Quote from: Len on February 14, 2021, 04:49:47 PM
Life-Like isn't exactly defunct, they, and their tooling, were bought out by Walthers. The old Life-Like "Power-Loc" track is now sold as part of their "Trainline" products. They still carry the adapter to go from "Power-Loc" track to Bachmann's "EZ-Track" for anyone wanting to expand an old Life-Like set beyond the "Power-Loc" pieces available.

Len

That's right. Additionally, some of the Life-Like scenic accents, like their figures, are now sold under the Walthers SceneMaster brand, and many of the Life-Like Proto 1000 and 2000 locomotives are now sold under the Walthers Proto brand. I'd like to also see Walthers maybe bring back the Life-Like operating accessories to be sold under the Trainline brand, as they had a bunch of neat stuff (I could see Life-Like's Power-Loc dual crossing gate upgraded with nickel-silver rails and maybe a better and more realistic paint job, like Bachmann's dual crossing gate got when it was upgraded to work with E-Z Track.)

Also, one advantage the nickel-silver Bachmann E-Z Track has over the steel track is it comes in a wide variety of lengths, radii and turnout options compared to the steel E-Z Track, so it's also a lot more suitable for tabletop layouts, like my current one. In fact, in the 1970s TYCO had their "Layout Expander System" where you could start with a train set with a basic circle of track, get their Track Layout Expander and thus enlarge it to a nice 4x8 oval with passing siding and simple blocking, and then expand it with more sidings and an inner loop. The finished plan would actually be a perfect track plan for starting out with DCC; just put the track together without any of the insulation gaps or extra terminal sections! (It could even be made with Bachmann's nickel-silver E-Z Track, knowing that a but of cutting and customization would be needed for the turnouts on the two dead-end sidings on the bottom half of the plan...

Heck, if I were building such a model train layout in the late 1970s and I was a kid or teenager, I'd go with the Layout Expander System plan, using a nice mix of Bachmann, TYCO and A.H.M. products (as Life-Like was still smaller then and didn't really get big until the 1980s when they really stole much of TYCO's thunder and took their place as Bachmann's biggest rival.)

A train set is definitely a great way to start out. But if you want to build an actual model railroad layout using it, you'd definitely want more track than what's included in the set. This is why Bachmann sells the E-Z Track Expander sets, in both steel and nickel-silver. Bachmann also has that Your First Railroad Track Pack so you can build the World's Greatest Hobby 4x8 demonstration layout, and there are many other kinds of track plans out there you can use, or design your own, or even modify an existing plan, like I did for my current HO-scale model train layout, taking a 4x8 E-Z Track plan from the 1998 reprint of "The HO Model Railroading Handbook" by Robert Schleicher and added an extension for the 11x8 L-shaped platform it went on.
One method I feel is that with such a train set that includes E-Z Track, for the first week of operation you could just set up the included circle or oval of track as-is on the bare platform, maybe even get this layout assortment to enhance the circle or oval of track (if the set didn't already come with such signs, poles and figures, that is), and then start making plans for a more elaborate layout. Bachmann also makes a couple of nice train set expander packs that include enough extra track to make a dead-end siding, a Plasticville building kit and an additional freight car for your train. They remind me of the expander packs Lionel makes for their O-scale train sets, and I remember Bachmann's old (now defunct) rival Life-Like trains making similar expander packs as well.
That's one of the beauties of model railroading; the possibilities can be endless!

Strange; I use the latest version Google Chrome and I have Flash uninstalled of course, but I can read the catalog. It said "Powered by 3Dissue," which indeed used to use Flash, but now I think it uses HTML5. Maybe you need to upgrade your browser?

Quote from: Len on October 06, 2020, 05:23:48 AM
If the coupler mounts are still there, you can use a medium underset knuckle coupler, such as a Kadee #147, on both ends and lock it in place with a Kadee #212 talgo adapter.

From my experience, the Kadee talgo truck adapters also work great with Bachmann's E-Z Mate knuckle couplers, which is how I typically upgrade older I.H.C., Life-Like and TYCO rolling stock to run on my layout these days (using the medium-length centershank couplers.)

Some more new pics, especially since I now have another locomotive I installed a DCC decoder into!


