Quote from: norman on July 19, 2014, 03:26:57 PM
Hi Vic:

Lionel made an 0-6-0 and another loco with the rear fuel bin which you could bash together to build the DRGW tank loco. Just need to fabricate the water tank over the steam boiler.

Norman

I was considering the Indy as a base structure for a bash.

The Bachmann has spoken :

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,28025.0.html

The Mogul is nice, but worthless for me on my tiny layout. Meh! 

That's interesting about the On30, no doubt their will be much gnashing of teeth in that crowd. But in fairness they have gotten and almost obscene amount of new items over the last few years so its no surprise they've probably reached a certain saturation point.

There is no mention in the release what the turnout's diameter will be, I will be absolutely gobsmacked if its R1, because I keep getting told over and over and over again that R1 is dead or dying and that 8'D is now ruling the roost from now on. But that price tag sure doesn't match what the 8 footers are going for.

Looks like I'm going to have to buy up some more Lil Haulers (while I can) and bash'em if i want anything interesting from here on out

Quote from: bob kaplan on July 17, 2014, 10:28:28 AM
Uplifting discussions such as this are going to do little to attract new narrow gauge modelers.  Why would anyone enter a field where its members are predicting its rapid demise?  If you are a manufacture of models why would you manufacture new ones if members talk of leaving the field...Or if just having entered the field, these conversations certainly would encourage a reevaluation of one's choice to the hobby.  i certainly have been enjoying the hobby for several years (though by means of an indoor layout) and hope to see new additions....of course i enjoy rainbows too.

No demise, slow down yes, but then large scale expanded rapidly in the mid 00's, probably way too rapidly, as such we are still dealing with the combined effects of that over production and a decreased buying pool due to alot of LSr's who dropped out during the recession and haven't come back. As a result alot of used stuff has been dumped on the market. Now add in the idiots on Ebay who think a clapped out broken missing parts Lionel 0-6-0 cheesemaster is still worth $100 BIN just because its "large scale" and multiply that idiot buy a 100x, all asking over the moon for stuff that when you watch the rare auction for and see what it actually sells for (real worth vs perceived worth) its selling for 25-50% of the loony BIN prices. You begin to see why LS (and 1/20.3) is in a bit of a rut.

But there IS expansion going on, Accucrafts new GP60 is expected to sell well, the C-19 was a hit, I think most of the K-27s also sold really well, so there IS market out there. Its just we are NEVER going to see high volume/low price stuff like we did with in the 00's again, the market is just too small, so what does get produced will be smaller runs, higher priced, and more likely to sell out given the smaller runs. Its just finding what will sell in a harder market like today. I hope to see another smaller loco like the C-16 or what I would kill to have would be one of these:



or even one of these:



We'll see  

Quote from: Yardmaster on July 13, 2014, 05:55:01 PM
Pretty sure you can't use parts from the old 0-4-0 on the Spectrum switcher. You should contact the service department directly to see if replacement parts are available for your loco.
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/service_2010.php

Unfortunately according to the Parts listings on the website there are no parts currently available for the Porter. The 2-4-2 I know has a very different drive block. So that wont work.

So back to my other question, is the drive chassis from a 1/20 sidetanker interchangable with the 1/20 saddletanker? I have submitted a request online to the service dept as well.

Certainly by Monday there will be some sort of NMRA announcement. Personally up to a couple years ago I would have loved to see a Boxcab based on GE's little 20 tonner, but I got to where I stopped expecting anything I liked to be produced so I did my own:



Now quite honestly I dunno what to expect given how flat the market is and how glutted the uses market still is. I think I am one to the few people who really enjoy bashing the Lil Hauler stuff, Now I don't know what the future of that is either.







I would still love to see something like this though in LS:

Do the two different scaled Bachmann sidetank switcher, the 1/22.5 version and the 1/20.3 version share the same drivetrain? motor, wheels, pistons, etc?

The reason I ask is that I have a 1/20.3 saddletanker, bought used,  thats motor is Phhtt! I want to fix it but was considering simply replacing the entire drivetrain from the 1/20.3 side tanker onto the body of my 1/20.3 saddletanker if possible. If they are too different can the motor from a 1/22.5 version be swapped into the 1.20.3 version?

Are there even replacement parts available?

Quote from: GG1onFordsDTandI on March 13, 2013, 02:14:53 AM
Cab on the bottom pic is cool. No coal in the bin? ...
Nice added details on your loco on other thread, If you like bashin you might enjoy this, follow link at the bottom of the first post http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,23133.msg182881.html#msg182881

Hi, ah Chris Walas, Great guy, I first met Chris at the BTS a few years ago. I got a big box of cast away train parts when he moved that I am still figuring out what to bash out of. Chris is a great guy who's creations still amazes and melts my brain. Have you seen his most recent "the fish are in" train posted on MLS?

