There is a guy who makes electrical pickup kits for the Bachmann N scale Northern, here is the link  http://www.richmondcontrols.com/  Just click on the electrical contacts  section.

For the DD40 I think soundtraxx makes one, this engine is big enough to fit a tsu-1000 in it, as for the J,  esu loksound has the class J sound file for the loksound 4.0 and the loksound select.  I went with the loksound select because it takes an 8 ohm speaker and soundtraxx has a 1/2 inch,8 ohm speaker that fits perfect in the speaker mount in the J's tender making the tender one giant baffle.

well its not really taking that long for them to fix your locomotive, you need to give bachmann a little bit of a break here.  When you think of how many thousands of customers deal with bachmann in all scales, it takes time to get to yours. 

I agree there should be a class A, Im sure it would be a heavy seller.  would be an awesome dream.  I dont even think they have even made one in brass yet.

yeah but I stink big time at scratch building, I made a cabin the one time ended up looking like a hundred year old shack.  Id sooner have someone else make it.  Im good at scenery and sound decoder installation and thats it.  Never was good at scratchbuilding structures.  Heck Im only novice at putting models together, usually get them built and ready, but Im getting better.

you would probrably have to use hot glue to fasten the roadbed down on account of the scenic ridge pack using foam risers.  I would think that using track nails to hold flex track down on foam would be tricky.  Kato unitrack might work, but they measure their radius in 15, 30, and 45 degrees at different lengths

I just find there to be something off about digitrax sound, Ive used many of them and didnt keep them very long.  If you like them then thats great, I personally dont.  A tsunami has one throwback as does the digitrax.  A capacitor.  especially the tsunami.  ESU loksound doesnt require a capacitor.  their sound files are excellant but some of the diesel horns seem to end abruptly.  For diesels you dont even need to monkey with the cv values to get the sound to go with the locomotive cuz it senses the motor speed not the voltage.  with steam sometimes you have to adjust them a little.  I will give Digitrax one bit of credit.  They are the only ones that have an accurate sound file for an RDC budd car in a decoder small enough for N scale.  Top Hobby just posted a video of a loksound installed into a kato budd car it sound nothing like a real RDC.  There is a guy on youtube that did a digitrax install in one and it sound awesome. 

sounds good to me, Ill check it out.  Ill send you an e-mail then so you can send me a pic.  thanx.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1075272652036071651fvFgcS

All three are very nice looking models but the bachmann model still more closely resembles the prototypes I grew up seeing.

Just a question for bachmann.  I saw one of your HO covered bridges in the hobby shop the other day and it is a fabulous looking model.  Just wondering if it will be made in N scale in the near future.  If so any hints on when?  Ive been looking for an affordable N scale covered bridge for my layout for some time and your model matches several prototypes found in my area of Pennsylvania.  thanks.

Take it from one who knows about N scale sound, you would be better off using the two decoder install.  for one using just a tsunami will require drilling holes in your tender and locomotive and running wires between them and even if you do this successfully it usually makes the front of the tender to ride high.  Dont insult your engines with a digitrax sound decoder, the sound is garbage.  Go with a Lenz silver mini in the boiler for motor and headlight control and a Micro tsunami 750 or a Loksound decoder in the tender. 

If you tested it without hooking a transistor hooks up to the positive lead you burned it out.  You should never test an LED with your power pack power unless you want to solder a transistor to do it.  LEDs are surge sensative and burn out on raw power, I didn the same thing I tested it with power and it lit but when I installed it it was gone, I had to replace it.  Also check the wires  on the harness in the tender, the wires break away from the plug very easily and you probrably wouldnt notice it go disconnected unless you really looked, also check the board in the tender, I had one with a sloppy soldering job done on it from the factory and some of the solder was "leaked" onto another circuit and was shorting the headlight out.  well good luck.

for smaller tenders the ESU loksound decoder is best, it is a hair shorter than the tsunami and far superior sound to digitrax.

its pretty easy to solder once you get the hang of it.  You really dont have to do much modification to the tender since it is a larger tender, just drill some small holes in the coal load for the sound to be louder thats it.  Ive done many N scale hardwire sound installs and never really had to modify anything unless it is diesel.  there is alot less room in a diesel to work with.  The only N scale steam locomotive that are true plug and play is the FVM hiawatha, the walthers 0-8-0 and the later model walthers 2-8-8-2.