You obvioiusly are not aware of what these brass tenders sell for or you would not have advised E-Bay Brass as a source.

Quote from: Pops on April 04, 2013, 05:32:07 PM
Thanks for the info - now if I can just find a 4-6-0 in HO.
I want a Bachmann 4-6-0 Ten-Wheeler in Southern paint with DCC and sound.  Haven't found a new one anywhere yet, not even eBay.
Boo Hoo.  And the hunt continues . . . 

The Bachmann 2-8-0 that came with the Vandy tender was a Union Pacific model. It was released in the Spectrum version and was a DCC on board version.

I had two of these which I bought on a e-bay. I was not looking for Union Pacific, just vandy tenders, They were fine engines.

They were released just before Bachmann released a number of their tenders individually.

In fact it turned out that there is/was a small Union Pacific collectors group that would and did pay a lot of money for both of these.

Bachmann has released a number of small run Heavy Mountains, in the GN and SP roadnames, I have both of these.

Let us not forget the same pertains to the Spectrum Heavy and LIght Mountain steam locomotives.

I had heard of the problems with one of the early runs of the Spectrum Russian Decopod being electrical in nature, but did not know the specifics of that problem. Apparently is was a very high percentage of the models produced in the run.

Quote from: steve turner on March 14, 2013, 02:37:04 PM
If its the  old walthers kit it has not a very good track record. If your talking the walthers DCC unit its great and is fully featured.............i like the IR setting of the tracks as in memmory settings.I have run mine many years and have been very happy. The put together unit had running issues, rubbing issues and was a pain interms of roundness etc.Many folks pulled their hair out over this unit.Steve

Note, that Walthers has released a new version of the 90 Kit turntable. It also has the optional motor to move the turntable with the controller.

I have not heard any comments on this new version, I did hear that the old turntable without the motor option was a hit and miss. Some users had very little problems, others had problems. Main problem was as mentioned not staying round, however, some users did reinforce the pit and after being strengthed did work well. Fiberglass would be an easy application to the turntable pit

Many modelers running DCC had little problems with the old Walthers pre-built indexing turntable. DCC wiring is easier than DC wiring on a turntable.

They do, check the products section on this site, type in crossing gate..................

Quote from: richg on February 16, 2013, 04:50:44 PM
It is what it is.

Rich

True, I just thought that they might be listening, however it appears they were not.

I was disappointed not to see any of the previous Spectrum steamers such as the 10 wheelers or the light or heavy mountain models not being re-released. These engines from the old stock are very hard to find. Which makes sense seeing they appear to be in demand when ever one is posted on "that" auction place.

You certainly have had enough members of this forum posting notices urging that some of these models be re-run.

I was reading various postings at the Yahoo-Brass Collectors site and ran across someone who was comparing brass engines to plastic engines.

The poster mentioned that after 22 hours of running various steam engines non-stop for 4 hour intervals up a 2 1/2% grade that the brass engines had little to no wear.

However, the plastic engines had heavy wear on their drivers. The engine he was referring to was the Bachmann Spectrum Consolidation 2-8-0.

I find this hard to believe, I have a few Spectrum engines with more accumulated hours on the layout (I would estimate at least 35 hours) and there is little wear on the drivers of these engines. I am referring to two Spectrum 4-6-0's, two Spectrum 2-8-0's and both a heavy and a light Spectrum Mountain engines.

All of these engines have some wear on their drivers but not anywhere near substantial/heavy wear.

I wonder why his Bachmann engines are experiencing such heavy wear after that much use.

Here is the link, but you have to be a member

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brasscollectors/message/10074

Has anyone run their Spectrum Steamers to the degree there is heavy wear on the drivers? At what point would they need replacement?

Quote from: jward on January 21, 2013, 08:58:32 PM
don,
to be honest, i am a diesel man. it's my fiance who loves steam, and what steam i have was bought with her in mind. as such i haven't tinkered much with weighting them.  i know that the roundhouse 2-8-0 proves it can be done. i also know that one will pull about 10 cars on a 4% grade. the bachmann 2-6-0 i have, thought a larger engine, barely pulls half that.

If you had noticed the Roundhouse 2-8-0 has traction tires on the last set of drivers, the Bachmann Spectrum engines do not.

No wonder the Roundhouse engine pulls more.

Thanks for the response. Yes you are so right that on occasion Bachmann does get bad remarks which often are not deserved and many seem to dwell in the past. I have a number of Spectrum locomotives that I am very happy with, did have a few with problems but Bachmann made good on those. Unlike Walthers which did not stand behind the product once the short warranty is up.

AS to the Spectrun J, there has not been much discussion, just wanted to check with someone who has the engine, I think they look terrific and if they run as good as my other Spectrums I will be a happy camper, if not, then will have to deal with Bachmann.

The main problem was with the unusual drawbar on this engine. The complaints were mainly to do with problems keeping the tender on the track as the drawbar seeme to pull the tender off the rails. Many made a new drawbar to replace the original drawbar.

Thanks again, for the quick comments

I was given one of the Spectrum J 4-8-4 engines for Christmas. The engine is the DCC with Sound version.

Other than a short run in to check it out I have not had the engine on the layout.

I will eventually obtain some N&W passenger cars and then rotate it on my layout.

When I was recently  cruising some of the model railroading web sites I came across some remarks about this engine.

The remarks to say the least were not very good. Is the Spectrum J steam engine a problem engine and one to stay away from.

Hopefully that is not the case, it sure is a striking looking engine.

Do any of the members of this site have one, and if so what do you think of it.

Do these engine run well or not

Quote from: jward on January 20, 2013, 01:03:18 PM
yes there is, but at present you can only do 180 degree turns not 90 degrees. use 5 26r and 4 22r curves, altenating them with a 26r on each end of the curve.

Could you not create a 90" turn be cutting the centre of the middle 26" EZ track?

Does not seem that difficult.

It would look great in comparison to the low boiler 4-6-0 which has the smaller drivers and smaller tender.

A natural