCC have our favorite brand of decoder.  I don't think that the Bach Man's house is the place to discuss pros and cons of the various products currently offered.

Yes but they make the streamlined and unstreamlined K4 Pacific and the New York Central Hudson, all of which which are suited to only one Railroad. 

You cannot find one of those 63" driver engines anywhere to save your life today.  I'm lucky to have four of them. The first two I got way back in the Jurassic when they were available everywhere.  Then, when I realized they were going away, I hopped high and hard to get another one.  The third one was the very last one at Walthers.  The fourth one I got on eBay, just about the last one I ever saw there.  If Bachmann ever brings it out again, I hope it has separate pipe detailing like the ones I have now. Since it shares the same boiler casting with the 52" driver engine, that may be hoping for too much.

The 52" driver engine's prototype apparently was a Maryland and Pennsylvania locomotive. I bet it was a catalog locomotive since so many of the railroads had very similar engines, including the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley whose engines I'm familiar with.  The 63" driver engine has the same boiler raised up higher on a different frame with higher drivers, but it too closely resembles multiple prototypes, including the famous still-existing Nevada Northern number 40 I'm told.

https://locomotive.fandom.com/wiki/Nevada_Northern_No._40

The Bachmann Spectrum used to be very adventuresome.  Bringing out a model like the Russian decapod? Only 200 of the prototypes ever stayed in the United States. And those beautiful Richmond 4–4-0's and those wonderful 63" driver 10 wheelers.  There were other now-gone steamers as well.  Plus the road names they offered in.  NC&StL, ACL, L&N, SAL... road names from deep in the south that we down here were overjoyed to see. Even my favorite, the Missouri Pacific, got on a couple of engines.

It's not like that any more.

Your engines don't have that Spring?

That looks like the same spring as used on the decapod.

https://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=68_158&products_id=9182

You want to search for gold ... try finding a 63" driver ten wheeler.

The most popular road names in the ready to run Model Railroad world that consistently sell are Pennsylvania, New York Central, Union Pacific, and Santa Fe.  if it's not from one of those roads, the likelihood of something being offered is pretty low.

Same thing with attics here.  A large space but usually unfinished, uninsulated and full of air ducts.  Plus, the access at best is some pull down stair.

when I was a kid in Louisiana, I had a friend with a layout in one of those attics.  We were 14 so of course we never felt a thing, even though it was at least 115° up there,  and we had the time of our lives running our RTR trains around the 4x8.

I've got four dead ones right now that I pull parts off of every now and then.