Quote from: skipgear on March 12, 2013, 12:24:28 AM
If you are doing operations, then individual car numbers are a must.

I have a reasonably large N scale layout, with around 300 freight cars, and I run ops sessions using CC&WB.  I also regularly operate on two other similarly sized layouts using CC&WB.  We all have cars with duplicate numbers, and for the most part they don't cause difficulties.  So long as you don't have too many of a particular car in the fleet, there's a good chance that operators won't even notice the duplications - especially if they can be made to serve different customers at different parts of the layout.

Quote from: Ken G Price on March 10, 2013, 08:36:38 PM
If I am running blocks of all the same cars, always together, then they can all have the same number.

I agree, and I do a similar thing myself in some cases. Nevertheless, it would be nice to have at least a little variety.

A bigger issue for me is the difficulty in finding "common black (tank) cars", as mentioned by WrathofWotan.  From the photos I've seen from the '30s, '40s and '50s, the overwhelming majority of tank cars that were used to ship oil to refineries were black, with minimal lettering. But if you try to build a fleet of such cars you'll find that they're hard to find, and expensive when you can. Painting and decalling your own cars is an option - if you can find suitable decals.

I'm sure that if Bachmann was to release a 4 or 6-pack of their 10k gallon tank cars in UTLX (black with gold lettering) it would be a winner.

Regards,
Ron

Instead of buying an all-in-one "power pack" (ie transformer and controller in an integrated unit), you might consider buying a tethered throttle such as those sold by Ken Stapleton, and powering it with a surplus (ie "free) plug pack or laptop power supply. Some of these have memory, which allows you to unplug from one spot on the layout it while the train is moving, and plug it in elswhere.

Regards,
Ron McF

Hi Mr Bach-Man.

Earlier this year Bachmann announced that the new 40' steel box cars and 10,000 gallon tank cars would be shipping in November. Can you please provide photos of these cars, together with an update on when to expect them?

Regards,
Ron McF
Australia

Hi Mr Bach-Man.

I read elsewhere that models of the new 40' box car and 10K gallon tank car were shown at the iHobby show in Chicago. Does Bachmann have any photos that it can share with those of us who couldn't attend that show?

Regards,
Ron McF
Australia

Thanks Hoboblues.  I found exploded drawings of the H16-44 and B23-7 at the following URL, and you are correct.
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/references_2010.php

I'm not sure why Bachmann would package these with the T-shank couplers, as they seem to have very limited application.

Thanks again.
Ron

Hi,

I've just bought a three-pair pack of Bachmann dummy knuckle couplers (#42531) to test them out. The pack contains one pair each of short, medium and long shank couplers. The short and long shank couplers have a T-shank, but the medium couplers have a hole (about 1mm diameter I guess) instead of a T at the end of the shank.

Can anyone say what the medium shank coupler was designed to be used for?

Regards,
Ron

Hi Mr Bach-Man.

Are you able to give us an update on the ETA for the GP7 that was due in November?

Regards,
Ron

Quote from: ncbqguy on March 23, 2009, 12:02:12 PM
Bachmann does not make a "Single Dome Tank Car".
The car they do make is a 40 FT Chemical Tank Car.   <snip>
Unfortunately, many times the catalog folks use HO illustrations for the N Scale cars.

Thanks Charlie.

Even more unfortunately, Bachmann DESCRIBES its 40ft chemical car as a "40' Single-Dome Tank Car" in the products catalog on this website.  I'm well aware of the differences between the two car styles, and I was hoping that I'd stumbled across a new model that I could run with my MTL single dome tank cars, for a bit of variety.

BTW - I agree with your comments about the Bachmann tooling.  I have a bunch of their quad-hoppers; and before Atlas released its 2-bay covered hoppers I cut down about a dozen Bachmann 3-bay hoppers to make 2-bay versions.  I've even given serious consideration to how I might remove two domes from the Bachmann 3-dome tank car.

Regards,
Ron

Quote from: chrsbts6 on March 22, 2009, 01:08:52 PM
does any now where i can get part number 46605a?

Are you referring to the analog/DC controller that gets mentioned in the E-Z Command Digital Controller Users Manual?

Regards,
Ron

Errr... Reminder about the Caps Lock key.

Using upper case makes it look like you're angry and/or SHOUTING!  Few of us respond well to being shouted out.  You will usually get a better response from people if you don't come across as being aggressive.

Regards,
Ron

Thanks Mr Bach-man.

I'm familiar with the common practice of using a photo of a model in a different scale, and I'm comfortable with that so long as appropriate warnings are included.  In this case however, the HO car is an entirely different car style to the N scale car, and I think that's a bit unreasonable.

Regards, and thanks again,
Ron

Hi Mr Bach-man.

Thanks for the reply.  I don't mean to seem ungrateful, but I have to wonder whether we're discussing the same cars here.

The cars that I am interested in are in the product-number range #73481 to #73493. You have seven cars listed in this range in your on-line product catalog, and the pages for five of them (#73484, #73486, #73487, 73488 and #73490) all carry the words "An HO scale version of this model is shown for illustration purposes." The photos for all seven cars show round domes and NO platforms, such as this one of your #73493:


I did some Googling and found a number of on-line stores that have photos of cars purporting to be in this group, but which have platforms. For example, Walthers shows car #73493 as this:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/160-73493

So I guess I have answered my question myself - the photos for your N scale single dome tank cars are NOT representative of the actual models. Am I wrong in saying that?

Regards,
Ron McF

For Bachmann...

On the product pages for your N scale single dome tank cars, you have used photos of your HO models instead of the N scale versions.  I've never seen Bachmann cars like this in N scale - only a 3-dome version, and a more modern looking car with a platform around the valves (or whatever they are).

Are the Bachmann N scale cars really of the style pictured?

Regards,
Ron