N Scale #89653 Slope Back Tender

[Richard H]

Hello all,

I am wondering if the Spectrum #89653 N Scale Slope back tender has ALL WHEEL PICK UP ? I'd like to purchase one and attach it to the relatively new  Baldwin 4-6-0 loco to replace the stock tender which I feel is far over sized. It looks like the power draw bar would also be a direct replacement.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Richard H

[skipgear]

It has all wheel pickup but it does not have a light board with a connection for the loco umbilical cord in it. You will have to add a diode and resistor for the headlight and do a lot of rewiring of the umbilical cord that goes between the loco and tender. It would be easiest to just hardwire a decoder to the umbilibcal cord and hide it in the tender.  The oem decoder/lightboard in the original tender will not fit at all.

[Country Joe]

For what it's worth, there was a story in one of the Kalmbach Classic Trains magazines (Classic Trains might be the name of it, but I'm not sure) that had pictures of a New York Central 4-6-0 similar to the Bachmann model. The tender was large, very much like the model. I also thought the tender was too large, but after seeing the pictures in the magazine I changed my mind. The tender is about right, at least for a NYC ten wheeler numbered in the low 1200's.

[David Leonard]

I used a slope back tender chassis with a Model Power 2-6-0 tender shell. I cut off the decoder part of the Bachmann DCC board and left the light board part of it intack. Bachmann has instructions about how to do this. I'm not sure that the slopeback tender shell has enough space for a decoder however.