Quote from: SCHOOLBUSLEO on March 04, 2014, 04:17:33 PM
Hi all, I have a bachmann factory equipped dcc santa fe northern 4-8-4, road #3783. I use a Dynamis dcc controller. The steamer just all of the sudden quit working, no lights, no forward or reverse. Tried it on dc, nothing there either. It is a ho unit, the track is ez stell. DC controller is also a bachmann, All the other loco's run fine. Any help would be appreciatted. Thanks

One other thing I would recommend checking would be the wires between the engine and tender.  I have a Spectrum line 2-8-0 (HO scale obviously) and when I first got it and started running it, every once in a while it would just stop all of a sudden and the headlight would shut off. After a few days of that happening, my dad and I took a look and we found out that when we took it out of the box and hooked the tender up to the engine and got the wires in place, we didn't push the wire plugs (the engine to tender ones) all the way into place.

While it is nice that the heavyweights are being brought back, I can't understand why they are now $95 when back when the same coaches were Spectrum line coaches they only cost about $35 a coach. The Bachmann Budd full domes aren't even this expensive. Can the Bach-Man give an explanation?

They are decent size for letting the sound out of the tender and into the air around the room. I personally, from experience, NOT recommend using the high base speakers as they are alittle taller than the space between the tender floor and the underside of the PC board. Stick with the 1" round speaker that Soundtraxx recommends.

If it is the 50201, it should have the holes pre-drilled for a speaker. I just doesn't have the recess for a speaker like the 2-8-4; Standard Line 2-8-0; ALCo 2-6-0, S-4, FA-2/FB-2, RS-3 (the DCC Ready versions); EMD GP7 and F7-a/F7-b (DCC Ready versions). I have the Bachmann 50201 SP 4449 myself and after I installed Soundtraxx it is one of my best performing engines (which is saying something because it was my first engine that I custom fitted with DCC sound every). You can really only see the holes on the underside of the tender if you are looking at the underside at the right angle.

I have a Bachmann GS-4 that I have custom fitted with a Soundtraxx TSU-1000 Heavy Steam Decoder and I wanted to fit it with some Miniatronics LED's so I can have the main headlight and the Gyra Light both fitted for a bit more of a realistic feel for the head light and was wondering how I would go about doing this. Anyone who has experience with this have any advise and tips to share?

Quote from: ebtnut on January 27, 2014, 06:34:49 PM
Back in the day, if a manufacturer was going to do a steam loco model (domestic, not import brass), they usually looked to the "Big Six" roads - SP, ATSF, PRR, B&O, UP and NYC.  These roads covered many states and had thousands of fans for a market base.  Since the steam era still equates to these "heritage" roads, you're more than likely going to see something come out that ran on those roads.  

I understand your logic, but Here in the Midwest (Minnesota for example), we didn't see Union Pacific here until the 1990's after the UP absorbed the C&NW and we didn't have Santa Fe, SP, B&O, NYC, and PRR at all. Yes the ATSF may have had tracks in Southern Iowa and Illinois but they didn't run in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Here we had Great Northern, DM&IR, Northern Pacific, CB&Q, C&NW, Minneapolis and St. Louis, Milwaukee Road, Rock Island, Soo Line, Canadian Northern, Chicago and Great Western, and Illinois Central. None of the "Big Six" and because of it, those of us who live in Minnesota like myself find themselves with very, very little to choose from as far as more reasonably priced plastic model trains as far as steam engines are concerned since most of the railroads I just listed have no available (DM&IR had the 2-10-2's from Bachmann and 2-8-2 by BLI but both are discontinued) steam engines in affordable non-brass models. And what brass ones you can find are old and second hand models that are expensive because they have never been used or need expensive repairs because they don't work anymore and the parts are hard to find and even then are themselves very expensive.

Quote from: ryeguyisme on January 21, 2014, 03:23:04 PM
The DRGW leased the DM&IR Yellowstones during the winter months of WWII to help with the overwhelming war traffic.  The DM&IR Yellowstones ave been screaming to get done in diecast/plastic. While I love big steam and all, I don't like the EM-1 and was thinking the DM&IR Yellowstones would have proved to be more marketable on B-mann's end, I don't understand how when people are constantly asking for the DM&IR engines when you put out an engine that I never really hear HO scale steam fanatics really talk about the EM-1 as much as they do the DM&IR M-3 and M-4 but that just might be me.

