My son and I made a video of an early morning turn on my layout. It was posted on Facebook, but I thought other On30 Bachmann users might like to see it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqVz8Dx9fVA

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

Several years ago the lead up to the National Train Show was accompanied (at least on this board) by speculation on what might be new in On30 plus accompaniments of pleas for favorite prototypes to be produced. This year, nada. Zip. I guess that signifies that most On30 meddlers realize that nothing new is in the wings, and the end of the On30 range is nigh. A pity. But I will still remain loyal to the cause.

Steve Magee
On30 Lumber Mountain RR
Newcastle NSW Aust

It has been sometime since I uploaded a pic or two of my layout, but more can be seen on the local NMRA region layout tour page:

http://www.nmra.org.au/Layout_Tours/Magee/index.html

Cheers all

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

OK, only a few days until THAT show. Should we anticipate??? 

OK, I give in. Where is it? Or are we seeing the first waterless steam locomotive - after all, there are fireless steam locos, so why not waterless? :-)

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

The Australasian region of the NMRA featured my Lumber Mountain RR in its last issue of "Mainline"

I have included a link for those who might like to take a look:

http://www.nmra.org.au/mainline/Autumn%202012%20web%20copy.pdf

Cheers

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

May last year I bought the outside frame 4-4-0 at a train show, ran it with its fitted Bachmann decoder a few times then put it aside until I could get a replacement QSI decoder and fit sound to it. As anyone here who is waiting to get a QSI decoder will know, production was suspended pending introduction of the new Titan series. I am still waiting .....

Anyhow I bought a new (non-sound) budget priced decoder to try, and the 4-4-0 was nearby. On opening the tender up I was stunned to find a speaker already mounted in the base of the tender and acting in place of the normal weights installed in others. I may not now have to chop the base up to fit a HiBase, time and trial will tell.

But thanks B'mann, a nice touch and could save us modellers who use sound extra work and expense.

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

or anybody else who knows

If you take a peek into the tender of the On30 articulated, you will see that although there is an 8 pin socket into which the standard Bachmann decoder is plugged, the 8-pin socket itself plugs into a 21-pin board. The 21-pin board has all the necessary pins and even speaker outputs marked, apparently ready to solder wires into that lead to the speaker. All fine so far, I had a QSI V7 Rev U decoder running into a MRC speaker that, with a little blutac, fitted into the speaker receptacle beautifully. Gave me many hours of flawless enjoyment.

But, noticing the 21-pin board underneath, I though I could save space (and use a smaller tender load) by installing a 21 pin sound decoder. I ordered a Zimo MX644D with custom Uintah 2-6-6-2 soundfiles and installed it. It was the easiest install I have ever done.

But (should have realised this ....)

When I powered up the NCE system, I noticed the output from the EB3 (fitted with a 15w car bulb) lit. And then I noticed that I also had the smell of fried electronics and a smoke trail leading back to the tender. Opening the tender I found that my new Zimo decoder had a large burn mark on it. It was what we know here in Oz as Wallaby Bob's Cousin. Now I can exchange the Zimo for the cost of freight, so that isnt a big issue. I am concerned that perhaps the board in the artic - which was never announced as a 21-pin board - is not configured for the 21-pin standard.

Can the Bach-man, or anybody else, help me out here? Otherwise I shall have to buy an additional 21-pin socket to 8 pin plug adaptor and hope that that solves the issue.

Now this is what I call big. In that space I think I would build an O scale layout to run long trains, let alone in N scale - can't wait to see how it turns out. Anybody want to sign up for an engineers job? (Helps if you like Uncle Pete, I guess :-) )

http://www.unionpacificmodelrailroad.com.au/index.html

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

I prefer this version to the cabbage stack, but what the hey - its a big world ..

http://narrow-gauge.org/en/displayen.aspx?Id=4032

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

Just need a form of pulse controller for changing speed and a table tennis bat for changing direction

http://www.flixxy.com/magnetic-levitation-model-train.htm

When will Bachmann be offering this option?

Steve
Newcastle NSW Aust