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.

IvanG,

The Bachmann Plymouth diesel switcher should work just fine on 8-1/2 inch curves. I have one that I run on Kato's compact unitrack - 6 inch (150 mm) radius - and it runs very well, including going through the compact turnouts. I usually run no more than 3 or 4 ore cars behind the engine (this is a small mining section on my layout) but the switcher pulls them without any problems. I also have a Bachmann 44-tonner that handles the 6 inch radius OK, although I do not regularly run it on that track. Hope this helps.

The nice thing with Elmer's glue is that if you want to remove the track, all you have to do is wet the glue and it becomes soft again. Then, once you have the track section removed, you can soak it in a little water for a few minutes and the Elmer's glue will wash right off, leaving the track as good as new.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, Hunt. Learned something new.

Having been playing with a couple of Blue Rail boards for my Bachmann On30 Christmas train layout and also running my N scale layout on DCC, I've found out the following:

While the actual Blue Rail/EZ app technology on the board is totally different from DCC, the outputs match those of the NMRA standard 8-pin plug. Therefore, if you have a DCC locomotive that uses a standard NMRA 8-pin plug, you could just unplug the decoder and plug in a Blue Rail board and it would work - PROVIDING you added the proper power to the the tracks. By proper power, I mean 9 - 24 V constant DC. Leaving DCC power connected to the layout would, I assume, either not work or burn out the board (haven't tried it).

As stated above, for N scale, the biggest issue is size, i.e. getting the Blue Rail board to fit into a locomotive.

As for my Christmas train layout, I'm using the Blue Rail board to power the track itself and have converted my On30 engines back to straight DC operation and they run great.
You could also run an N scale layout that way.

Hope this helps,

Thenson and Dna9656,

Welcome to N scale. I'm a relative newbie in N scale also. I modeled for most of my life in HO (60+ years) but about 6 or 7 years ago I switched to N scale due to space limitations. One of the most useful websites that I have found for getting information, particularly locomotives, is the Spookshow site - www.spookshow.net. Spookshow also posts regularly on this site with valuable advice and information. So again, glad to see you both in N scale and welcome to the site.

My wife and I decided to jump into On30 for a Christmas train layout (I usually model in N). Since I use Bachmann's EZ-Track almost exclusively on my N-scale layout and have been happy with it, we decided to go with HO-scale EZ-Track for the On30 layout. We have experienced no problems with it and to my (albeit untrained) eye, it looks very prototypical when I compare it to pictures of the period. Like you, I'm not a rivet-counter and we have been very happy with the layout. Just my two cents worth.

William,

I recently purchased a Bachmann On30 0-4-2 Porter engine with DCC. I am running it on a straight DC layout. The engine ran perfectly right out of the box. As long as the documentation states that the unit has a "NMRA compliant" dual-mode decoder, you should not have to do anything. As I stated above, I didn't have to do anything to the engine. Just put it on the track and away it went. Slow running is great - smooth, no jerking. Anyway, check your documentation to make sure about the decoder and you should be good to go.

Hope this helps,

I wouldn't necessarily discard the older locos. They make great non-running props for the layout (yard, sidings, next to repair shop, etc.). One nice thing is that you can use them as a basis for a super-detailing project and if it doesn't work out, you don't feel half as bad as if you had trashed a new loco. (Don't ask me how I know  )

I have one of these units and had the same problem also. On mine, only the rear truck on the tender kept falling apart. Since I had mine for a while and had made modifications to it, I decided to order a replacement truck from Bachmann parts. The new truck works perfectly. Hope this helps.