The post war ZW I have will work the newer True Blast 2 horn units by Williams.

A Lionel CW-80 may not work with True Blast 2, as it don't work well with MTH engines, don't matter what series of CW-80.

If you can't get a sound activation button, you can buy an MTH Z-750 or Z-1000 and that should give you both horn & bell features. However you can only access one sound feature at a time with the True Blast 2 units.

Lee F.

Unless this is a new feature by Bachmann, there is NO battery to re-charge. You must have a transformer capable of having bell and whistle/horn features to use the whistle or bell features. I have an MTH Z-1000 and a post war Lionel 275 watt ZW transformer.
This might help you as well; on the older Williams with True Blast 2 horn units you must hold the bell button down for at least three seconds for it to activate and again for three seconds to make it quit.
If this don't help try reversing your power wires at the track, switch the wire from the outside rail to the inside rail and see what happens.

If none of the above helps you call Bachmann's service department ASAP!!

Lee F.

I like the add a floor for the apartment building. I have found that there is at least two color variations of the original one, and both have the same color window balconies.

Lee F.

If the model says on the box for O & S scale trains it is closer to 1/64th scale then 1/72. It would look a little large with 1/72 scale stuff. I think that the O & S scale buildings would work best because it is closer to 1/72.
While the models that have H.O. are closer to 1/85th scale than 1/72. That is basically the scale sizes of Plasticville buildings.

Best way to find out is to either borrow a Plasticville building or bring some of your diorama items somewhere that has the Plasticville building.

Lee F.

While almost all maufaturers are producing stuff for the largest railroads, how about some stuff for the northeast railroads, especially the Reading Company and Reading Lines? Also the Central of New Jersey is left out a lot.

Lee F.

Quote from: 3rail on February 21, 2010, 10:48:01 AM
Hi Mike,

We are always listening!  We may not elect to do an idea for many reasons.  Your idea for example. The matching cabooses are a good idea, but many people would just want a set of AA's with the option to buy the B unit and caboose.  Packaging them together would limit the potential sales because the price point would be very high and force people to purchase all 4 items. 

We keep a running list of all feasible ideas that we receive.  We look at this list before every planned production run, so keep the ideas coming. You may see one of them in a future catalog.

Regards,

3rail

While the option of packaging the four units together might be high, what about giving a small monetary discount to a person who purchases all four items together. Option one would be to buy just the AA units, option two would be to buy the AA units and the B unit, option three is to buy both the AA units & B unit along with the caboose.

Lee F.

 ebtbob,

Do you have the light frame holder? The peice that the light assembly mounts to the bridge section.
Email me! fritzlp@bellsouth.net

Lee F.

See if the service department at Bachmann can help you.
I got in touch with the service department at Williams, when it was only Williams, about an older circuit board and how to fix it. Williams told me there are at least four circuit board possibilities, you will need a number or a letter code from the circuit board so the service department can help you.

If you want to try repairing it yourself, try using a magnifying glass to enlarge the veiw of the area and see if you find where the lead came off.

I had problems with an F-7 diesel unit's circuit board and finally took out the circuit board and wired the motors to a 6amp bridge rectifier. The reason was that the engine would always start in reverse after a couple of hours of not getting power to it, I would lock the engine in forward but it always started in reverse after a couple of hours.

Lee F.

Quote from: the Bach-man on March 12, 2010, 11:54:26 PM
Dear Joe,
it means that a distributor must order a case of four. Dealers can then order individual cars from the distributors.
Have fun!
the Bach-man

Just to clarify a point; is a distributor is the person who sells to a hobby shop? Dealer could be a hobby shop?  Is this correct?

Lee F.

Steve,

What does the vanderbilt tender look similar to?
Does it look similar to an S-2 Pennsy steam loco's tender?

Lee F.

Nice job on the sanding tower!
Do you have any pieces from the signal tower left over?

In it's later years the Reading Lines(freight division of the Reading Railroad) owned about 51% of the stock in CNJ. So it was not unusual to see CNJ on the Reading Railroad tracks near Allentown PA.

Lee F.

Is there a fix for the older Williams passenger(made near 1997) cars that have three axles and the knuckle couplers don't open? They keep derailing every where! What I have done is to cut some plastic near the place where the coupler arms meet the truck frames, this helped with one or two but the whole set of cars will derail even at low or moderat speeds anywhere on the layout.

I put on another set of passenger cars and there is no problems with the track and the other set works great with the same engine.

Lee F.

How about a two car set of RDC's? Rail diesel cars, similar to their cousin the electric interurban but has a diesel engine in or both units, to go between a major city(Philly and Reading PA) and a smaller city.

Lee F.

For me the sound system was very easy to hook up, just two wires-one red and one black. Hook the red wire to the headlight and the black wire to the frame. The main issue will be space, can it fit inside a GP-9 made by Lionel? I installed one in a Santa Fe alco B unit.

Lee F.

John,

That is interesting to know about Lionel, as I always thought their trains were O scale. Some of Lionel are closer to 1/43 scale than say 1/50 scale. One thing about some of the O gauge trains I have, they make the Plasticville buildings that are supposed to be used with O & S gauge trains look very tiny.
I would rather buy Plasticville than a Laser Art kit, Plasticvill is much easier to work with and don't come with super small pieces that need to be glued into place or take four hours to put a kit together.

Lee F.