My Walthers Trainline BNSF "Heritage II" Dash 8-40BW heads up the main freight, with a slightly patched Santa Fe Warbonnet behind it.


To go with the two Walthers Trainline Dash-8 engines, I pulled out my Walthers Trainline BNSF bay window caboose.


The freight train passing by my farm again.


The freight passing my short BNSF work train consisting of the Bachmann "Heritage IV" GP40 locomotive and TYCO Santa Fe crane car and boom tender.


After the last set of pics were taken, I rearranged my main freight a bit and had my Walthers Trainline BNSF "Fakebonnet" Dash 8-40BW locomotive be up front with the "Heritage II" behind it, based off how I've seen some real-life configurations, even done to this day (though real-life "Fakebonnet" locomotives are rare nowadays, with many having been repainted in the orange BNSF colors.)


I also added a driveway to my TYCO Lighted Ranch House with a diagonally-cut styrofoam piece painted black. Now the car can get in and out of the garage easily!


A nice shot of the main freight stopped so a pipe section can be unloaded from the TYCO Freight Unloading Depot.


A shot of the Unloading Depot itself in action.


An overview of the layout.


The main freight switching onto the inner track loop, passing the work train.


The freight train unloading crates from the Operating Boxcar.


A neat shot of the Amtrak passenger train approaching the Arlee Station with the Skyview Drive-In theater in the background.


The BNSF freight train passing through the TYCO Operating Crossing Gate.


A nice shot of the TYCO Drug Store, with a little newsstand (a Scenic Accents pack from Woodland Scenics) in front of the store.


The BNSF freight train rolling past the Skyview Drive-In on a busy evening.


I installed a second light inside the concession/projection building to create the illusion of a movie projector coming out of the openings!

Here are some more recent photos. This batch is from August...



Recently I took a couple of spare Life-Like diamond road signs and customized them to warn motorists that a side road they are approaching has a railroad crossing shortly after the turn, just like the ones in real life. I assume this modification could also be done with Bachmann's "SLOW" diamond sign.


Drive-in movie theaters are enjoying a healthy business thanks to the pandemic, and the Walthers Skyview Drive-In is no exception! The Android tablet's Wi-Fi connection is getting flakey, so I downloaded some drive-in theater intermission videos as MP4s onto a micro-SD card and loaded that into the tablet.


Just a nice shot of the farm on the layout.


An overview.


The main BNSF freight passes my Walthers DCC-equipped BNSF GP9M pulling the TYCO crane car and boom tender.


Another railroad crossing accident on the layout! Luckily the driver got out of the car in time.


The main BNSF freight unloading crates from the TYCO operating boxcar.


The Amtrak train stopped at the TYCO Arlee Station. It does make for an interesting sight seeing the Bachmann Amfleet cars next to the building like that.


The main freight having passed through the railroad crossing protected by Bachmann's non-operating Plasticville railroad crossing they've been making since the early 1970s, posed in this picture with the gates rising.

Here are some pics I took last week, with September starting...


Summer has ended on my train layout and the kids are actually going back to school! Like I said, my town is safe from the pandemic.


Another view of the schools. I might soon add an expansion to the high school.


The hobos still hanging out in the railroad yard.


The Center Street School (a TYCO kit) back in session.


I find a railroad yard like this a perfect place to put older operating accessories like the TYCO Prestomatic bins for my operating boxcar and log dump car, the Life-Like coal tipple and lighted yard tower, the TYCO lighted factory and the AHM freight carrier. The Pola trucking terminal (Walthers Trainline version) also looks good there too.


For now I've switched to GE power for my main freight, with a pair of BNSF "Fakebonnets" (Walthers Trainline Dash 8-40BW with TCS decoders hardwired into them) hauling the freight cars.


During this operating session, when I was running the Amtrak train, something went wrong and the second Amfleet car ended up uncoupling from the first car and the F40PH locomotive (a Walthers Mainline model). Luckily I noticed what happened before a wreck could happen, and set up so that my little BNSF work train would push the uncoupled Amfleet cars back to the rest of the train, similar to real-life railroad operation.


Another shot of my BNSF work train pushing the Amtrak cars, consisting of my Bachmann DCC-equipped GP40 that came with my E-Z Command unit pulling the TYCO crane car and boom tender, the Santa Fe versions of course!


