Can anyone walk me through on how to solder a DCC decoder into Thomas? I tried the one train buddy article and it confused the person that originally wanted to do it and I don't want to happen with the second person.

Thanks!

I forgot how to reset the decoder's channel. It's currently on channel 101, which isn't accessible on the Bachmann E-Z command controller.

Help please!

The CV&WS is having an open house April 9th & 10th! A friend wanted me to tell people about it a little early...(if you want to call it that). If you would like, you can stop by this Thursday and Saturday at 7:00 P.M. to check out the layout! It won't be as good as the actual open house. The N scale layout won't be running & the O scale layout won't be running this week, but they will during the open house! We usually have 2-3 guys running trains and a lot of others that like to chat. No charge to come those days but we ask you to please come to the Open House as well if you can! Hope to see some of you drop by! 

Website: http://www.cvwsmrc.org/

address: 25802 Garfield Road, Cleveland, OH (actually Olmsted falls but it lists it as Cleveland)


I'll be there both days.

I've noticed that a lot of people aren't big fans on the Bachmann GE70-ton after seeing some reviews. I've actually surprised a lot of guys at the CV&WS with my bachmann trains, like I've said in the past, and this little engine didn't fail at that. I'll admit its not that detailed, but on a detailed layout, it looks great. The following clips were taken yesterday after i cleaned the wheels earlier in the day. If in top condition, with some occasional maintenance, i think this engine can make anyone proud to own one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BnPoTearmE

Note: at the end when its pulling 10 cars (6 hoppers, 3 stock cars & a caboose) it stalled on the 2% grade for the helix. but with 7 cars, it barely struggles. The cars i used don't have any added weights in them.

I tried takeing a ear cleaner and damping 1 side and wiping the car and then drying it off with the other. The coach took 3 to look decent and the tips on both sides were a dirty gray! Is there a faster way? A person at club saw my original 4 lighted 1980's anthern coaches and gave me a box with 7 lighter ones with no lights. I just need to replace the couplers and they're good to go. I'm buying 6 more with the right couplers from another club member so I'm gonna have a whole roster's worth!  I want to get them rolling and running before the first open house in April. Any way i can make them look like new?

they are an older version of this and there is some opservation cars in the lot.

http://www.modeltrainsets.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/passengercars-2.jpg

I was talking to a friend when i came up with an idea. What if bachmann made a limited run NS 999? Just sell it for $40-50 like the other 4 axle diesels and have it DCC. It would be cool and there is plenty of NS fans out there. I think it would be a good sell, not perfect, but will make a profit. 999 has become famous in a way and this may be a chance for bachmann to make some money off of it.

What do you guys think?

(for those who don't know, this is NS 999) http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=302753&nseq=5

Hi, I've reseived a bachmann spectrum 4-4-0. Personally, its an amazing looking engine and I like how detailed it is! The I was gonna wait till Thursday but I had to see how well it would fit the B&O old time round house caboose I got about a year ago that I used to think wasn't gonna be used much, but it found the perfect partner! Another neat thing was that it came with spare parts! I was wondering how do I replace the dome? I don't know how to take it off so I can swap it with the spare. Other than that, I'm just going to swap the piot trucks wednessday and test it on the club helix Thursday.

Mr. Bachmann, thank you for making great engines. Today at the CV&WS, my B&O FT-A, chessie gp9 and B&O gp30 were pulling the club passenger cars, when suddenly, at the cliff, the track tilted and the last 2 engines hit there side... Mr. FT-A.... met Mrs. Ground. Surprisingly, the truck popped out and I damaged some of the cliff (3 little chips) the back coupler broke off, but the engine looked normal! A good laugh, scared the scenery crew, they were 2 feet away! The FT-A is going to the shops, the track, finally going to be repaired. The 2 engines are going to the bar to try and forget the incident and the track is being maintained. Turns out the deadly curve has a dark history... but I'm the first to have an engine kiss the ground.

Now I'm going to get a pop because I'm still suffering from shock.

I'm gonna try and get my Thomas DCCifed (i really don't care if its not a word ) Any way can i improve the running? it'll probably lead most trains but on its own... is what I'm worried about. it's going to get a back knuckle. Any suggestions would be great!

I got an E-mail from a local railfan group i joined saying that Amtrak is delivering 15 coaches to Pennsylvania on a dead head move. From the latest update, they were delayed because of BNSF in Nebraska. They were due at Chicago last night and leave at 9 in the morning today. Anyone got any idea when it should come through Cleveland or any official update?

The E-mail i got...

Many of the American Orient Express / American European Express / GrandLuxe Rail / American Railway Explorer cars have found yet a new owner. Some of the cars are still painted AOE/AEE/GLR blue-and-white, some are in gray primer, and a few are in American Railway Explorer green-and-cream.

The 15 car Amtrak Deadhead Special will depart Denver Sat. (1/22) at 0800 running as Amtrak 940 with an eta Chicago of 0500 (1/23). It will then depart Chicago as Amtrak 942 at 1100 Sunday (1/23) with an eta in Reading,Pa. of 0600 ( 1/24), Greenbrier Express shop in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The train should be powered by a pair of AMTK P42's and the route should be:

Denver-Chicago - CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR route
Chicago-Pittsburgh - CAPITOL LIMITED route
Pittsburgh-Harrisburg - PENNSYLVANIAN route
Harrisburg-Pottstown - NS Harrisburg Line


Here is the proposed consist. The AOE/AEE/GLR names have been included; but some of the cars had been renamed by ARE, and some probably won't have any names.

