This monster was available in brass. The long wheelbase of the original UP engine limited it to a few of the UP operating districts. It was a real menace going through switches.

Bachmann would really be making a niche locomotive. Modellers would want it to go around 18 inch radius curves, be either DC or DCC compatible, be highly detailed and, of course, cheap.

For someone new to the hobby Accumate or Bachmann couplers may be a better suggestion than Kadees. Kadees do require a little work to perform correctly.

In my last posting I forgot to mention that Plastistruct also has a solvent glue available. A well stocked hobby shop that carries the Plastistruct line can probably order the solvent if it is not stocked.

 A solvent glue for styrene, made by Testor's, is available in liquid form. It comes with a very nice dispenser and can be purchased from Micro-mark. a well stocked hobby shop probably would have it. It is far superior to the tube type. Other brands are probably very similar.

Do stay away from concentrated MEK. The stuff is very bad on lungs and I believe it causes damage to other organs. Most styrene glues may contain MEK but not in the concentrated form you'd find in a science lab.

Other choices include epoxy and any of the CA glues.

I seem to be confusing staging with switching. If staging means laying up trains to run them around and around and around in circles then one track is required for each train. Simply measure the train length and make your siding longer.

As for how many you need , that depends on the number of trains you plan to operate. Will you operate more than one at a time? Then you may need passing sidings on the main line.

You still need to consider spacing and access to trains in the staging yard because they do derail or uncouple from time to time.

You have to take spacing between cars and clearances in the yard when designing a yard ladder.

As for the question about the number of tracks necessary, this depends entirely on your own concept.

When I was into HO and belonged to a club with a layout containing a ten track yard with the capability of 20 cars on each track. The reality of the situation was that the yards became  too clogged with cars to do any kind of switching. If you plan to just run trains around and not interchange cars then this is not a problem - until something derails in the middle of the yard and you have to move long cuts of cars to get at the car on the ground.

If models aren't available, painting and lettering a few cars would be a really juicy project.

The "Do not paint" refers to running in the engine. Once you get it to run properly,all the binds out of the rods, crossheads and valve gear, you can then disassemble and paint to your heart's content.
As a mentioned in a previous post the Bowser frams can be a project. on one engine, a PRR mike, I primed and painted the frame, retainer plate and cylinders. I even baked the Floquil primer. Even with priming I found that the Floquil paint I used would chip. That is when I went to "Blacken It."
I don't know if this chemical blackener is still on the market. I'm not sure that it was designed for zamac castings. I know of a guy who used gun bluing on a brass engine frame - it turned out okay but I didn't like the final color.

Bowser products are top quality and the company is glad to help if you have a problem.

I've built about a dozen over the years and they are good runners.  I did find that the pulling capacity was limited by the weight of the boiler and tender.

There is a can motor conversion available but I believe the DC-71 is now isolated from the frame.

As for painting, I used a chemical blackener on the frames because I never was able to keep paint on the frames of engines I assembled.

I found valve gear assembly to be a challenge but I suppose the extra money is worth it if you've never done an assembly before. I often attached parts to the boiler with epoxy but CA glue would also work.

Now that Bachmann has announced the imminent arrival of their Balwdwin Sharknose diesels, who will be the first to modify one to blow mountains of black smoke like the real ones?

I saw one in action on th D&H years ago and it was belching tons of smoke. I suppose an engine overhaul with some new rings might have solved the problem.

I cast my vote for the D&H blue and grey to be the nicest of all the sharknose paint schemes.

conrdin - thanks for the link to the original.

I tend to be over critical about English writing because, as a graduate school professor, I get to see lots of mangled English written by people with college degrees.

I again commend you for taking on the editing task - something I would never do. Your English is very good for a second language.

There are people who have made careers out of doing technical editing. I , for one, would rather look at grass grow than do that job.

The Wikipedia article is informative; perhaps telling more than anyone needs to know. Maybe some stuff was copied from an annual prospectus.

As I wrote earlier, some types of writing require a certain expertise. Since I didn't read the original posting I cannot tell how much Conradin may have improved it.

I give him credit for taking on a rather laborious task with English not being his native language.

I looked over the Wikipedia article. It contains a lot of paragraphs that have subjective clauses as a lead in. This makes the writing very verbose and hard to follow.

Encyclopedia writing, like technical or journal writing, should contain simple declarative sentences written in active voice with a minimum of clauses.

The name of the state of Louisiana is also misspelled.

Are the facts correct? There is no listing of primary sources or references to back up the claims in the article.

Wikipedia is to encyclopedias as the Yugo was to automobiles.

You can also do A-B-A, or any other combination lashup with a drawbar.

Back in the day when I had several pair of these engines I remember sawing off the talgo coupler and rigging up a body mount for a Kadee using sheet styrene.

There was a way of taking off the side frame - but I don't remember how.

I am a tinkerer and always take things apart although I've resisted the urge to take my new Camry apart!