The Amtrak train all together again pulling into the downtown station, only a little late.


The GE Fakebonnet-led BNSF freight rolling past the Skyview Drive-In Theater, now with a playground! (The Bachmann playground set, of course!)

I'm gonna try and see if this works for images.

The following photos were taken in March:

Spring comes to my town, with the snow melting! (In reality, the decorated styrofoam snow pieces were removed and placed in storage until next Christmas.)


There was still leftover bits of foam and "snow" material from the removal, but I left it there for a month to create the realistic illusion of the winter-spring transition, combined with the barren trees.


The freight train rolls over a small pond and river underneath the Bachmann E-Z Track blinking bridge.

The following photos were taken in June...

Now the transition from spring to summer is happening on my layout! All the snow is melted away, and I swapped out the barren trees for spring trees!


That couple is back up at the Lover's Lane, even with the new billboard for the Skyview Drive-In being there!


The swimming pool behind the Plasticville Suburban Split Level has been reopened, and the family next door are having barbecues again!


My town is NOT being affected by the current coronavirus crisis, and everyone is well and businesses and schools are thriving. But many of the residents here that work as doctors and nurses have to frequently commute to the big city via Amtrak to treat and test patients during the crisis!


Even the Skyview Drive-In Theater is reopened and doing pretty well!


Another family gets ready to go on a picnic, like in the olden days!


The freight trains are still busy here, like this one unloading logs at the TYCO Prestomatic bin. One of the boxcars is also loaded with toilet paper to ship during this crisis

Quote from: Ken Huck on September 04, 2020, 10:40:41 PM
Hey Wiley, you still working on your railroad ?  I know you got a lot of stuff crammed in there, but it was
you that got me started on my long trestle and water features.  We'd sure like to see what your you're
up to.  How about checking in ?   

Well, here's a video I shot early in the spring. Not much has changed with the layout, except I do have "water" under my blinking bridge now...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvWexsXOO7M

Quote from: Terry Toenges on January 18, 2020, 10:42:59 PM
I can't see any of the pics Wiley.

https://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?p=2491784#post2491784
I posted them here. I can't use Photobucket anymore because you have to pay steep fees to use it and for your existing photos to be unblurred.
Also, here is a YouTube video showing the progress...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLNd57o9hIQ

Back in December when the holiday season was starting up, I decided to start covering my HO-scale 11x8 model railroad layout with "snow" for the upcoming winter. I had a stroke of genius in devising a way to come up with snow... using 1/4" Styrofoam sheets cut to fit parts of the layout and decorated with Woodland Scenics "snow" material!




The Christmas train, pulled by my Bachmann Spectrum ATSF 2-8-0, makes its' way through the snowy landscape!















Of course, any "snow" that comes loose I vacuum up so it doesn't get into my trains' motors! And then when spring arrives, I can remove the styrofoam snow sections and store them until next winter!
Pretty cool landscaping technique, huh?

Yep, I got the pilot/cowcatcher replaced! Thanks everyone.

Quote from: Terry Toenges on April 14, 2019, 10:52:43 AM
Roger - Bachmann does show it available.
https://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=68_86&products_id=7480&zenid=ftps8b4clkaddijt6egn82pct4

Exactly. Bachmann still makes the Baldwin 2-8-0, but it's not under the Spectrum name anymore, even though it retains the high Spectrum quality. (The same can be said for some new models that are not Spectrum-branded but have the same high quality, like the ACS-64 locomotive.)

You may recall me mentioning four months ago I got me a Bachmann 2-8-0 Spectrum Baldwin steam locomotive and tender, the DCC-ready version (I've since plugged a decoder into the tender.) But it arrived with the cowcatcher damaged and the coupler part broken, so I ordered a replacement cowcatcher from the Bachmann parts store (model H11408-Cowcatcher-B). But now how do I remove the old cowcatcher so I can replace it? The diagram I looked at didn't help much, and when I removed the screws and cover plates from the bottom, the cowcatcher piece still stays in tight. Is there any additional screws or parts I need to remove before replacing the cowcatcher?
Thanks.

Some more updates...


Since Christmas ended, I've got my Baldwin 2-8-0 steam locomotive in revenue freight service now! Smaller freights, and it may be anachronistic with the rest of my layout, but so what? It looks cool!


