WILLIAMS TRAINS FOR CHRISTMAS

[Cobrabob8]

OKAY EVERYONE, SHARE WITH US WHAT WILLIAMS by BACHMANN TRAIN YOU GOT  OR PURCHASED FOR SOMEONE ELSE THIS CHRISTMAS.  My wife bought me an A-B-A set of Pennsy Baldwin RF-16 Sharks!! As usual, they are awesome runners with nice detail.
Cobrabob.

Two sets of Williams by Bachmann Pennsy diesels side by side on my layout. A pair of ALCO FAs on the right and my new Sharks on the left. AWESOME!!!!

I know the caboose pictured below is not a Williams product but I thought that I would share it anyhow. My son Matthew bought it for me for Christmas and I think that it goes well with my new Sharks!!!

[671]

Hi Cobrabob,

            671 here.  Santa (me) acquired the  J 4-8-4  B & O " THE ROYAL BLUE " Trainland $199.99 Nice loco. Smooth runner. Some challenges...
1.          I changed the the ten volt rated light bulb and installed a six volt bulb. Much brighter, more to my liking.
2.          The smoke unit is very weak. It struggles to make any smoke. I may test the voltage regulator this weekend, possibly not producing the 7.9 volts that my other steamers produce. I may need to tinker with it and change the voltage regulator on the electronic board. If the voltage is correct, I may try testing the smoker at a slightly higher voltage to see if this helps. The smoker may be a higher rated voltage unit that somehow got mixed into the unit that Williams uses. If higher voltage is needed, I will change that voltage component for a higher rated one. It is the three legged item on the board.
            The second loco is New York Central F3 A A  I know they are discontinued, and hard to locate at a fair price. Amazon.com $186.20 free shipping, brand new...They have six left. Great deal. It runs flawlessly. I got it last night, oiled and greased it, broke it in for 1 1/2 hours than ran it for 4 hours straight pulling my five post war Lionel aluminum streamliners. It is perfect ! ( approx. 14 real miles traveled )

             I hope Santa still has room in his toy sack for more units...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

                                        I think I am addicted to Trains...671

[M1FredQ]

Cobra that layout gets better and better.

The Sharks are really cool. Didn't think much about them till i saw them on the picture you posted. My son sure likes them.

This Christmas. Santa brought my son a WBB Seaboard NM-2 Switcher. He had been wanting one for a long time. He aced all his spelling tests last semester as Santa asked him.  Also there was a Peter Witt Street  Car Philadelphia, very nice We have some old
Lionel tube track that we have running through our layout town and set it on there and it is quite a site. I am glad Santa dropped it off.

Finally, Santa brought Dad and son Joey a WBB F-7 in Atlantic Coast Line Markings.
I don't know why that color scheme evokes so much "Wow"it's a winner in our book.
At our house Santa sometimes leaves a few extra presents outside our front door,
this year I forgot to look and our Chocolate Lab(still a puppy) at one year got hold of the package of the F-7 B-unit and tore through it!!!!!!!!!!!! She got through to the WBB box but only chewed the outer corner of the box into the Styrofoam but the unit was untouched. A tribute to Bachmann packaging>

Hope the rest of you had a great Christmas. Please feel free to share stories

[r0gruth]

There are many comments made about the quantity of smoke from the various brands of locos.
An important switch that is missing from many locos IMHO is one to turn OFF the smoke.
Visitors are sometimes impressed with smoke but I am not.It irritates me.

[671]

Hi r0gruth,

             I have done exactly what you have wished for. On all of my Steamers, I have installed a micro slide switch inside the engineers cab using 5 minute two part epoxy glue. ( be careful not to get the glue into the switch mechanics.) The wires from the switch run to the smoke unit's wire. I interupt one lead with the switch. This allows me to turn off or on the smoke unit as needed. The switch is mounted far enough into the cab so that it is not easily seen, but yet simple to reach and operate with a finger.
              The slide switches were purchased at Radio Shack. Solder, glue, wire and shrink tube are always on hand at my layout.
                      Keep it simple...671

     

[Joe Satnik]

Discussions on reducing the voltage to the motor, but not the smoke unit or lights:

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,13633.15.html