In May when I was in Denver, Caboose Hobbies had some of the maroon ones in stock.

I picked up one.

Chuck

Last winter I was able to pick up 4 used Bachmann J&S cars.  They were all green, two were unlettered and two were lettered for the WP&Y.  I did some repaint on the WP&Y as the roofs were red, not black.  I had Stan make me decals for the Colorado and Southern.  I had an engine by the company that shall not be named, lettered for the C&S and I wanted a correct consist.

Here are some pictures of the cars after leaving the paint shop.







Here are the Bachmann maroon D&RGW cars mixed with some other companies.



The bottom line is it isn't that difficult to repaint and letter these cars.  Stan's instructions for applying decals are excellent and if followed will give excellent results.

If you look carefully at some of On30's linked pictures, you can see the bell cord passing through an eye-bolt of some kind on the side of the steam dome.

Chuck

If you look at pictures of #12 on the Tweetsie RR in Boone, NC, you will see that the bell is centered infront of a large dome.  That is the engine the Bachmann used as the prototype for their 4-6-0.  I would guess that the bell cord either passed through an eye bolt somewhere between the cab and the bell or it just hung without any support.

There would also be a cord from the arm on the whistle to the cab.

Chuck

Measure he back to back distance between the wheels on an axle.  That will tell us the gauge/scale of the train.  Which is a start.

Chuck

I think that the Climax comes with an bracket that attaches to the motor block.  BH couplers and be attached to,the end of that bracket and will couple to BH cars without need of a step down.  If you look at my third picture, you can see two holes on the motor block.  My Climax has the same holes.  That is where the truck mounted coupler brackets are attached.  I vaguely remember removing those brackets when I got the engines years ago,  because all my 1:20.3 cars are the higher body mounts.  They are now buried in boxes that are hidden somewhere in the house, I think.

The step down as mentioned by Stan should work on the C-19.

Chuck

I strongly second Bill's suggestion about turning the engine around and running it in the opposite direction.  This will even out the wear.  I would guess that you would get 50 to 100 % more run time before you have to replace the motor block.  This also applies to the cars, especially if you are running with plastic wheels.

Chuck

I like 1:20.3,  I have a lot of 1:22.5/24.  The hobby to grow needs both.

Chuck

We need help. How were the cars lighted, track, battery, solar, esp?

How do you expect us to help if you don't give us some basic information.

It reminded me of a question I once received.  "Should I marry a blonde, brunette, or a red head?"

The more information, the more we can help.

Chuck

These drop down couplers came with my Shay.  I had to use them so that spectrum 1:20.3 cars would couple to the Shay.  Your BH truck mounted couplers are even lower.



I removed the plastic on the back end of the coupler.



I then drilled a hole between the existing hole and the face of the coupler.



I then mounted it in the coupler pocket on the back of the shay.  I think that your climax has a similar pocket.



This then lets the coupler on the Spectrum car mate with the engine.



The coupler shown in the first picture should fit directly into the C-19 pocket on the tender.

Both of these may still be too high for the BH truck mounted couplers.  If they are use a Kadee #831  coupler on one end of a car.   These are truck mounted couplers that step up.  You will have to cut the button of the end of the coupler tongue to fit in the Kadee.  This car is called an idler car and will always have to be behind the tender as long as all of your cars have the lower truck mounted couplers.

Chuck

Tom

They are very nice cars (I have a couple), but in a train with big hauler cars, they would dwarf all the other cars.  I run both 1:20.3 and 1:22.5/24 trains, but never at the same time.  In my opinion, the two scales don't mix visually.  

You could change out the trucks and then use truck mounted couplers.  I think that they would then run on your track, but how they would look is up to you.

Chuck

My thought is that if people are having a problem, any suggestions that work should be appropriate.  If that violates the rules of the site, then I'm guilty.  Otherwise, I'll offer my suggestions when I can.

As we have seen many times, there are usually many solutions to a problem. All can be applicable to the question.  It is just which one answers the question best for the individual who posed it in the first place. 

Chuck N

I've never seen an echo on this site before.  Even if the return got changed a little.

Chuck

Why delete my post?  I'm offering an easy solution.

Chuck

Hunt and Bachmann

I'll continue to use MLS to post pictures here, as along as it works.

I'm no geek, so I use what works and when it doesn't, I try something else.

I think that being able to,post pictures is fundamental to our ability to help those who are new, or having a problem we can help with a workable solution.

I do not have a Photobucket account or any other "cloud" site other than MLS.  

If Bachmann wants us to help beginners, they need an easier interface for posting pictures.

Chuck

Note added, if posters can't easily post pictures, I'll probably try to help on other sites.  I like this site because I have a lot of great Bachmann products and I enjoying helping people.

I have refrained from commenting on this thread, because I do not use photobucket.

I have not had any problems posting pictures here using my pictures stored in my My Large Scale members files.  All I do is select the image, copy its URL and paste it into the insert icon above for pictures.  

For those of you with pictures in other file sources there might be other options.



Copied and pasted it into the picture icon above the emiotocons above this post.

Maybe there are other places to store you pictures.

Chuck

let us see if it works tonight.

On my screen it showed up.