Use Micro-Trains 1133.  That one is almost universal for older B-manns. These cars are an older design.  If you plan to run around really sharp curves, you can use 1134, which is a longer shank version of 1133.   Bachpersonn sells dummy knuckle couplers that you can use, as well.  Unimates of varying shank lengths are also out there.   Unimates are dummy couplers, as well.

If you are going to use the MTs, buy the coupler tweezers.  They are indispensable and inexpensive. 

It must be available in the train set, only.

Still, with the number of non-DCC users out there, I would think that B-mann could turn a little profit selling these separately.

What is it, specifically, that you bought?  If I knew what it was, and, were familiar with it, it would be easier to answer your question.

You might try going to Fee Pay and buying a DC power pack there.   The MRC 1300, 1370, and 1400 are all good, inexpensive power packs.   If you can find a 2400, it has an ON-OFF pulse switch, so that you can run it on straight DC (or as "straight" as rectified DC can be).   The 2800, which is a  dual-control, is allright, as well.   The 1300 and 1370 have a discreet pulse, so the B-mann locomotives with factory DCC will operate acceptably on them.  I have no experience with the 1400.  The Bachmann locomotives with factory DCC will operate acceptably on the 2800 as well as the 2400, pulse ON or OFF, on the latter.

Most of the Bachpersonn locomotives with factory DCC will operate acceptably on the 2500, but I have seen some do some funny things on it.  The 2500 has a stronger pulse than does the others.

B-mann used to sell DC power packs under its SPECTRUM line that had built-in pulse that you could not turn off, but it appears that they have discontinued those power supplies.  The only experience that I had with any of those was one hobby store that had one as its test track power supply.  It seemed to be allright, although when operating a locomotive on a test track, the only thing that you are trying to learn is if it does run.  B-mann does sell the trainset power pack, but, while it is certainly better than most trainset power packs of the past, it is not the best.  I do have experience with it.

Kato sells a power pack that is set up similar to B-mann's power pack.  It has no pulse.  I am somewhat less-than-impressed with it, as well.

If there is an upcoming show in your area, you might try there and see if you can get a good price on an MRC.  I would pay no more than twenty dollars for a used one--and it would have to be a really good used power supply.  New, they can go for anything from twenty-five to fifty-five dollars.

Quote from: jmlaboda on August 30, 2015, 05:53:20 PM
Brokemoto... have hope... a better heavyweight combine is coming... maybe even late this year!!!

Let me take an edge-uh-mah-kaytidd guess at this "better combine".  Considering that after careful study and examination of the photographs, plans, drawings, links and citations from your Passenger Car Pages,  I have made the initial cuts on:

1.  Lima/MP PRR P70 and PBM-70 with the intent of bashing an unrebuilt Pennsylvania PB-70;
2.  A RR LW Hill Lines coach and baggage mail with the intent of bashing a Pennsylvania modernised
PB-70;

I would have to guess that it is either an original PB-70 or a modernised PB-70, more likely the former as you did post "heavyweight".

I have a pair of the C-C/V-line Eries custom painted in NYC passenger by Dave Thurston (RIP).  Mine run well, at least the last time that I ran them, they ran well.  C-C did issue these in NYC and PRR passenger colors, but, for some reason, Dave and Fred (of Obie's Trains) told me that they could not find any of the shells in NYC, not at the time, at least.

The most frequent complaint that I have heard about these is that they tend to derail on curves sharper than fifteen inches.  This is due to the truck mounted couplers' not having room to swivel in the small pilot coupler opening on the A units (I understand the V-line did issue Bs, but they are the hardest to find of all the Eries out there).  As mine ran on curves of seventeen and nineteen inches, I never experienced the derailing problem. 

I do see the C-C Eries from time to time, at shows.  Usually, they are the PRRs, but I have seen an occasional NYC.  NYC did not have any passenger Bs, but it did have both in freight.  I do not know if PRR had any passenger Bs, but it did have both in freight.  It has been some time since I saw a LL Erie anywhere, other than the A-B-A NYC freight set and  A-B PRR freight set that I have.  I bought those shortly after their release.  The A-B PRR set was all that I could get for PRR.  The others had been snapped up that fast.  I got one of the last A-B-A NYC sets that Fred had.  I do not run them much, as they are rather large and my pike is too small.

I do have one other still untouched undecorated A and another A-B pair lettered for my non-historic, but, I rarely run them, as well.  I forget where I found them.  Those things look best in front of a long train.  My pike is too small for a long train.

As I understand it, the hardest one to find is the V-line B
Any LL is supposed to be a close second to the V-line B.
Of all of them, the V-line A is supposed to be the easiest to find, but even it ain't all that easy.

