Umm... my opinion is that the original purchaser wanted the fancy valve action and took it and put it in his loco, and replaced it with what he could buy, since the chassis looks new.

From what I see, you can't get a Gen 7 chassis from the parts store. The only choice now is a Gen 5B.  Something must have happened to the original Gen 7 chassis (i.e. drop/break) and owner had to adopt the Gen 5B or earlier Gen 5. If the pilot truck is a drawbar its Gen 5B, if its a pivoting truck its Gen 5.   Just noticed it has chuff drum so its a Gen 5 chassis.

Quote from: Mark Oles on November 17, 2025, 05:03:24 PMSomeone went to a lot of trouble to swap the drive.

I don't think it was much trouble. That recent thread about the Gen-5B Annie chassis talks about 'connectorized' wiring, and the Parts store chassis clearly has connectors on the various wires. They give you a PCB if you want to use it.

In this case, whoever it was screwed the Gen-7 PCB onto the chassis using the existing mounts, probably without disconnecting all the wires to smoke, LEDs, etc. I think it was a Gen5A chassis without motor or track connectors, so the conversion required attaching the motor and pickup plugs to the Gen5A chassis wiring. They didn't bother with the chuff, so I connected the old fingers to the PCB.

The biggest hassle is putting it all back together.   

Wow. Someone went to a lot of trouble to swap the drive. I guess the only thing they really wanted was the drive and didn't care about the electronics. Maybe they had already gutted their other engine and had it all set up with lights and sound.

Quote from: JesseBear on November 15, 2025, 02:45:58 PMI keep going to the Bachmann website to order the Anniversary Vans HO scale 77419 and 77420 but it still says Coming Soon.

Hi Jesse,

We do not do pre-orders directly through the Bachmann website. If you want to-preorder, you will have to contact your local hobby shop or an online store.

Once the cars arrive at the Bachmann warehouse, and after we ship them out to our retailers, we then make them available for purchase from our website once they are in stock.

Today was button everything up and test it out. I haven't dismantled a 4-6-0 since maybe V4 or earlier. This V7 has a multitude of detail bits, including pipes across under the boiler between air tanks, oiler feed to the cylinders, etc.

I ended up googling to find where the various pipes go - see attached front view of the black loco showing the pipes on the air tanks. The side view of the air tank shows the extra pipe that fell off - I glued it back. And at the back are these really heavy tanks, with rubber pipes connecting them to the chassis metal pipe.

The boiler didn't want to settle down, so I moved the wire bundle from the rear connectors to the front of the weight. (Compare tha to my photo in post #46.)

Preference for East Coast and West Coast trains is too apparent.  Again, it's a case of ignoring that mysterious and useless area in between referred to as the "Midwest."

I think set of products that need to be made are loads that can be purchased without having to be from a piece of rolling stock. Here some suggestions for some load packs that Bachmann could release.

For 7 Plank Wagons:
Ore Loads (Like the ones from that Thomas set)
Gravel Loads (They would be a repaint of the coal load)
Crates covered with a tarpaulins
Rock Loads
Scrap Loads (So they can be used for the Sodor Scrap Wagon)
Uncovered crate loads
Milk Churns
Hay with Tarpaulins
Rubbish Loads
Parcel Loads

For 5 Plank Wagons:

Coal Loads along with the other loads I suggested for the 7 Plank Wagons, but they would all have to new sculpts since the 5 Plank Wagon tooling like the one used for Troublesome Truck 4 is skinnier than the 7 Plank Wagon tooling

For the Flatbed:

Steel Girders
The Chinese Dragon
Crates
Pipes
Paint Drums (That would be a good way to reintroduce the loads)

One source:

https://www.tichytraingroup.com/Shop/tabid/91/p/10269-nw-611-steam-engine-decal/Default.aspx

Len

I need to get decals for norfolk and western 611 ho scale.  Where can I get them ?  Ty