FYI, I have built a couple of On30 passenger cars plus one or two freight cars, but never locomotives, by utilizing parts from the On30 kitbash section. Bachmann was selling passenger car bodies, frames and roofs for reasonable prices. I was able to put together two passenger cars - minus trucks and couplers - for less than $30 dollars each. After I added Bachmann cast trucks and Kadee couplers, my cost was still less than $50 each. At the time, I had posted on this forum but its been a while now. Right now, I think they only have a couple of car bodies listed in the kitbash section. Hope this helps.

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post is that you will also need to clean the locomotive wheels periodically. I usually use a cotton swab dipped in IPA or mineral spirits. Hope this helps.

DCC will run on any type of metal track as long as there are no shorts. So if your figure 8 track works OK on DC, it should work just fine with the NCE PowerCab. That said, steel track is probably the least conductive of the three major metals that have been used in track manufacturing (i.e. steel, brass and nickel silver) with nickel silver track being the best. As you start using your set with one or two locomotives, after some use, you may notice that a locomotive may run jerkily or even stall at different areas on the track. This indicates a build-up of dirt and carbon on the rails which needs to be cleaned off. A piece of lint-free cloth (old t-shirt) with a little isopropyl alcohol or mineral spirits with usually be enough to get rid of the dirt. All track eventually needs to be cleaned but steel track needs to be cleaned more often than the others. Most beginners, as they progress in the hobby, find that it is advantageous to switch to nickel silver track. Since you already have steel EZ track, it will be easy to replace a few pieces at a time with nickel silver EZ track, which has a beige roadbed instead of black. Hope this helps. 

I don't have a center cupola caboose but I have 2 logging cabooses and they basically come apart like the passenger cars. Just be sure to disconnect the ladders from the roof first - usually the ladder will just pop out of the bracket. Hope this helps.

Jim, you're welcome.

Fred

Jim, do not try to spread the cast trucks. The trucks are held together with small screws, two at each side frame on the top of the truck. To change axels, you only need to remove one side frame, insert the new axle into the stationary frame (the one you didn't remove) and then replace the removed frame. When you look at the axle, please note that one of the wheels is insulated from the axle so that it doesn't create a short. I find I get best performance if I place both of the insulated wheels on one side of the truck. Hope this helps.

As someone who has nothing but 15" radius curves on his layout, I can say that all of the Bachmann passenger cars run without any problems at any speed that I've run them at. I have a total of three full-size cars, one combine and two coaches, some with the Bachmann couplers, some with Kadee #148 whisker couplers, and they all behave very well, whether single or in multiples. Just to clarify, due to the space available for my layout, I have two "S" curves by necessity. I mainly run Porters (0-4-0 and 0-4-2) locomotives but I have one 50-ton diesel and a Heisler. I also have two trench locomotives. All of these engines negotiate all of the curves without any problems whatsoever. However, I have one 0-6-0 and that will not negotiate the "S" curves - so it sits in the yard and looks pretty. Anyway, I hope this information will help.

Mark, you might try calling the Bachmann Service Department for part numbers or you may be able to purchase the screws directly from them. Hope this helps.

Hi Holly. The short answer to your question is Yes. I started out with a Märklin HO train set many years ago (late 1950s - I still have the set) and have sort of kept up with their product line over the years. To the best of my knowledge, Märklin has always tried to maintain compatiblity amongst their product line, so a current Märklin Christmas car should work with some of their more vintage equipment. The only thing I don't know is whether they still use the same couplers as they did back then, but they usually offer a means keep their products compatible. However, nothing is guaranteed. Hope this helps.

P51, I had never thought of modeling anything here in Florida because most, if not all of it, was in standard gauge and I really had gotten the On30 bug. What to do? And then along came an article in one of the On30 Annuals (2018 I think, but not sure) talking about an alternate reality/history for a model railroad and I went full steam ahead (pun intended). So its all your fault . The Kissimmee Valley Extension of the FEC started in New Smyrna Beach and ended in Okeechobee. The plan was for this to be a mainly agricultural railroad with light passenger service. In my reality, around the time the line was abandoned in 1947, a group of the ranchers and farmers got together and purchased a portion of the right of way (from Holopaw to Okeechobee) and formed their own railroad to get their goods to market. Although trucks were making inroads into the freight-hauling business, road infrastructure was still lacking and unreliable.

The group got a good deal on the right of way except that all of the rolling stock had been re-assigned to the FEC mainline along the coast. As it turned out though, around that time many narrow gauge short lines were being abandoned and the ranchers and farmers group got a lot of equipment for very little money. The only thing they had to do was to shift one rail over a few inches, which is what they did. And the rest, as they say is history.

This is just a quick overview of my alternate reality but it all began with an article from you. Thank you very much.

Old Pilot,

I have both 18ft and the longer (26ft?) rolling stock on my layout and have noticed no problems as far as coupler alignment. Depending on the car, long or short, the couplers may not be perfectly aligned across the top but are definitely within accepted tolerances. That is to say, so far I haven't experienced any spurious uncoupling. FYI, I use a mix of Bachmann and Kadee couplers interchangeably without any apparent issues. Hope this helps.

Old pilot, totally agree with you. I switched from N scale to On30 about 6 or 7 years ago because I just couldn't see N scale details well enough any more. The thing I like about On30, especially because I like smaller locomotives, like Porters, is that I was able to shoehorn my On30 layout into where my N scale layout used to be. By using 15-inch radius curves and short rolling stock, I'm able to run some pretty nice trains. I'm really not too much into scenery but since I'm modeling a portion of the FEC Kissimmee Valley Extension which happened to run just a couple of miles from where I live (long before my time - the right-of-way was abandoned in 1947) and this is part of Florida's prairie, I don't have to worry about mountains and all that. As a retired engineer, I enjoy scratchbuilding and kitbashing both rolling stock and structures and I get a lot of inspiration from articles in the On30 Annual, to which P51 occasionally contributes.

Also, I totally agree with you about details in the mind's eye. I model for my personal enjoyment and don't worry about what others may think.

Old pilot, I couldn't agree more with the coordination and eyesight. Earlier this year, I underwent cataract surgery on my right eye with the left one to follow in probably a year or two. As a retired engineer, I've always been used to steady hands for precision work and getting the shakes in old age is a real pain in the "round-to-it". But, if one wants to keep on modeling, one learns to live with it and adapt.

P51, with the quality of modeling I've seen in your articles, all I can say is that I hope your hands stay steady and your eyesight clear because I've been inspired by your work and look forward to lots more inspiration.

(Sorry if I've strayed off-topic)

p51, I also have used the bamboo skewers in the past and keep a couple of them on the layout. They work OK but tend to be somewhat "fiddly", at least for my shaky hands. The dental brush uncouplers seem to provide more positive feedback for my hands.

From your other post, I'm looking forward to more of your articles.

I'm not familiar with any 16ft rolling stock in On30. The shortest that I own is 18 feet in length and from what I can see the trucks are somewhat more diminutive than those on the longer cars. However, I don't have any more details. Hope this helps.