Said freight train stopping at the logging mill...


Loading logs...


The steam-powered freight passing a more modern (and longer) BNSF freight train.


I'm going to get a Logic Rail Tech Grade Crossing Pro controller and detection system for this railroad crossing, and will soon wire up the signals to it!


This part of the road still isn't finished yet, so I thought I'd close it off until I do! At least the train station can still be accessed by passing through the Pizza Hut parking lot.


The Amtrak train passing through the downtown station.


The BNSF freight dropping off crates at a TYCO Prestomatic bin...


It's pretty busy at this train station right now...


An overview of the residential area with the Amtrak train stopped at the nearby station.


Giving my tracks a once-over in an anachronistic but cool manner!


A nighttime action shot at the residential area and the Skyview drive-in theater!


Another action shot in the dark. Looks a lot more like a real city or town this way!


The Skyview Drive-In is still doing well on my layout! Sorry for the crossbuck on the road; I was still positioning things.


For this run, I put my Walthers Trainline BNSF bay-window caboose at the end! It does look neat, but I find I like the look of a caboose with the cupola on top better.


I've tried applying a couple of the included decals to this Walthers Cornerstone water tower. Working with decals is actually pretty tricky, and I need a bit more practice and experience before I begin to get ambitious with them...


Double Dash-8s! For pulling an HO-scale freight train with more than ten cars, I find consisting to help quite a bit, just like the real thing.


Trying some repositioning. I removed the TYCO lighted colonial house, as the interior lighting was broken anyways, and made a bit more space for the high school. I even put it right across from one of the elementary schools, like I've seen in some towns (the neighboring town of West Bridgewater, MA has both its' elementary schools and the middle/high school in one general area so they are close to each other.)


But I DID get a neat new structure: the Walthers Cornerstone Hole-In-One Donut Shop! Since it's molded in three colors and they recommend some painting for it, I thought I'd paint the decorative prop donut up like a Simpsons donut! I moved the Cornerstone newsstand over to a different, next door to the post office now.


The Exxon gas station now has an illuminated sign, made by Life-Like Trains.


An overview of this part of the layout, with new positioning of the high school with an added garage. This looks a bit more realistic now, especially with the TYCO freight unloading depot being so close to the high school originally. Maybe I'll put up a fence between that and the school parking lot.


The current setup on this side of the Main St. area of downtown, with the new donut shop and relocating the newsstand.


Disaster strikes! One of the turnouts apparently malfunctioned and opened by itself, leading to this head-on collision! At least the locomotives didn't blow up in the wreck, like in the movies or TV.


Some time after the train wreck. I disguised this leftover unused turnout wire with some lychen, as I often see shrubs growing next to railroad tracks in real life. (Because the turnout is right next to my control platform, there is no need for me to operate it via remote.)


I've provided a booster terminal connection to the inner loop, replacing the regular rerailer next to the downtown train station with a terminal rerailer. I've read in a few books that it's wise to provide a booster connection opposite or away from the main terminal connection on a large layout, especially if using DCC with multiple locomotives.


An overview showing my current freight train consists. After that head-on train wreck, when cleaning and repairing them I decided to switch around the rolling stock. I also unhooked the TYCO ATSF wide-vision caboose from my main BNSF freight as I decided it looked a little too toylike, and put my Walthers Trainline BNSF bay-window caboose at the end of the train for the time being.


Plus, having my hoboes ride in a freight train pulled by a steam locomotive looked a bit more appropriate.

Quote from: Joe323 on December 17, 2018, 07:52:47 AM
Looks good Wiley.  Just wondering have you considered using a relatively new line of Menards buildings on your layout?

I'll have to consider that... maybe the Starbucks.


The Christmas train passing through one of the town railroad crossings. Imagine the drivers' surprise to see a train with a steam engine roll through the crossing instead one of the usual diesels!


The stream coming from the logging mill.


I got my Walthers Cornerstone/Scenemaster traffic light up and running as well.


Rail travel gets pretty busy during the holidays!


Another railroad crossing action shot.


The freight train now pulled by my Walthers BNSF "Fakebonnet" Dash 8-40BW, with the TYCO ATSF wide-vision caboose at the end.


An overview of my three trains currently on the layout.