Thank you!

Hello Mr. Bachmann,

I'm looking for the specs of a screw. It's on the underside of the Hudson, on the front, just under the leading truck. It's black, phillips head, 8mm long. It looks like it's responsible for keeping part H536X-00K01 in place. If you're able to look that up, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

I don't believe so, but it's in pieces right now so I can't easily check. Yes.

I can confirm it's not the decoder because the decoder works just fine in an F7, and the decoder from the F7 is unable to turn the light off while in the Hudson.

After cutting power to the track and removing the decoder before the capacitors drain, it's also still on.

Quote from: Len on July 24, 2025, 06:20:31 PMThose are both older style 0-6-0 locos sold individually and with sets. They came both with, and without, smoke units. The only way to tell for sure is if you have the original box, which will say if it has smoke, or opening the loco up.

That said, smoke does not scale well, leaves a residue on everything if used on a regular basis, and can soften the plastic loco shell from the heat if used too long. If there's no fluid in the unit, they do not turn on. So it's okay to run these units without smoke fluit in them.

People with DCC layouts tend to remove the smoke unit and use the space where it was to install a "Z- scale" decoder.  As long as it's rated 1 amp, or better, it will work fine.

Len

Whoa, Len, I think you've got most of this backwards.

The only steam engine I'm aware of that will melt from the smoke unit is the BLI J, and only if you turn the head up all of the way.

The smoke unit in the 0-6-0 isn't the best, but unless it's been re-designed in the last 20 years my experience is that it does not melt the engine, but if you run it without fluid it will burn itself out.

If you shine a light down the smoke stack, and can see the little metal tube with 2 wires coming off of it, it has the smoke unit.

I have a NYC Hudson, and I noticed that the headlight is always on. I pulled decoder out of the tender and put it into a Walthers F7, and the headlight operated normally. I have a TCS non-sound 21 pin decoder on the way, but I suspect that there's something not quite right with the wiring in the boiler.

Before I go ripping this engine apart, does anyone have any experience with this, or any hints that they can provide?

Mr. Bachmann, is this something that your repair department has seen, where you can give me any hints as to where to look for problems?

Many thanks in advance.

I will start saving my pennies. Thank you Mr Yard Master!

Mr. Bachmann, do you know which paint scheme(s) of the streamlined hudson you will be releasing? The image you are using seems to show a partially shrouded engine with a black tender and a single thin white stripe near the top, and not the iconic j3a that was used on the majority of 20th century limited trains.

I count 4 paint schemes that were used on the j3's.

* The 1938 version with blue stripes (AKA the best one )
* The 1940's version with silver stripes
* Two-tone black and white "Empire State Express"
* Black whith single thin white stripe near the top of the tender (what I think is in the image you are using, but was possibly only done for #5344 J3e... not sure on the last bit)

Most of my info is from https://nycshs.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/pages-from-1981q3.pdf but there's a good photo of #5344 at https://www.trains.com/ctr/railroads/locomotives/new-york-central-4-6-4-hudson-no-5344-in-four-photos/

Also, do you have any plans to release NYC passenger cars in the future, either heavyweight or lightweight?

It was down for a while, and it may take some time for people to realize that it's back.

Kato makes 115mm curved track, which is a 4.5" radius. You'd be limited to trolleys and the like. Thomas might work on there, I'm not sure.

Check out the DZ126T. It's even smaller!

Can anyone with these models provide a minimum radius for them to operate on? Not a radius that "should" work, but a true minimum? I have a DC trolley line with Kato 117mm radius curves, and would like to run Thomas on that line, if it's possible.

What do you need to know? DCC decoders are standardized (to a point) thanks to the NMRA. You can program them by selecting the CV (e.g. CV1) and entering a number (e.g. 99) to set CV1 to a value of 99. Because decoders are somewhat standardized, this will set the locomotive address to 99, no matter what the brand.

I use JMRI to program my decoders, but you can use a command station to do it also. It's quite simple, and will let you alter the starting voltage, top speed (max voltage), and even the speed curve if you want to go through the effort on a throttle. If you can do it for one brand decoder it is the same for all decoder brands.

I'm fairly certain that's a Life-Like F40, not a Bachmann one.

Bachmann pancake motors tend to be white, and have less weight. Maybe try sourcing a Life-like engine for parts too?

Mr. Bachmann, do you know if the N scale Thomas is DCC friendly, and what the minimum radius is for it? At a slower speed, could Thomas and some cars handle 117mm radius unitrack track?

Quote from: Radioguy on March 06, 2019, 01:20:48 PM
Ooh, just noticed this:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US8869708B1/en

Looks like Daniel mentioned N and Z specifically. The again, GATR Works has one, which may mean they have a different design, as Bachmann might as well.

I'd imagine that if someone wanted to invalidate it they could do so easily. It's a trivial design, and already implemented in other scales. I don't think that you can patent size?