I have several Bachmann Big Hauler ET &WNC "wood" boxcars that I intend to "lease" to  another railroad... Does anyone know which Polly Scale or similar paint is a close colour match to the red/brown bachmann paints their boxcars (and are they all the same base colour? eg ET &WNC same base as Rio Grande etc. )

I'm trying to decide if I want to go to the trouble of painting my stock of USA brass track before laying it (I know, keeping the paint off the top...).  Local rail around here in service is mostly a medium dark chocolate brown, combo rust and oil.  I do paint my N gauge and it looks better for it,  but I dunno - lot of painting for the G... Krylon camo brown looks about right.  I can see from the bit of LGB that I have that it would darken up, but the Aristo and USA don't look like they would anytime soon... Comments?

My new 2-8-0 Connie arrived today, but... front truck on the tender has a shattered bolster   ,  both dealer and Bachmann notified, so I guess I get to see what service will be like.  The truck looks like a previous repair attempt had been made, but the carton appeared factory sealed still... Hrrmmph.

Updates:...  The loco has issues as well...   The front boiler plate (switch unit) won't stay in the boiler tube.  This appears to be a friction fit, with no, er, friction. It was loose in the bag when I unpacked it.  One of the switch wires was broken off, and all of the wire soldering is cold - I've since fixed that but I will have to go back and reflow those connections, and I am going to install a pair of grub screws to hold the plate in place.  I tried some lazyman tricks of a couple beads of hot glue to add some friction, but that was less than satisfactory, so it appears the answer will be the "engineering solution".

The base plate of the tender is warped and will have to be annealed to straighten it.  Makes the tender look like it was parked on a boulder for too long and the ends sagged.  A couple of metal bars across the speaker mount holes might pull it back straight.

   Reading through the advice given in this forum (thank you!) I can see with a flashlight that the two side screws that hold the gear case together are also absent entirely, so it appears I'm going to have to do the teardown to examine the case. A general review of all screws appears to be in order.  I've snugged up the counterweights (they weren't bad over all).

Any other things to look at, better now than later?

While I'm greatful to Bachmann for producing these models, some basic QC during assembly would be nice...   

I'm putting together a modest DC layout (150-200 feet) running only one loco at a time, and looking at straightforward power supplies - The control master 20 looks suitable, but is 5A enough, and is this unit reliable enough?  I'm not overly excited with MRC (have several smaller scale gear including a prodigy express) but the price is right for now...  Good, bad and the ugly?

Just saying hi, and also seeking a little info.  Have just taken delivery of a new 38-ton 2-truck shay, and its quite the little machine.  I have a couple of nits for Bachmann tho - suggest they spend less money on the fancy DVD and a bit more on info. 

A guide to getting it out of the foam without crushing small parts (ie where to grab it...) would have been nice ... , and a bit of discussion about installing the loose parts that need to be installed, like the stack...   It was a brute to get that in the top of the firebox, and ultimately required some trimming and a few heavy whacks with a small hammer... Yikes!

The version I have is the undecorated- it comes with a small bag of tools which also contains some parts not illustrated on the expoded diagrams - so far their use eludes me - anybody share?  I'm speaking of the black u-channel drawbar-like piece with a keyed hole in one end, and the two little black plastic trianglular blocks that look like they snap into holes in something, but I haven't figured out what yet.

I haven't talked to Bachmann yet but it sounds like my chances of replacing a couple of support brackets from under the front deck are slim and none...

Rant over (well, new to G, and the coupler game, makes my N scale issues seem trivial...), OTH, looks like the loco will be fun.