You hear all kinds of opinions about one brand of sound systems over another, but having had my Annie since they first arrived here in UK, I think it's time to upgrade it somewhat and fit a suitably impressive sound system.  I guess that I'll be directed elsewhere, but it's worth a try.

tac
OVGRS.org

A fellow LS modeller has acquired a G scale gondola from the 2008 LS show in Ontario CA.  The word BINGO fills every one of the panels except the one at each end with the show logo on it.  Can you tell us what the letters stand for?

Thanks.

tac
OVGRS

I lucked into an unused Oregon Lumber three-truck Shay last week at a sale of unwanted trains.  Sadly, it has an onion stack and just looks wrong to me, it being oil-fired.

No help from Bachmann here in UK, so does anyone out there have one they could exchange mine for me, or even take $$$ instead?

tac
OVGRS
POCR

Dear Bach Man - today, as the rain had stopped, and the weather became somewhat kinder, I decided to get all my Bachmann Spectrum locos out, and make them ready for the coming year.

Being somewhat impetuous by nature, I bought every single one of my few locos almost instantly as they came out, even though some came from the USA and I live mostly in UK.

1.  My original 38 ton Shay, still with the original trucks fitted to it, and still running like a watch.  Came all the way from San Diego around the turn of the century.

2.  My Annie ten wheeler, now almost seventeen years old.

3.  The Connie, bought the day I read the review.

4.  The Heisler - the same as above.

5.  The Climax, a week old, and unwanted by the guy for whom it had been bought as a gift - he wanted an American loco that looked like a loco, bot something he'd never seen before.

6.  The three-truck Shay, also bought the same day as the review was published.

All are lovingly cared for and treated kindly, and appreciated for what they are - exquisite models of a kind that we'll probably never see again.

So if any of you out there have one or all of these fine models, treat them well and they'll repay the care.

Thanks, Bachmann, for almost seventeen years of the finest-detailed railroad fun.

tac
OVGRS   

   

I'm trying to get a few bits and pieces for my Shays [I have four], Heislers and Climax and have wasted way too much of my precious time trying to get them over here in yUK.

New or used is fine by me - at least three air tanks for a start.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

mrs tac gave me a couple of hundred Starbucks coffee stirrers from the last coffee morning she helped run in town, so I thought I'd build something that doesn't exist in model form in this scale - a Fn3 MoW van based on a stake-sided flatcar.

http://youtu.be/H0SnLjqoEqM

Wojja think?

The dirty bit happens later this week if the Creek don't rise etc.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

Dear Bach Man - can you tell me why all recent posts seems to be centered in the page, even though, in my case, they look just fine when I type them out?

Your puzzled friend.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

Me and a couple of pals will be running out teeny LGB-based layout at the Barnwell Garden Show this weekend.  It's only 12x8 feet, but has lots of track of a necessarily tight radiii - smallest and next one up, so that we can run ALL of the Bachmann geared stuff on the outside loop.  The geared locos never fail to attract an audience - unusual does not even come close as most here in UK have never seen ANY kind of a logging locomotive.  Those gorgeous Bachmann spectrum models sure do attract some serious attention, that's for sure.  Comment and question come thick and fast, and Youtube is used to show the real thing when we can get a decent wi-fi signal.

Between us we have five Bachmann Shays, a Heisler and Climax, plus a live-steam Shay and a couple of small live-steam locos.  I'll also be running a few LGB littlies, and a couple of AccuCraft's snazzy little Baguley-Drury dismals with suitable rolling stock.

There will be tea and cake for the locals, and coffee and pie for me and Bruce.  You are all more than welcome to to drop by - outside the village hall behind the Montague Arms pub, which will, or course, be open during the show.

All donations will be going to help offset the enormous cost of adding on a small washroom to a building put up in the early 1600's for the 'poor and G*d-fearing gentle people of the countie thatte they maye bee accomodated in close fellowshippe with their more advantaged fellows', Pastor Latham's Almshouses in other words, a Grade 1 English Heritage jewel that still houses people - widows and widowers, born in the county and are 'welle-deserving'.  The add-on has to be built using the same stone from the same quarry - still owned by the same family BTW, using correct 17thC recipe mortar and hand-smithed ironwork.  For the same price we could have a good-sized three-bedroomed home on Vancouver Island...

There will be a couple of little movies on Youtube, I have no doubt, that's if we can get persimmon from the parents to upload them if they have their children in them.

tac, ig, ken the GFT & The Richard III Society Boys

  x 10.

It's a nice day here, so I got out some trains to run while mrs tac milked the chickens and so on while I got down to some serious laziness.

Putting my Bachmann Connie on the track was not a problem, after all, I have done it a zillion times before, but putting the tender on the track was a bit of a surprise, to say the least.

The instant that the weight went onto the wheels, BOTH side-frames on the rear truck sheared off at the screw-fix point, leaving me with an unuseable loco.

Anybody seen anything like this before?

