Same question for the "after 2017 version" of the 2-8-0.  That has been out much longer and is still not getting any parts listing in the current Bachmann parts catalog.

I am asking if Bachmann intends to ever offer parts for their new releases. 

A lot of Bachmann's parts are bought by people who want to use them for making other models, rather than just replacing broken parts on Bachmann models.  It seems like that is a good way for Bachmann to support and grow the hobby, but I am not sure they see it that way.

So, how about some actual communication from Bachmann. please.

Sorry, not sure where I got the idea that you wanted a tender shell.  I see that the loco shells are sold out.  Try looking under "parts" and "repair" for "N scale 2-8-0 on eBay for a while.  Something may come up.

From Spookshow's website: "To remove the tender shell, well... the first version's tender is (apart from the top) a single casting, so there is no way to separate the shell from the chassis. However, the second version's tender shell does come off - just stick a small screwdriver into the opening where the wires go and pry upwards. This should free the clips on the shell from the chassis.

And, you still haven't indicated why the various USRA Medium Tender shells that are available on Bachmann's parts site aren't what you are looking for.

Looking at the Bachmann parts website, I see tender shells listed for the "2-8-0".  So, did you not find those, or are you looking for a different version? 

Spookshow or the Bach Man could probably do a better job than I can for describing the various versions of the "Specrtum" USRA Medium Tenders that Bachmann has produced.  But, from what I can remember from what I have read, the newest version and the oldest version are different, and I think there may also be another version between them.  The version in the Bachmann 2-8-0 parts listing has an "insert" as well as a "shell", which I think is the original version.

We don't know what your particular project is, so you will have to decide what shell version is best for your purposes.  Once you know that, you could also look at the parts for other Bachmann locomotives that use the USRA Medium design, which may be the version you are looking for, even if the ones listed under "2-8-0" are not what you want.  There are still plenty of shells listed.  At this time, the parts website even has a 4-6-0 medium tender shell listed for $11 under "New Products for June - N parts".

I don't think you can do a reset with the EZCommand station. 

One thing you might try it to see if any of the DCC addresses that the EZCommand station can use will work.  Try them all.  You may have unintentionally set the address to a value other than the one your think you are using.

It seems like you are going to have to decide or yourself what grades make sense to you.  Running "a small tank engine" means that you would not expect to run long trains.  But, it also may mean that you won't have much power to pull on steep grades.  You will have to decide where the "sweet point" is for you between train length and level sections of your layout.

I will suggest again that you should consider making the lower level of the crossover dip down, rather than leave it flat.  It doesn't need to be a 50%-50% split between one oval and the other.

You also have not specified whether you intend to put any turnouts on this layout, or if it will be as simple as you have drawn it for this thread.  If you want to put turnouts somewhere, especially if they are going to provide a crossover between ovals, that will create many more constraints on track elevations.

I am estimating about 48" for the track lengths from the points where you specify zero elevation to the points where you specify 2.5" of elevation.  That makes the grade 100 x (2.5" / 48") = 5.2%.  That is a very steep grade.  Half of that would be a practical, but still steep grade.  3.5% is about the max that most people try to use, and that cuts down on train length quite a bit.

Another thing to consider is that the transition from level to sloped needs to not be sharp, or it will cause cars to uncouple and maybe derail on the curve.  You need an easement in the vertical direction to avoid that.

You have plenty of room to make the sloped sections longer.  And/or, you could make the lower track dip as well as the upper track rise, so that each section contributes about one-half of the elevation difference.

Mark, Have you ever tried some of those conductivity-enhancing coatings on those surfaces.  Some, like "Never-stall" are greasy, and might catch dust and still allow a stall.  But there is also "Neolube",which produces a dry graphite surface that conducts.  But, does that wear off?

Terry, those gaps look like they are in good places. 

You could move the gaps on the loop section of the middle oval so that they are on the other sides of the two end diamonds, if you want.  You just want the electrical reversing section to be longer than your longest train, which keeps things simple, even if using metal wheels and lighted cars. 