I hear ya. I live in good ol' Minnesota , land of 10,000 lakes (though there are more than 10,000 lakes in Minnesota) and home railroads like the Great Northern; Duluth Mesabi & Iron Range and a few others i for some odd reason I remember but don't remember the names of. I have been hoping for plastic version of engines that were used here as well as in Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois (Burlington route, Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Rock Island, Milwaukee Road, DM&IR and many more territory) such as the Milwaukee Road S-3 class 4-8-4's like the 261 and 265, Northern Pacific class Q-3 4-6-2's and Northern Pacific class S-10 4-6-0's (Q-3: the 2156 and 2153, S-10: 328), DMIR K class 2-8-0's and M-3 and M-4 Yellowstones, CB&Q O-1A 2-8-2's, Great Northern P class 4-8-2's and S class 4-8-4's but no luck yet.

I have some coal cars I am trying to fit iron ore loads to and have tried using regular model glue and it didn't hold very well. I was wondering if anyone who has experience in this area of the hobby could give some advice me as this is my first time trying to fit coal and ore cars with Woodland Scenics Iron Ore as a load.

I myself would love to see the DMIR M3 and M4 yellowstone engines be made by Bachmann. They already have a suitable locomotive chassis and motor, with need for only spoke drive wheels instead of boxpok style ones and a new body shell. and I think the NYC 4-8-4 tender chassis is a good starting point for the tender. I say the DMIR M3 and M4 class Yellowstones should be made is the only 2-8-8-4 type steam engines left in the US are all DM&IR (M3 class 225 and 227, and M4 class 229). The 225 displayed in a park by the train yard in Proctor, MN; the 227 in the train museum located in what is referred to as The Depot right off of Highway 35 in Duluth, MN across the highway from the aquarium; and the 229 outside the old station building in Two Harbours, MN across a walking path from Duluth & Iron Range Railroad #3 (often referred to as the "Three Spot"). I have personally been in the cab of the 227 and have had my picture taken next to the 229 on several family trips to Duluth, MN to visit family up there.

It appears to be a life-like brand engine, GP40 it looks like. The couplers would have been the old horn hook style ones from the box. My older brother had one identical to that one when he was younger and his was a life-like engine from a trainset he had that also came with a dummy engine.

the wires connecting the engine and tender aren't decoder wires. They are there to convey track power picked up from the drive wheels to the decoder/commands from decoder to the motor and front headlight, as well as power to the main engine from the pickups in the tender trucks and spares can be aquirred from the parts and service page of the bachmann website. The wires for the decoder are all contained inside the tender shell.

here is the large connector (from the 2-10-0 but can be used in any locomotive with the four wire and two wire connectors...
http://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66_68_158&products_id=911

here is the small one (also from the 2-10-0 but like the large one can be used in any locomotive with this style connector)...
http://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66_68_158&products_id=4185

I would recommend a Soundtraxx TSU-1000 Heavy Steam DCC Sound Decoder. I would also recommend the 9-Pin JST to NMRA 8-Pin wiring harness which adds an 8-Pin plug in place of the standard wiring harness attached to the decoder at the factory. I would also recommend going with the 1" round speaker as recommended by Soundtraxx. I fitted my Bachmann GS-4 with a high bass speaker and I had to make shims for the PC board to rest on so I didn't have any contact with the bottom of the PCB and the top of the speaker.

Quote from: rogertra on December 25, 2013, 05:59:12 PM

Quote from: Irbricksceo on December 25, 2013, 02:26:58 PM
I'll give that a go, I honestly have no idea what the previous owner did to get this much in there, the axles are covered, the main rod/connecting rod joint has some, even the gear seems to! No wonder it wouldn't run!

Probably laid the track on carpet.  THE biggest no-no ever!  Just go slow and steady on the clean-up.  Best of luck.

I used to run model trains on carpet (using track with roadbed) and never had problems with picking up carpet fiber. I had more issues with cat hair on the tracks when I had a trainboard.

Another thing people have been known to do is run one loop on DC and another loop on DCC.

I am 21 and I have been into model trains since I was about 3 years old and I don't see myself losing interest ever. As long as there model train makers in business making models, I am good to go.