Big haulers are 1:24. It looks to me like they were designed to be comparable to the old Delton product line. Then Bachman decided to compete with LGB, so they started calling their stuff 1:22.5. Meanwhile, LGB started making some stuff in 1:24.
"oh 'tis a tangled web we weave..."

thanx for the help, guys. i really appreciate it.

i understand the big hauler 4-6-0 is based on the Tweetsie 12.
can someone give me a few basic dimensions, such as driver diameter, driver wheelbase, heighth of smokebox over the rails, smokebox diameter, maybe cab heighth and width. i found out that drawings are included in one of the MR cyclopedias, but i'm not inclined to spring for $75 for idle curiosity. thanks for your help.

well, i forgot.
i followed the link that loco bill posted for re-powering big haulers. when i found they were on sale, i ordered a couple. got just what i wanted; black drivers, fancy valve gear, and there's wires all over the place. happy as a little clam.
thanx, bill.

get some coaches on ebay. krylon "hunter green" matches LGB fairly close. krylon "chrome" matches the b'man and LGB roofs. when shopping, pay attention to the battery vs track power option.

i found some drawings for a d&rg "standard" coach, whatever that is
i doubt it makes much difference
after looking them over, i have to agree with the other folks: enjoy what you have.
anything else will cost you, and is it really worth it ?
just to let you know...
the drawings show a car that is 12' tall from the top of the clerestory to the top of the rail
b-mann cars are 6".
that's 1/24 scale.
another quick check, the drawings show 8'4" wide.
b-man cars are a titch over 4", again 1/24 scale
sorry mr bach-man.
due to "creative compression," a term from Lionel's 0-27, b-mann cars are 19" vs a scale 22 1/2".
by contrast, 1:20.3 cars would be 5" x 7" x 26 1/2.
that is a big difference; since there's little agreement on scale, get some drawings and compare them to what you're paying the big bucks for.

the big hauler and delton box cars are near clones
1/16 here, 1/8 there
in 1/24 they make a 30 foot car, great for d&rgw fans
however
if you couple a box car to a bachman coach, the box is about 1" too tall
(based on my eyeball)
the real box cars are dinky, easy to fix with a table saw
also by eyeball, the rooftops of the real durango & silverton coaches (whatever they are)
"appear" to be even with the top of a real k-36 cab

hey barry, your mailbox is full

you might have something there.
walt disney had a pet mouse that would come thru the baseboard at night.
named him mortimer, rest is history.

hey father christmas.
your interest is in bachman "big haulers."
find out what big box stores carry them.
check their local inventory; next week head into the buffalo burbs and get up close and personal with them.
if you really have to have one, get the white christmas or some other non-railroad logo. After christmas sales should get you one for less than half msrp.
set it up under the tree, pull up a chair and watch it go around. i'll bet you don't last 10 minutes. unless you have it on a carpet; then you'll have derailments and uncouplings to give you something to do. do this every hour while you have the tree up. this will give you plenty of time to think about whether or not there is enough play value to warrant the additional expense.
having said that, i admit to having a very unimaginative 10 x 25 foot loop under my patio cover. i have found that after a couple of drinks, those things running around up there in circles make all the sense in the world.
if you decide to pursue this, your next step will be your track plan. put a lot of thought into this, as it will probably make or break your satisfaction with your new project.
you will not have 72 feet of track. that is the linear total of your walls, but...
first you need to come away from the walls a bit to allow clearance for projections such as the extended pilots on wood burning locomotives. next you should consider a broad radius for your curves, maybe six feet. this will minimize one aspect of derailments and allow for longer trains. that will bring you to about 50 feet (guess). also consider a passing siding on one long wall, and a yard on the other. this will allow storage as your collection grows.
you can pull one train out and run it for awhile, then park it and pull out another.
if you wire this as joe said, yes you can run two trains. no, they won't go the same speed. you can take a car off of one train and add a car to the other until you minimize the difference.
getting timed out, have fun.

hey wade
there has to be a logical reason for our divergent solutions
maybe scale ? ?
cause i haven't run into what yr talking about
i'm not big into math, can't help yu there
i have primarily bachman big haulers (nominal 1/24 , but who knows)
follow my wife thru flea markets, swap meets, etc
if i find a train thingy that looks "good"
for a couple of bucks it'll look even better in my parts bin
i've stumbled onto lots of b'man, lgb, deltron, aristo
put 'em on the test track, bump 'em together
if they're even close, it's just the simple little screw

yep...just one little screw

bachman big haulers and aristo classics (deltron) are basically the same
i have big haulers eight wheel cabooses (cabeese ? ?)
aristo classic cabeese
width, roof and cupola height match
also have box cars
dimensions are w/in sixteenth of inch w/other
over years have snagged mine at garage sales on the cheep
now since both bachman and aristo are putting their money elsewhere
you'll be doing same
hey, it's an adventure

hey, kev
you're thinking of "devil with the blue dress"

a fairly recent (they all run together) model mag had drawings
looks like an easy build (10 foot rule)
will see if i can find them