In the event that you have problems with getting locomotives to cross your diamonds and choose to use conducting diamonds with auto-reversers (on the appropriate legs/rails), it might help you figure out what is happening and how to fix any errors in wiring if one direction of the diamond is not sometimes reversed and other times not reversed.  That could be done by moving the gaps so that the outer two diamonds are not in the electrically reversing section.  But, you would still have to deal with that issue on the middle diamond.  I won't get into that here, because you may never have to deal with it or even think about it if you can get by with diamonds with rails that have short dead sections.  But, just so you know that it exists, there are "double auto-reversers" that would allow you to have a reversing diamond within a reversing section of a loop.  The potential problem with a reverser on a diamond that is inside a reversing track section is that a short would make both auto-reversers try to reverse at the same time, so they would just make a new short circuit, again and again.  The solution is to have two auto-reversers acting in sequence, instead of simultaneously.  Some auto reversers have adjustable time delays, so you can make one wait a bit to see if the other one clears the short before the second one tries to clear it.  And there is even a double reverser on a single board to do that.

So, your track plan can be made to work, and work well.  Good luck, and have fun.

OK, then my advice on where to put the reverser gaps is good. 

In a very early post, you had said something about hooking it up to DC.  And, you recently were talking about putting gaps between the middle and outer loops in a manner that seems to indicate DC, rather than DCC:

"I will have to cut gaps in the crossovers right? Say I have a train running clockwise on the outer loop. If I have another one running clockwise on the middle loop, and send it through the reversing sections to reverse direction so it runs counter clockwise on the middle loop, that would cause the outer loop to reverse also if I don't cut gaps, right?" 

Actually,  no, not right for DCC.  There is some confusion by using the word "loop" for what is basically a circle that the train can run around without going back on the same track in the opposite direction.  Your outer and middle circles do not need to be isolated from each other for DCC to have one train run clockwise and the other run counterclockwise without causing a short circuit at the crossovers, and those circles do not need to be reversed for any reason.  (But, they can be isolated on different circuit breakers, if you want to make sure that a short on one circle doesn't stop the trains on both circles.)  For the middle circle, the part you are calling the "reversing section" that will "reverse direction so it runs counter clockwise on the middle loop" is where you will need an isolated section with some mechanism for reversing the phase of the DCC wiring.  Note that reversing the phase of the DCC AC voltage will not cause the locomotive to change direction.  That is a DC concept, not a DCC concept. 
 
The inner circle is connected to the middle circle with a wye, so that a short would be created where the turnout connecting it to the middle circle splits to go either way on the inner circle.  To avoid that, gaps need to be placed after that turnout, before you get to the other 2 turnouts in the wye.  The easist way to handle the inner loop is to just put the whole thing on the electrical reverser, since in only connects to the other parts of the layout through that one turnout.

The 3 diamonds that you have do not figure into the logic for direction changes and the reversers that those require.  However, if you think about how to wire a diamond, you will see that it must create 2 short circuits unless the rails are gapped to isolate where the rails of opposite phase cross each other.  Most commercial sectional track simply makes those relatively small parts out of plastic, so they are none conducting.  If that causes a problem with small locomotives that have limited power pickup areas, then  you will need to have diamonds with metallic rails that have isolation gaps and electronic reversers to (nearly) instantly match the polarities of the two rails for the direction of travel though the diamond.  I mention that because you did say something about using small locomotive types that might have a problem with electrically dead diamonds.  But, I work in N scale and don't have any experience with your engines types in your scale, so you will need to get that advice from somebody else.

Terry, it's (past) time to tell us if you plan to run this layout on DC or DCC!

The logic for "reversers" is different, because, with DC, you need to reverse the track polarity to change the direction that a locomotive is running.   So, the whole layout needs to be able to "reverse."  And, if you want to be able to control more than one locomotive at at time, you need to have then running in different blocks, all of which need to be able to reverse independently of each other.