Why should we in the States have all the fun?  

Here are a couple of suggestions for any who like me, really like British or Export engines





Both would be relatively easy bashes using the Lil Biggers

Just tossing ideas randomly into the air  

Lil Big Hauler Saddletanker, a few upgrades

I know these little buggers are kinda too cutesy for the more 'serious' modellers here , but they do have a lot of potential and they certainly do have charm.

I've gotten busy with other stuff of late, and quite frankly didnt want to bother with bashing the pistons and cylinders like I did with the Bumble Bee version of this engine, so I decided to try something different, an inside frame version of the typical mining engine, like a Bell Locomotive was constructed.



Looks like a bog standard LBH but...






New smokestack, scratched bell and mounting, repainted parts of the body






Popped off the dummy cylinders, re-cut and positioned them under the fore-frame.






Added an air compresser, theres a small tank on the other side






Added a simple backhead details and coal bunker, link/pin couplers F & R




Bachmann did such a nice job on the finish, I just haven't had the heart to repaint it. I wasn't originally going to repaint the boiler but during modifications I smeared Zap onto the upper boiler, by the time I have removed it I permanently marred the surface, so that's why its now black.

The best part is that I can still do the cylinders and siderods later when i feel like it, the mounts are still there and I can do the same way I reworked the Bumble Bee.

Overall a relatively small project, but one that looks very nice to my eye.

Lil Big Hauler Bumble Bee Loco, adding Big Hauler pistons kitbash. Got this a while ago , time to finally get around to modifying my LBH engines, I decided to start with the Bee version first, here are the results, Big Hauler (BH) pistons mounts cut and shaped to fit the slots from the stock piston mounts:









The stock BH pushrods were then cut down and mounted back onto the sliders with a micro nut and micro bolt and some very small washers between the moving parts, I locked the nut with a little tiny dab of CA. The trickiest part was fixing the pushrod to the wheel, I ended up searching for a long enough bolt that was just large enough to thread into wheel's mounting hole for the plastic siderod locking pin. I used a styrene tube spacer to fill in the opening space in the pushrod. More pics to come, I have since added water feed lines to each side of the boiler, a more complete looking backhead, an air brake compressor pump and storage tanks, a new BH bell that luckly fit into the left over opening after I cut the bell off, link/pin couplers from and rear, and stirrups and grab bars to the tender. Certainly looks better, even if the pistons are a tad larger than I would have liked, but you use what you got. Will be doing the same treatment to the Saddletanker one of these days. PS you WILL need a Dremel or some sort of tool to do the cutting efficiently, it could be shaped with a razorsaw and xacto blades, but it would be tedious work.



Finished my bash: Added air compressor/tanks, spark arrester, backhead details, tender steps and grab bars













Added other various Big Hauler bits, Finished.

Lil Big Hauler Combine Car Into Railbus Bash

As part of the ongoing evolution of my roster I have been trying to find ways to upgrade older models that for what ever reason just never worked as well as I would have liked. With the main layout becoming a harbor transfer layout, I have pieces that are now extraneous without any place on either the harbor layout or are too big for the pizza. This was one of them, a railtruck bashed from HLW parts and a NWSL Magic Carpet drive:



Its track powered but it was too long for the Pizza but there is no place for it on the Harbor layout, so its has lingered in limbo as to what should become of it. I wanted a passenger railbus but it had to fit the 32" diameter pizza. From the first moment I saw the new Lil Big Hauler lineup I was certain the combine car would make just such a nifty railbus and, come a lucky bid on a brand new Lil Big Hauler passenger train set on Evilbay and low and behold I had the perfect base for bashing me a new railbus. I started by carefully cutting up one end and re-positioning the two end walls.







 

BTW Pollyscale DRGW Yellow is almost an exact match for the Bmann plastic color, still searching for a few finishing touches but its 99% there.

PS Attn Bachmann, I was requested to post this here so as to suggest that this might make the basis for a future LBH release, based on merging the LBH Combine and the Spectrum Railbus. It would be a fairly straight forward thing but that's up to you guys, I got mine  

I picked up a couple of the new line and the coupler mounts are like the Thomas line too high to match standard LGB couplers. Why was this done? Does Bachmann sell the adapter mounts seperately? I cannot find them listed anywhere

A Trevor the Tractor would sure be nice in LS, not because I like the character but because I could then have a steam tractor for the LS layout (after replacing the faceplate of course)

Define "recent" . I have built and dismantled 5 layouts (inddors and outdoors) since 2001, and  recently (last year) tore out my last incarnation of my indoor RR and rebuilt it as a mobile indoor layout. I am almost done with the latest version of my ever shrinking railroad, at 5'6" square its far from what most here would consider even conceivable in large scale, but with running 3 trains at once,  it works for me.