800109 - sleeper VIENNA - nee UP 11DB 1510 PLACID WATERS
800246 - crew sleeper MONTEREY - nee C&O 5DB/buf/lng-obs 2507 WOLVERINE CLUB
800231 - sleeper MONTE CARLO - nee B&O 10-6 7045 OPEQUON
800757 - sleeper MONTREAL - nee UP 5DB/buf/lounge NORTH PLATTE
800310 - lounge SEATTLE - nee UP 14S sleeper ALPINE MEADOW
800753 - sleeper BAR HARBOR - nee UP coach 5539
800754 - sleeper CHARLESTON -nee UP coach 5494
800668 - crew sleeper GRAND CANYON - nee UP 11DB 1506 PLACID SCENE
800297 - sleeper ISTANBUL - nee SP 4-4-2 9119
800298 - sleeper PARIS - nee SP 4-4-2 9120
800768 - sleeper SANTA FE - nee UP 5DB/buf/lounge CHEYENNE
800740 - sleeper DENVER - nee UP coach 5490
800741 - sleeper SAVANNAH - nee UP coach 5500
800311 - lounge ROCKY MOUNTAIN - nee UP 14S sleeper ALPINE VIEW
800301 - diner ZURICH - nee UP diner/lounge 5004

i really am starting to avoid modern diesels and have been trying to stick with steam. i do like older diesels and industrial diesels. I really want to get a sound engine (mainly so my friend could get off my back on the subject) i loved this 4-6-0 i found but the whistle ruined the whole thing in my opinion. ( http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Bachmann-Spectrum-HO-84904-4-6-0-With-DCC-Sound-p/bac-84904.htm ). Trying to look for something under $200.

Any suggestions?

http://www.lincolninstitute.com/Sesquicentennial/Sesquicentennial.html

anyone know if it will pass through ohio?

After reveiwing a video I had, I found out that the problem with the 4-8-4 was that it would stall because it wasn't as fast as the 2-8-0. After some talk about bullfrog snot, I'm gonna save some money for a bottle for the 2. Would this fix the speed problem? I really don't want to control both (as in I control one for each speed dial) and they're an amazing duo like I said before. Help?

I finally found some time to run my bachmann 2-8-0 and it didn't want to run on any of the channels on the bachmann DCC command controller. The other runs it had was at the club layout under the address 2517, but i figured that it would stay on channel 3. What do i do? The controller at the club is a Digitrax DT402R Digitrax Super Throttle http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/PhotoDetails.asp?ShowDESC=N&ProductCode=DIG-DT402R

I was joking with a friend about grand pacific junction #100 (behind a historic plaza next to the ns chicago line). Its clearly stuffed and mounted but how much would it cost to restore it? It probably just needs boiler work & a few fixes like the fire box door. It sort of resembles the 0-4-0 that runs at the B&O roundhouse in baltimore maryland. It would be neat to see a steam engine that's a native to northeast ohio!

do I dab a paper towl with alcohol and hold the engine over it while it runs on the track?

Can I do the same with a coach to clean the electrical pick-up?

I had a my 2-8-0 running with a few freight cars when a guy dropped off the club coaches on a passing siding in the middle of the main. I raideoed the dispatcher to drop my load off at the stageing yard and asked zach to get my 4-8-4 out of the siding he left it in (it was shaking a bit for him...) after getting the 2 together, I ran both all the way to the coaches and picked them up. After that, they ran fine till they were at the top of the layout. The 4-8-4 would stall and the 2-8-0 would push it till it came alive. It was nice till the dispatcher asked me if I wanted to take it off, so I did. Then I asked to highball. After doing 85 on the contoller, the poor 2-8-0 stalled slipping on the 3ed level of the helix (around 10 levels). It was a sad, yet funny sight because everyone thought it would make it.

What was wrong with my 4-8-4? It ran fine, it just would stall like it was on dirty track. The wiring is fine, I checked. The 2-8-0 never stalled. (Unless a engine tripped a switch and killed the whole layout)

Got bored because I didn't go railfanning, figuring it would be slow. So i tested out a 4-8-4 i got for Christmas to see why it was derailing. When i figured out it was poor track laying, i took it back down to the layout but couldn't help but get my 0-6-0 dockside & GP9 to have some fun too (also Christmas presents)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmW8Y7-kE2Q

While running the 0-6-0, i was thinking of the bachmann sets that had steam engines. They're litterly all the same cheap 0-6-0 tender engine or a more expensive engine that's huge. Why not have something small, yet is something a bit different, like the 0-6-0 dockside? Have that, 3 hoppers, a simple oval, a switch, 2 pieces of track to add as a siding, some buffers, DCC power pack & a coal mine as scenery? It would be a good starter set for people wanting to get into DCC and could be added on to a main line or expanded to be run by another engine with it in the future. i did a little math and figured it would sell for $200 . All the other DCC sets are around $200 so no problem with that.

What do you guys think?

I decided to try and looked in the casing for the instructions... but there was none... can anyone explain how i remove the shell? i gotta check the decoder to see if its unplugged or fried. (will change the title and post again if there's another problem)

A friend & I keep jokeing about the pulling of a 4-8-4 hauling a freight with a 2-8-0 banker on the back pushing. I said around 80 cars. He said 75 to 100. Both engines are bachmann. Neither of us can't find out for 2 weeks because we want to do it on a operation day (canceled due to the holidays). Anyone got an educated geuss on how much they can pull on a flat surface?