Nice video, Terry. I tried to listen for the tick in the locomotives but I also could not hear it, although I believe my hearing is on about the same level as yours. I wear wireless headphones at night when watching TV. Digital audio, as what you get from a DVD or Blu-Ray movie, just is not processed very well any more by my ears. The headphones help a lot. As I said before, I'm looking forward to your next Christmas video with both trains.

Very nice!

Received my copy yesterday. Perused the pictures but did not have a chance to read any of the articles. The book looks great. I'm looking forward to many pleasurable hours of reading.

I totally agree with Mark on the Micro-Trains Line (MTL) couplers. In my experience, they tend to be the most reliable, overall, of the different brands of couplers that are out there (but it is possible to get a few duds here and there). All of my couplers are truck mounted because that is the way they come from most manufacturers and they tend to work better on tighter curves - mine are 11.25 and 12. 5 inches. As far as being tiny, yes, they are but I supplement my aging eyes (I'm 70) by using an Optivisor and the MTL coupler assembly jig. The jig alone, while being relatively simple, is worth its weight in gold (to me at least). To save money, I generally buy the couplers unassembled and then I will spend an evening assembling a bunch of them to have available. I tend to buy old new stock Bachmann freight cars (because the are generally cheaper), quite a few of which still have the old Rapido couplers which I then convert.  Also, I use the MTL N-scale coupler height gauge and it has solved a myriad of problems for me. Hope this helps.

Nice job, Terry. Looking forward to seeing it on your next Christmas train video. I'm in the process of researching/upgrading a DC-only, that I bought when I thought I was only going to run one engine on our Christmas village/train layout (ha!), to DCC. I now have a Bachmann 4-4-0 and a 0-4-2 Porter both DCC. My wife likes to be able to control the Christmas train via WiFi from her tablet, so I ended up converting the layout to DCC. Now she loves it. You know what they say: "Happy Wife, Happy Life"! Again, your back-dated engine looks great. Thanks for taking us through the conversion process. I always learn something new.

According to my track planning software, EZ Track track section part number 44829-2 is 2-1/4 inches long. Part number 44841-1 is a section that is 1-29/32 inches long and may fit your needs. Both sections are part of different track assortments that Bachmann sells. Hope this helps.

I have added DCC decoders to several of the Bachmann Dash 8-40CWs. It is a fairly straight-forward procedure. You have to remove the two brass jumper clips, as shown at the right of Mark's picture, from the PCB and then attach the wires from the decoder to the plated holes. IIRC, the holes are numbered so all you have to do is match up the colors to the numbers and solder the wires on. You can find the pinout on the NMRA's website. I used Digitrax DZ123 and DZ126 decoders, which, due to their small size, neatly tuck into the space under the PCB. I did shorten the wires to the decoder for a neater installation. Keep in mind that although the NMRA wiring spec lists 8 wires, only 7 are used and my decoders only had 7 wires, however, depending on the manufacturer, yours may have 8. However, if you follow the color to pin chart you will the just have one wire left over which isn't used any way (I just tuck it out of the way). I converted my locomotives several years ago and, so far, they are running without any problems. Hope this helps.

If you're using Bachmann EZTrack, it is possible to inadvertently flip one of the track power connectors (they can go in either way) and thereby cause a short (been there, done that). The way that I troubleshoot this problem is to unplug all of the track power connectors except one, try it with a locomotive, plug in another connector in addition to the first one, try it again ... well, you get the idea. When you plug in a connector and the locomotive doesn't work anymore, unplug that connector, flip it over, and see if that solves your problem. Hope this helps.

Terry - You should be able to find powdered graphite at one of the big box home centers. I did a quick search and both the orange box and the blue box websites listed it. Also, in case you happen to be so lucky as to have a hobby store close by, Kadee also used to sell a tube of powdered graphite for their HO couplers (and probably still do). BTW, I enjoyed the YouTube videos of your Christmas trains. Hope this helps.

I run my MDT Plymouth switcher regularly on Kato's CV1 track set, including turnouts, without any problems. According to the CV1's packaging, the curves have a 6 inch radius (150mm). This is part of a mining operation on my layout and I usually run the locomotive with 3 or 4 short ore cars (Atlas). I have not experienced any problems. Since I do not have any track with a smaller radius, I cannot comment on that. Hope this helps.

Peter,

I don't own an On30 Climax, so I can't say where the loose wire was connected. However, if the engine is DCC, the wiring should follow the NMRA standard and if you browse their website, you should find their wiring specifications. As far as I know, all of their wires connect to the NMRA-standard 8-pin plug, not to any capacitor. Hope this helps.

Peter,

To verify whether or not the electrical feed is bad, take a 9V battery and connect a wire to each terminal (I keep an old 9V connector around for just that purpose). Then, touch one wire to one side of the electrical contact on the motor and the other wire to the other side. The motor should turn, probably not very fast but all you're looking for is whether or not the motor works OK. This way, you have bypassed all of the electronics and electrical pickup of the locomotive. The 9V battery should not cause any problems with the electronics, especially if this is a DC locomotive. I've used this method on both DC and DCC engines and have not encountered any problems. If the motor runs, you then have a known starting point and you can work your way back with the wires and touch them to the electrical pickups in the wheels, for instance, however this will not work with a DCC only decoder. Hope this helps.

Carol,

As I'm looking at the picture from spookshow, I believe that what you are referring to as the "battery" is really the metal ballast that allows the locomotive to get traction. Usually, the ballast (or weight) is also part of the locomotive frame assembly which holds the drivetrain gears and a bunch of other little stuff in place. If you loosen or remove the two screws that (I think) you are describing, the frame may come apart on you and you will have a bunch of little parts rolling around on the table. What spookshow is telling you to do is to look at the back of the locomotive as if you were looking into the cab. The round object that takes up most of the room there is the motor. Usually it has a few openings in the back and when you look into it, you may see a triangular object with wires wrapped around it. That is the commutator. One thing that has worked for me is that, without  any power, I take a toothpick and try to rotate that triangular object in either a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. Do this gently. You don't want to break any of the wires on the commutator. You'll ony have room to rotate it a little bit - maybe an 1/8th of an inch or so. Go back to your starting point and use the toothpick to rotate it again. Repeat this and eventually, you will see the driving wheels move just a little, indicating that the linkage and gears are free. When that happens, stop and place the locomotive on the track and apply power and see what happens.

Hope this helps,

Make sure that you have the track correctly installed. I have the On30 version and it only works if the track is installed according to the instructions. Otherwise - nothing.

Hope this helps.

I'm finding this discussion fascinating because it details the exact reason why I don't buy any locomotives with factory sound. I've been around layouts that have had sound and after about 2 to 3 minutes I get really tired of it. That's why I only purchase straight DC locomotives and add my own decoder to them. I wholeheartedly agree with kmcsjr that I would much rather have more lights and a standard NMRA plug than sound. This way I can choose which decoder to install.