One thing that I do find curious is that no one has issued a lightweight passenger/baggage combine in N.   B-mann is showing a coach and a baggage, even if they do appear to be a "generic" type.   How difficult could it be to butt up on a computer half a coach to half a baggage car to make one.  C-C missed a similar opportunity.

There are only two Standard passenger/baggages of which I am aware, in N:  B-mann's shorty C&NW based cars and the RR which is based on an ATSF car of which, or so I understand, only two existed.  The passenger apartment on that one was really a first class section, or so I seem to recall.  I would expect that MT would issue a HW combine, at some point, or WOT, as those two are issuing Standards or HWs.

I would suspect that the "generic" corrugateds spring from B-mann's generic steam.  Funny, though, given the releases from Kato, Athearn, Fox Valley and even B-mann, it does appear that the road specific stuff sells.   More than one vendor has told me that the B-mann EM-1 outsold all of the other road specific steam from Athearn and Kato.  I would guess that this is why the Fox Valley B&O waggontops in the 1940s and 1950s schemes never even made it to the shelves of most stores.  There is one vendor who did have some after everyone else's were gone.  Even he is out, now.  He tends to sell at full list, at best, or, if something is in demand, he is not above jacking up the price a few dollars.  He had the waggontops jacked up two or three dollars.

I  would have to wonder if a USRA light would fit onto the K-4 power chassis.  The K-4 was a heavy Pacific.  The K-4 had seventy-four inch drivers, the USRA light had seventy-three.  The driver size would not be that big a deal.  My experience with B-mann drivers is that they scale out a bit small, as it is.  I suspect that B-mann casues this to be done so that the things will go around sharper curves.  Thus, I would not be surprised if the drivers on this scaled out to seventy-two, or, even seventy inches.   Thie latter would allow a closer-to-accurate chassis for several roads that had lower drivered Pacifics, such as Western Maryland.

B&O did have a class of Pacifics that essentially were USRA heavy copies.   It even rebuilt several Pacifics into what essentially were USRA heavy copies.

Three roads ran USRA light originals:  B&O, L&N and ACL.  All three had copies, as well.  ACL used them for freight as well as passenger.  The B&O copies had Venderbilt tenders.  GTW and M&O had copies, as well but no originals.

It is disappointing that MRC did not make some upgrades to the old MP line.  My largest gripe is failure to make the tender all wheels live.  Yes, it did make the pilots (and the trailers?) live, but, an all wheels live tender has a proved value.  I, at least, am not so sure about the live idler trucks.  I have a few of the Micro Ace and Kato tank locomotives, some of which have live idler trucks.  The live idler trucks do not seem to help much in the contact department.

I suspect that retaining the cast-on handrails was a move to keep down the cost.

B-mann offers it with stuff the Kato ain't got.   Factory decoder and factory sound.  The debates do rage about Bachmann's factory decoder, but, if ya' cain't install no deecoder yerself and a decoder you must have, it is there.

The big one for me is the four axle standard coaches.  Ain't nobody what does them now.  They are not showing a "painted/unlettered", so, I guess that if I want a Pittsburgh and Lake Erie, I will have to buy the NYC and hope that erasing the lettering will not take the base coat with it.  I am happy to see B&O in Blue and Grey instead of the Pullman Green that came with the doodlebug.   I have a few of the MT, already, and even have a few of those re-numbered.   The MTs are based on a B&O prototype. Add the Bachpersonns, and I can retire my RR HW coaches.   Does anyone here know on what B-mann's are based?

........now, if only B-mann would make available a combine in this. 

Re-issuance of the Northwestern based shorties would not be bad for many, either.  It would allow those who must confine themselves to pikes with sharp curves to run a passenger train, or two. 

Overall, I can not complain about the B-mann announcements.

The boiler, firebox and cab on the prototype K-4 and L-1 were the same.

In fact, many parts of various classes of Pennsylvania steam locomotives were the same.

Quote from: spookshow on August 23, 2015, 07:53:21 AM
Something tells me that all of those old AHM/Lima and Model Power P70 coaches suddenly just became a lot more valuable. Wish I still had some! 

Cheers,
-Mark

I still have some.  In fact, I repainted two of the PBM-70s, as the font is incorrect for HWs.  If you try simply to erase the lettering, the basecoat comes with it.   I have some other P-70s and some PBM-70s that are painted for other roads, but I suppose that someone could buy a spray can of Tuscan, the Microscale Pennsylvania passenger set and go to it.

