The Bachmann home page is advertising the HO Jackson and Sharpe excursion cars - will we ever see either type of excursion car in On30? I know that kits are available from other manufacturers but some people prefer ready-to-run.

Hamish

Class A Climaxes are a quite different loco from the Class B Climax currently modelled by Bachmann. They were an earlier design and had vertical cylinders inside the cab, unlike the class B which had steeply inclined external cylinders. For an example see http://www.gearedsteam.com/climax/images/class-a.jpg. Class A climaxes differed a fair bit in style, some early ones had vertical boilers, some had  very open body work, some more enclosed. Many had a very backwoods appearance.

i agree that a model of one would be most welcome.

Hamish

That Heisler looks very nice, hard for me to justify for my line (it is nominally set in Australia and no Heislers  went to Australia) but you never know. The log skidder was overdue, good to see it at last. i am a little disappointed that neither of the excursion cars available in other scales made it to On30, these are also overdue.

Interesting that the Heisler is a sound ready version with add-on sound and that, unlike in other scales the log skidder is only sold separately and not also on a car.   This of course reduces the number of different versions Bachmann makes, and thus reduces costs. Suggests to me that they are expecting sales for On30 not to be sufficient to justify separate sound and non-sound versions or many versions for rolling stock.

Still the announcements do show that Bachmann remains committed to On30 and they should help keep interest in the scale. Lets hope that:
- the Heisler is free of the problems that have affected other geared locos
- that the new Porters and the newly announced items are delivered in the not too distant future
- that the new items sell well, and
- that we get more new items from Bachmann next year.

Hamish


.

John

Yes we will have to agree to disagree. I don't doubt that On30 would continue if Bachmann pulled out (and no other largish ready to run manufacturer came in). Indeed it existed before Bachmann started making it. But as a specialist scratch and kit basher scale it would be smaller than it has become. iI was the easy narrow gauge aspect that attracted a lot of people to On30,, including me. I doubt that I would continue in On30 in it without the availability of ready to run items, and I don't think I would be alone. I know there are those who think everybody should kit bash and scratch build and that some of these wouldn't mind seeing On30 lose the ready to run side. But personally I would like to see On30 continue as a scale catering both for the srcatch and kit bashers and for those who want an easy approach to narrow gauge.

Hamish

Sorry, my post above was meant to be a reply to JohnR, not Engineer1876.

Hamish

Quote from: Engineer1876 on June 24, 2011, 09:21:30 PM
If i remember it is at the nmra convention?

Currently, yes the On30 displays at the convention will show that their are a lot of keen and active On30 modellers. But if new On30 items were to stop appearing would the interest stay in the longer term? Other scales and gauges have declined to become small specialist areas once major manufacturers stopped supporting them, S, TT and American 00 for example. TT still exists in Europe where there is some major manufacturer support, but is a very small specialist scale area in the UK and, I think, just about non-existant in the USA. Yet once it was an active scale in both the UK and USA until manufacturers withdrew support. (My first electric train was  British TT).)

Hamish

Let's hope that there really are some new items this year, unlike last year when the revised Porters were the only announcements. Although they were welcome, new items are needed to keep interest up for On30. I am not going to speculate on what they might be (these decisions will have been taken some tome ago) but I will be disapointed if there not at least one brand new locomotive and a couple of new items of rolling stock. Any less and I will be worried about the future on On30.

Hamish

As far as I know Bachmann have never produced a Royal Blue 4-4-0 in On30. They have produced them in other scales, clearly their parts would not do for On30. I would think that wheels and gears from other Bachmann On30 2-6-0s would do, although it is possible that there have been some changes over time to the 2-6-0's mechanisms. The On30 2-6-0 is essentially the same locomotive, whatever livery it carries (there are some detail differences between different versions but these should not affect the wheels or mechanism).

I woud follow John's advice and check with Bachmann service first.


Hamish

Quote from: jpstrainyard on June 13, 2011, 12:40:53 PM
JP of Acton MA, USA writes

K-Line (which became absorbed into Lionel, to become K-Line by Lionel) did in fact produce turnout and adapter tracks for the SuperStreets tracks. However, it would seem that Lionel is not producing much in the way of K-line products anymore. Anyway, it still is possible to find various dealers who might be selling leftover K-Line by Lionel street tracks such as the turnouts and adapters. I agree though that WBB should produce the street track turnouts and adapters.

