It looks like between the prototype design and the final version that the shade of cream for the express coaches got refined. The final products shade of cream looks much better, in my opinion.

The fact that these are based on Maunsell coaches makes them look so much more like the actual coaches in the show. The OO scale versions are simply ex-Mainline toolings, and not Maunsells either.

Now here is the big question... Can we get this tooling upscaled to OO scale? I'd be first in line.

Does anyone know where to reconnect the "detached" black wire that is on the bottom of the dcc #6 turnout? it has a prong on it? please advise

Old Pilot, that is great news! Glad to hear that engine No 1 is up and running. Keep us in the loop, Fred

Hello Fred and any others interested,

The saga continues, forcing this old dog (pilot) to learn some new tricks. After I finished watching the videos and making notes, I started to slowly dis-assemble my one engine, modifying my notes as I proceeded and actually saw the working parts. To Bachmann's credit, I found no cracked or chipped gears, just a broken wire-solder connection on the wheel wiper circuit board. Redoing the connection, I put the engine back together. It wasn't exactly this easy; I learned some new levels of patience getting small parts where they needed to be.

Next came the test track. Major lesson learned here was about axles, wheels, the quartering of the side rods and making notes on their relative position before disassembly. Once I figured this all out, the engine ran better than I expected. Giving the engine some running break in time, I decided to use the stop watch; a slow and steady 2.37 smph forward, 3.43 smph backwards at approx. 2 volts, 1 amp on my gauges.

This first engine gave me a good basic understanding to proceed forward with my second engine which will be more complicated as a quick look shows at least one cracked gear. All in all, it wasn't as difficult as I originally thought. I hope I can say this after the second engine.

Old Pilot

 

So I had it exchanged from Trainworld, and the same issue came up again. Tested it on other engines, but to no avail, then I swapped out the transformer, and THAT did the trick. Turned out it wasn't the model. It was a bad transformer all along. It tricked me. I never had an issue like that before. I wouldn't have guessed it before I sent it back. Now I sent an otherwise good model back for nothing, and I feel like an idiot.

So recently, the thought came to mind that some customers of previous Bachmann Thomas models might not feel obligated to "upgrade" their Thomas based on the tooling updates alone. It made me wonder what would be a way to further draw people towards a new Thomas and Percy model, even if they already own one, but then I remembered a common feature in a lot of models I purchased recently:



Working lights! Rapido and Dapol have both made a glowing firebox light a feature in recent models they've manufactured when space allows it. Modern technology has made working lights a much more accessible feature to have on model trains than it was 20 years ago. That said, I don't expect Thomas and Percy to have fully open cabs to allow such a feature.



But what about Thomas and Percy's actual front and back lamps? It would certainly be possible to give those working lights. I think a "plus" like this would certainly elevate the redesigned Thomas and Percy toolings even further than their previous iterations, and be a fancy new feature that would give people another reason to purchase it.

Hi - I recently purchased a Williams E60 locomotive (New Have #960), and I need some advice.  The unit goes through directions (forward / pause / reverse / pause) when power is applied.  Is there a way to disable this?  I'm pairing it with an SD40 that only runs forward.  I'm not seeing any switches on the underside that would allow me to do this.
Thanks!
Have a great weekend!

Missed one.  After reassembling and testing, this one worked but had a strange problem.  I had to press hard on the joystick right and it always jumped several locomotives each time.
Opened it back up finding I missed some dendrites shown below.  Cleaned it and it works OK.
On a different controller, I had cleaned these battery contacts.  It worked two days ago, but not today.  I successfully tinned the positive terminal, but the negative spring was too far gone.  Filing took off half the spring.
So, I covered it in solder braid, draped over the spring.  The solder braid is soldered to the PCB.

After going through all my Dynamis stuff, I thought I was seeing things.  I really have TWO dynamis control boxes??  They both work OK.  I also have two of the EZ controllers with the dial that can only talk to 9 DCC locomotives (ID numbered 1-9).

I have no clue where I picked up the second Dynamis system.  I was probably buying more hand controllers for $30 and they threw this in for free.

My posts about the reboot got removed. Guess I was being a little too hard on it, and badmouthing the reboot too much wouldn't make Bachmann look good. I also have to refrain from throwing any shade at Mattel for the same reason.

To give some credit, it's the first time since Season 2 that we see orange branch line coaches that aren't Annie and Clarabel.

ok so I'm heavily modifying my bachmann Thomas rn and I need some advice.

If I put glue on the side of Thomas' decoder just touching the plastic and NOT the wires etc, would that be fine?