Then there are the sawed up cars, that I have.  One, eventually, that is, will become a PB-70, one will become a rebuilt Fleet of Modernism PB-70 that reverted to regular  use, thus kept its shroud from rebuilding, but received the standard Pennsylvania passenger paint job.

Ain't it funny how road specific steam seems to sell.   Funny, too, how B-mann has not been hanging foobie road names on its road specific releases.

If this is to continue, I do wonder how far away is an N&W shrouded K-class?   The chassis is already there:  the USRA heavy 4-8-2.  The N&W shrouded K classes were either originals or copies of the USRA heavy 4-8-2.

Quote from: jmlaboda on August 21, 2015, 06:10:40 PM
What I want to know is...

"Where's the N&W one???"

Those were former PRR K-3.  They are close, but not quite.  PRR sold them to N&W without the tenders.  They had various tenders during their service on the N&W.  They lasted until the 1940s.  I bashed one from a TRIX.  The K-3 and the B-6 had the same cabs, so I sawed the cab from the K-4 shell, sawed the cab from the B-6 shell, fused the metal B-6 cab to the plastic K-4 boiler and had the locomotive.  The removal of the K-4 cab also required some cutting on the boiler, so it made the large BelPaire firebox on the K-4 a bit smalller.

I took an LL Y-3 tender to put behind it.  As people are no doubt aware, the first run LL Y-3 had a twelve wheels live tender that had no electrical connexion to the locomotive.  I did wire the LL tender to the TRIX 4-6-2 chassis.  The addition of twelve live feet improved the TRIX chassis' performance markedly.  Proof of Miranda's Maxim as explained by ke:  "The poor performance of many N scale steam locomotives is almost always directly attributable to poor electrical contact".

I will need to buy one just to see if the my bashed TRIX K-3/E-3 shell will go onto the B-mann chassis.  Wiring up the LL tender should be easy.  If that does not work, I could try sawing the cab from the B-mann shell and fusing another B-6 cab to it.

In an N scale steam locomotive, especially a small N scale steam locomotive, I will take all redundant electrical contact.

I did notice that the wipers on mine are not brass colored, as were the old ones,  rather they are made of a silver-colored metal of some sort.

I did not attempt to run mine with the stock tender, except on the test track at the show where I bought it.  When I got the thing home, I did a swap out for a SPECTRUM tender immediately.   I used a slopeback, even though I have been informed that no USRA 0-6-0, be it original or copy, ever had a slopeback.   As mine is going to run on a non-historic railroad, I can get away with it.   I do plan to buy at leat one more and add a SPECTRUM USRA switcher tender lettered for the Baltimore and Ohio.  It will not look as nice as does skipgear's B&O USRA 0-6-0, but it will look allright for my purposes.

Quote from: James in FL on August 14, 2015, 10:34:07 PM

A good example, adding a Spectrum tender to said models. Its absolute redundancy, but how sweet they run when converted.

I wish the Spectrum tenders would replace the standard ones on all Bachmann lokies.

If there is any "redundancy" in adding the SPECTRUM tender to a B-mann steam locomotive, it would be the additional electrical contact that it provides.  When considering any N scale locomotive, particullarly an N scale steam locomotive, you can never have "too much" electrical contact.

When considering N scale steam, it is important to keep in the forefront Miranda's Maxim as explained by ke:  "The poor performance of many N scale steam locomotives is almost always directly attributable to poor electrical contact".

If you will consider the Kato 2-8-2, the first run did suffer from a poorly designed current collection method on the drivers. Kato re-designed this for subsequent runs.  Further, more than one person has discovered that adding a bit of weight to the tender has cut stalling markedly on this locomotive.

The Model Power 2-6-0 is another one.  The presence of the traction tyre on the locomotive eliminates most of the electrical contact there.  The tender is only half wheels live.  Thus, if you operate that locomotive at anything less than thirty SMPH, it is prone to stalling, even on straight-and-level.  Swap out the stock tender for any SPECTRUM tender, or, the Kato USRA  standard tender, and you eliminate the stalling problem.   I have two that I have so modified.  They will pull fifteen loaded Micro-Trains gondolas and a Micro-Trains wood caboose up a one per cent grade at fifteen SMPH and show no signs of slipping.  I wonder if the prototype would have done that.

The other problem with the B-mann tender that comes with this one is that the design of the one live truck, the front truck, is such that it creates a tremendous amount of drag on the locomotive, as the wheels will not spin freely.  The needlepoint axle pick-up on the SPECTRUM (or Kato) tender eliminates most of this drag.  On the older issue, doing the swap-out doubles the pulling power.   This one will pull more:   eleven loaded hoppers, of various manufacture, and, a MT wood caboose on straight and level or level, broad curves.