With DCC, multiple locomotives can run in different directions at different speeds in the same block, because their direction and speed do not depend on track "polarity" (actually A/C current phase) and the voltage is always at max.   A computer ("decoder") in each locomotive rectifies the A/C and sends variable DC voltage to the motor in each locomotive, controlling it independently from all other locomotives. The only issue is that track that loops back on itself (so that it makes a loco run in the opposite direction on the same track it came in on) will make rails meet out-of-phase and cause a short circuit.  Gaps in the rails prevent a short circuit until a locomotive bridges the gaps.    So, you need to have just one isolated section per segment of direction-reversing trackage that can have its phase reversed while the locomotive is in it, so that it does not create a short either going in or coming out of that segment.  That can be done manually with a double-pole, double throw electrical switch in the track feed wires,or with an electronic auto-reverser module that senses the short as it occurs and changes polarity in about one millisecond, rather than opening a circuit breaker.

So,which are you planning to use?

Assuming DCC, it doesn't look that hard to gap for reversers.  The big loop can be gapped between the two diamonds at the ends (without regard to the diamond between them).  The wye can be gapped on the two legs of the turnout where they come together from the two directions on the inner circle to go out to the middle circle.  That way, you won't have to worry about trains being longer than the reversing sections.

Quote from: jward on April 18, 2019, 12:37:44 PM

Quote from: wyozig on April 16, 2019, 11:01:41 AM
Thanks folks, you all gives me direction, and what care to take. If I back down the buss to 1 - 2 amp connected in the middle of the buss  and the EZ Command connected at a separate point will the DCC carrier wave
work? I planned on running some EZ App locos on the same line.

Woot, there it is. Y'all weren't reading all of the comments. This wasn't in the OP's initial comments but it is there.

The OP has been very unclear what he is contemplating doing with what equipment.  So, we are guessing a lot to try to help as best we can.  Even in his post that you quoted, he is talking about connecting both an EZ Command plus a DC power supply directly to the same track.  Why he wants to do that is not clear.  Perhaps he thinks he needs to do that to run EZ App on those tracks.  As you posted, that isn't necessary (or correct), so I don't know where he would have gotten the idea to do that.  So, we really don't know if that is his sole motivation, or just an aside, and he is motivated by misunderstanding something else.  Some of us started by thinking he was planning to power the EZ Command DCC system with a non-standard, higher power DC supply, rather then add it as another input directly to the track.  It is unclear why he is looking for more power to the track.  Perhaps he needs to read about DCC boosters, booster districts, breaker districts, etc. for DCC systems to get his questions on the same page as our thinking.

Quote from: jward on April 17, 2019, 12:56:29 PM
The OP mentioned he wanted to run EZ App on the same track as DCC. EZ App is designed to do just that. You don't need to switch over to DC power to run an EZ App locomotive.

All I see in the OP's posts is reference to EZ Command.  That is not the same as EZ App.

The proliferation of "cute" system and technology names (by manufacturers) must be confusing to people who have not studied model railroading product standards and system types.  With today's available technologies, there are literally dozens of possibilities for using them to run trains.  Some are used extensively, while some are in niche products, and some aren't (yet?) being applied to model railroading although they are in every-day use in other consumer products  It is becoming too easy to confuse different things and buy incompatible products because the sound the same in the advertising materials.

Quote from: RAM on April 16, 2019, 09:28:19 PM
Since we are telling how DCC works, let me ask a question.  I know you can run a dc locomotive on a dcc system.  But how does it control the locomotive.  I would think that when you put it on the track it would just take and run full speed. 

I don't want to spend a lot of time trying to explain that in detail.  That is available elsewhere.  But, basically, it uses a single, special address on the command station that knows to not send digital info to the DC motor in the locomotive that doesn't have a decoder.  Instead, it unbalances the square-wave AC power in such a way that the waveform has a net positive or negative average of a variable amount.  That makes the DC motor move one way or the other at a selected speed.  It is not the same as just putting a DC voltage on the track.  And, that square wave form still tends to make the DC motors buzz and not last very long.