Sincerely: JP

The former K-Line tooling was divided between a number of different manufacturers last year. WBB acquired the SuperStreets range and have re-released part of the range under the EZ Street label. Lionel never owned the tooling, they had a licence to use it, which expired. So any re-release of further SuperStreets items would have to be from WBB.

Hamish

Bachmann produced the Peter Witt's in HO, and then introduced them into the WBB range. They have just introduced single truck Birney's into the HO range, so perhaps.....

One item I would like to see made is a GE Steeple Cab electric locomotive. These were used on trolley lines to haul freight cars. With one you could take a freight car from the railroad and run it over the trolley tracks, I have always thought that this would be an interesting operating possibility for a combined railroad/trolley layout.

I would like to see Bachmann expand the recently announced EZ Street track system (the former K-Line Superstreets) to include turnouts  and connecting pieces for other tracks. The EZ Street track system has great potential for trolley layouts

Hamish

The ready to run brass locomotives are very expensive as well.

The question of Bachmann making a Garratt has been raised before, while I would love to see one I doubt that it will happen. No Garratts ran in the USA, nor were there American designed export garratts. Even in the UK there were no narrow gauge garratts until the preservation era (the one shown by ksivils is an ex South African loco now running in Wales) although there were some standard gauge ones. Garratts ran in Australia, various parts of Africa, India and some other places in Asia, South America and a few european countries. Gauges ranged from 2 foot to five foot six inches, and included a number of 30 inch gauge locos. To gain a sufficient market a Garratt would probably need to sell fairly widely internationally and probably need to be a cooperative venture between Bachmann's American, British and European arms.

If a Garratt were to be made the South African loco shown by kisivils is a llkely candidate, quite a few are preserved in different countries, those in Wales are quite well known. Other possibilities include the original K1 loco, which ran in Tasmania, Australia and is now also preserved in Wales or G42, a 30 inch gauge Garratt that ran in Victoria, Australia and is now preserved on the "Puffing Billy" line, near Melbourne, Australia. My choice would be K1, as I like small locos, but I would probably purchase any Garratt that was produced at an affordable price!

Heres hoping, but as I said, I don't think it is likely.

Hamish

As On30 is narrow gauge, if Thomas characters were to be done the obvious choice would be the narrow gauge characters ,e.g.  Skarloey, Rheneas, Peter Sam, Sir Handel, Mighty Mac etc. As these characters were based on real life British narrow gauge locos (and many are preserved) there would be scope to offer both prototype and Thomas versions of the same locos. Any prototype offerings would presumably be through Branchline, Bachmann's British range. So far they have shown no interest in such models.

Another issue could be the rights - Hornby, not Bachmann has the Thomas rights in the UK, at least for OO scale. I don't know whether Bachmann would be able able to market On30 Thomas characters in the UK.

I would love to see Bachmann make a British O scale narrow gauge range for HO track, and making both Thomas and prototype versions of the same locos would seem to be a way of increasing sales, provided Bachmann can get the Thomas rights.

Hamish

It is all very well for people to say that you should not order from overseas but it can be very hard to find particular items in countries like New Zealand and Australia (where I live). Some Bachmann items, readily available from overseas sellers, do not seem to be available from any Australian retailer. I have had retailers order items for me, only to have the distributor tell the shop that they have none and aren't getting any more. In circumstances like that you have no choice.

Hamish

Some more information would help. Does it occur with any of your locos, or does only one cause it? Is it triggered by a locomotive being at a particular spot on the layout, e.g. a certain turnout?

Are you operating on DC or DCC? What type of track are you using and how is your layout wired?

It could be a track wiring problem, or one of the locos could be causing a short at some places on your layout, but without more information it is hard to tell. I had something similar happen to me once, it was a wiring problem, I needed additional insulting joiners.

Hamish

As far as I know Bachmann has never offered one - I would like to see it. As well as a closed trailer an open trailer could also be made. An open powered car, as in Large Scale, would  be nice as well, but may be more difficult in ON30.  While I would like all of these to be made a closed trailer should be easy to do and would be the obvious first priority here.

Hamish