Quote from: Daylight4449 on March 19, 2010, 02:41:59 PM
thanks but 4.5 hours is a little much...

Everything is relative.

When it comes to train shows, the nearest one to us is 4.5 to 5 hours and

that is by AIR.   

As they like to say out here;  "The price you pay for living in Paradise".

WOW!!!!!

Love the music and as to the layout---I am oh, so envious.

This IS worth watching.

Thanks.

What is beginning to concern me is the rapidly declining inventory of Spectrum locomotives at the larger internet dealers.

I have been watching for new items to become available and I have noticed a very pronounced decline in the available

Spectrum locomotives.

Quote from: Obecny75 on February 25, 2010, 02:53:01 AM
I have always been interested in model railroads so I got a Bachman Rail King HO scale set for Christmas. I got a little tired of the basic oval (47" x 38" oval 12 pieces curved track, 1 piece straight track, and 1 plug-in) that came with it so I was thinking of buying the 30 degree crossing and making a figure 8. The figure 8 says I need 21 18" curved and 1 18" rerailer.

So basically my question is to save money (I don't want to have to but a curved rerailer if I could just use the straight one i already have) I would assume I have to buy 2 straight pieces (to make 4 including the straight rerailer and 1 straight i already have) plus another 10 18" curved pieces (thus making 22 curves total). However my amateur model railroading brain is thinking that with the extra straight pieces coming off each side of the crossing will thus throw off the radius (and thus total number of curved pieces I need) of each side of the 8.

Well....I am apparently one of a few things....dumb because I don't know how big my pieces of track are. Dumb because I don't know if my track is 18" curved or not.

Basically I'm completely lost...PLEASE HELP

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm new at this. Any hope would be appreciated. I'm sure you will be seeing a lot more of me around here.
[/quote


Nothing dumb about the question. We have all been there at one time or another.

I found link to be a good starter.

http://www.caboosehobbies.com/catalog/bach_track.php

Hope this helps.

Quote from: lexon on February 24, 2010, 07:55:30 PM
Here is a link about calculating the speed of your loco. Store the link.

http://home.cogeco.ca/~trains/rroperat.htm

One big issue is how we modelers get preconceived notions on how railroads operate and try to apply that to our model railroads.

Below are three links about the Shay with speed mentioned in the articles.

http://tinyurl.com/yzax3wd




Thanks, Lex.

I stored the first link and read the referenced sections in the other links.



http://tinyurl.com/y9josee

http://tinyurl.com/ybcyqag

Lex

Quote from: pdlethbridge on February 24, 2010, 04:22:28 PM
  They couldn't do 20 mph unless they fell off a cliff

Quote from: ABC on February 24, 2010, 04:40:23 PM
Yes, your shay sounds normal to me based on what you said, but your not alone many people are surprised at how slow it is.

Thanks guys. I suspected that, but I wanted to make sure.

I have a nice video of a Cass Scenic Shay and it didn't look like it could set any records.  >gr<
















,

I just received a Spectrum Shay(Cass Scenic RR) with sound.

I was surprised by the very slow speed. At a throttle setting of 50/128, the Shay speed

is WELL less than one half of  my 4-4-0 at the same 50/128 throttle setting.

Is this normal?

I realize that the Shay was slower than a conventional locomotive, but

I was still pretty surprised.

Will

Quote from: full maxx on February 21, 2010, 06:38:41 PM
Is this a good engine... http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=278

I have one in UP markings. Looks and runs very good.

I agree totally that not everyone wants DCC or DCC with Sound and should not have to pay for the dual mode when they never

would use it.

Having said that, I guess that I am too logical.

Logic would dictate(to me anyway) that newly designed units that are not DCC and/or DCC with sound would be truly DCC

ready and have the space needed(provided this is possible) to mount the decoder and speaker.

Quote from: Frankv on February 14, 2010, 10:42:21 AM
Thank you Jonathan for the help.

I guess I have to eat crow on this (just a little, maybe one wing, a leg, and a claw). I had also sent an email about this to Bachmann Customer Service. Very quickly, just shortly after I had finished my rant regarding Bachmann quality on this forum, I got a call from a nice lady at Bachmann, who also told me how to find the switch.

So now the Acela runs like a rocket, which was the idea. However, I still think my set should have included a 3x5 handwritten slip of paper which said, "Before going ballistic, Dummy, check the switch under the little hatch at the back of the engine. That would have saved Bachmann a phone call, and me a little stomach lining. On the other hand perhaps the problem is that Bachmann overestimates the intelligence of (maybe just one) of its customers.

My experience with Bachmann's Customer Service has been like yours. They have been very, very excellent. Some of the nicest people I have ever dealt with when I was experiencing a problem with some type of merchandise. They have always gone the extra mile to help me. I can't say enough for those folks.

On the other hand, for some time now, Bachmann's weak point has been poor documentation, or worse yet, none at all.
I wish someone could get the message to the top Bachmann executives.  Hopefully, they could do something to correct the problem.

Thanks to everybody that replied.

The inside axle and wheels of both trucks had to be removed to see and access those screws.

Sadly, that did me little good as both screws were "frozen". I even took it to a friend

that I know who installs decoders for folks. He couldn't remove them.

Called Bachmann and they said I would have to send it back to them.

They didn't seem particularly surprised and said they were installed by machine in China.

My tender is the new one that has drilled holes for a speaker.

It came with the DCC Ready Loco  BAC #84013.

The shell will not  budge and I can find no other screws, beyond coupler, truck, and the ones I removed.

I have opened a lot of Bachmann tenders, but none this difficult.

Other than the trucks, the coupler, and the screw that I have all ready removed, I see no other screws on the tender.

I removed the chrome screw at the forward end of tender, but the cover will not move.