Living here in yUK is the real problem, since Bachmann [Europe] has a very poor 'track' record where I am concerned, and I hae me doots that they have any parts for this OOD model now, if, indeed, they ever had 'em in the fust place.

Any point in asking Bachmann in the USA to help?

TIA

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

Well, I 'won' another Heisler last weekend, mint nad boxed nad, as far as I can tell, never on a track.  Unlettered, too, so I can 'colour it in' for the Old Mill Lumber Co'.

Got a slight problem though.

The cranks are VERY jerky in motion as they reach the bottom of the stroke - particularly noticeable at slow speed - and I like to run it at slow speed to get the benefit of all that hard work put in by Mr Bachmann and the Boys.

So what's the fix - IF there is a fix?

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

Help! 

I'm looking to exchange an onion stack [all I got with my oil-fired three-truck Shay] for a more suitable shotgun style.  In view of the lack of bits here in yUK I'm hoping that some kind person here will take pity on me, in return only for money or my unwanted stack.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

glitch?

Every now and then, the Soundtraxx system in my AccuCraft K27 misses a beat, usually while I have an audience to impress, rather like your prize Weimeraner poo-ing on the steps of the grand maison at a show.

Everything is clean and lines up, and the [new] battery is fully charged up.

Any ideas from you electronic whizkids out there?

Best

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

Me and my pal came back last night exhausted from a charity train run where we had ALL our geared locos and two connies running for the delight of an appreciative audience of visitors.

About 300 saw five Shays [plus a live-steamer], a Climax and two Heislers hauling empty and loaded log cars around a pretty bumpy laid-on-ground' circuit of around 80 feet.  Would you bleeve me when I say that not a single one of the look-onners had EVER seen anything like them before?  Of course, the yUK never got the need for this type of loco.  But all were enthralled by the mass of wiggly bits flailing around in unexpected places on the geared locos, and, thankishly, we had a small table where we set up a rolling road for close-up examination...

And we are going it all again tomorrow!!!

All but the live steamer [an AccuCraft three-cylinder Shay] were Bachmann Spectrum products, as were many of the cars and the two cabeese.

Great stuff, Bachmann!  You might just have gotten a few new fans!

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS 

I walked into the large-scale train show here in Llanfair Caereinion [mid-Wales] and right in front of me was a BNIB never opened Heisler for sale.  The vendor had bought it about five or six years back and life got in the way....

We took it out and checked it over - looked just fine, so I bought.  Got it home, up-ended the box and lubed it up before running, then ran it very gently on rollers for couple of hours in each direction.

It's now running around my little track hauling half a dozen skeleton cars, and looking really good.   

My question is - are there any issues with this loco that have come to light over the years since it came out, and was finally sold out?  I intend to fit sound to it, and run it with an RCS system.

TIA

tac
www.ovgrs.org 

J ust picked up a BNIB H0 doodlbug in GN livery from ahem-bay at a price that could barely have covered the shipping.

After running it in on rollers over night it runs as sweet as a nut and is a real credit to the makers - the paint is perfect and the level of detail, even down to the windshield wipe and fine grab rails is all i could wish for in a mass-produced model - even though it cost me $25. 

I am SOOOO pleased with this little item.  All I need now is an old-style baggage car to haul ahint it.

tac - mostly Fn3, but occasionally an H0-er, too.
www.ovgrs.org

My pal Broos just called me up to tell me that his Fn3 Connie - hauling just three cars and a caboose - began some serious smoking.  Luckily he could turn it off instantly, and did so.

He's pretty much afraid to open it up and see what is wrong, but in view of the somewhat fragile nature of much of the wiring in there, what is likely to have gone FZZZZZZZZZZ?

tac
www.ovgrs.org

A while back a kind fellow posted a link to the breakdown diagrams of the older Spectrum models such as the two-truck Shay and the Climax.

If anybody remembers them, would they be kind enuff to point me at 'em?

TIA

tac
www.ovgrs.org

OK, guys, serious question time before I put my hard-earned $$$ where my mouth is.  I already have the oldie-but-goody Rivarossi UP #844, but who makes the best version right now?

Black is fine, but grey is even better [my Rivarossi is in grey].

I'd like the canteen, too, so's I can replicate the fan trains.

NOT brass, thank you.

tac
www.ovgrs.org

All just announced!!

Way to go, Bachmann!!

Seems you DO listen after all. 

tac
www.ovgrs.org
Supporter of the Cape Meares Lightouse Restoration Fund

to my White Pass Annie!  Ten years old today, and still running like a watch!

Just as soon as it stops raining we are going to be out there with six-car consist celebrating in the proper style.

Thanks, Bachmann, for a great model that has been totally reliable in every way for over 600 running hours - many for full days at a time on displays and shows.

I figure it's cost me about $14 a year so far - the longer I keep it, the less the p/a cost will be.

tac
www.ovgrs.org
Supporter of the Cape Meares Lighthouse Restoration Fund