Well as far as my locomotives poor performance issue I have 12.45volts at the power supply and 8.4 @ the track, we thinks the Bachmann connecter is a piece of trash...lol down to the work shop for the Weller soldering iron and that problem should go away. I will go out to my workshop and use some small zip ties for the time being to hold things together for now. We have plans on running this set this summer on a garden railroad we started building too late in the season to fully enjoy so I owuld like to get the coupler situations squared away before then. I suspect the radius of the curve is just too much for the plastic knuckle couplers to handle.
Thanks again for all your helpful suggestions and Merry Christmas to my fellow modelers.

It's Christmas time again and I set up the Blue Comet around the tree and the train won't stay coupled. When my wife bought the comet a few years back the knuckle couplers were already installed. Could it possibly be the fact that the track is sitting on carpet and not fastened down to a board etc. Another issue is with the power supply wide open the train doesn't seem to be running at full throttle. I am not thrilled with the clip on connector they provide with  the set.

Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Sheldon I used to prefer Scalecoat myself but it seems to be getting harder and harder to find around here. I think I may just possibly take some 1000 or 2000 grit ultra fine wet/dry paper to the tender shell just to remove the few scratches I put in it when using the exacto blade to remove the decals and do exactly what you mentioned.
I'm not a big fan of the George Sellios dirtier then dirt worn out depression look myself. I save that for the dead loco's I have in the back shop area or scrap track section of my engine serving facility.
Tanks again for the reply's and Listen Shhhhhhhhhhhhh no sound.....lol

Thanks Sheldon I came to that conclusion when I removed the old decals and cleaned the surface with alcohol on a Q-Tip and it turned black. Wouldn't do that if it was just black plastic now would it. I am getting a lot of advice on putting down a gloss coat fist for the decals to adhere to but they seemed to adhere to the painted finish just fine it was the lousy spray on dullcote that ruined the job.
So now I am debating in my fmind weather to paint it a gloos black or a weather black and then apply decals and then dullcote it. I know that too much paint is not a good thing either.

I have a pair of undecorated Spectrum Heavy Mountain steam locomotives that I want to apply decals to and add weathering etc. I recently applied a set of Decals and did not like the way they turned to as they left a very glossy finish. I posted a question about this on another board and was told that undecorated locomotives are not painted that they come colored but need to be painted first then apply decals etc. Is this true with Spectrum locomotives? I don't believe it's the case at all but want to get it form a reliable source.
Also do you have any recommendations regarding decals and applying them etc.

Thanks much

Thanks Jim but dummy's are not an option on my railroad, I'm the only dummy allowed. As I eventually will have some long steep grade helpers are the theme of my railroad weather it be steam or diesel powered. I am getting to like Digitrax a lot more after a couple of bad experiences with MRC sound decoders.

Does anyone know what sound decoders will fit the locomotives that DCC equipped such as the GP30 DCC on board model?