I see the N scale 0-6-0 hovering around $65 street price(current version), and with the new mogul hovering around $100, I wouldn't expect a spectrum quality 0-6-0 to go for more than that. The small motor from the mogul would make the 0-6-0 more aesthetically pleasing for everyone instead of having this open frame motor sticking 3 scale feet out the back of the cab. And the front tender pickup system is a drag vs. the wonderful spectrum wheelset power pickups.

I would be interested in buying this upgrade if it came to fruition

Quote from: electrical whiz kid on October 14, 2014, 06:20:10 PM
Rye;
Thanks-I have both Cal-Scale as well as Precision.  Got me a whole mess of brass parts too, thanks to the shows, etc.  That sand dome I could probably do without though...  It is as ugly as a bowl of mud.  I figure what is good enough for John Allen, etc...  Oh, I also found me a great pilot on evil-bay a while back; this might look good on a C&O heavy Mike; the one with the (yep) Elesco heat exchanger and cross-compound pumps on the nose.
Oh, sometime this winter, I am going to do the "Americanization" to the other SY Mike-"Green Card Mike #2"!  I have one problem with the first one, and that is the brass pony I put on it shorts out.  I \will NOT put on plastic wheels, so I will cast another pony-in epoxy.  That should do the trick.

Rich C.

I can relate to you on shorting problems especially considering I run brass with brass brake shoes. John Allen did have a C&O styled berkshire made from a H0bbyline static kit with a drive kit made for it. This engine was plastic so it melted/burned away.

Heaven forbid I start learning how to cast my own parts, I'm already delving into 3D printing technology and 3D concepts.

As far as ugly domes, I cut the dome off and try to save it for possible future projects and try to get a nice smooth surface using bondo and sanding away the excess:






Though the dome for the berks is rather big , you may have better results using sheet styrene.

I have been contemplating on getting a few of the Bachmann Berks to kitbash them into a generic freight/passenger hauler for my freelance road, I've already done the visualization in my head.

If I'm remembering correctly Precision Scale  makes some parts that may be of some use to you... if you want to borrow my catalog, you're more than welcome to!

Hey Rich,

actually from the looks of it, it's not too far off, I've also toyed with the idea of converting the Bachmann Berks into something.

Agreed, you don't know how invaluable those all-wheel pickup trucks that you guys at Bachmann make, to sell  as an actual product would be helpful to a lot of us as the parts store tends to sell out rather quickly

Well that makes sense like how B&O is on a game of monopoly and everyone would think of it more than they would ever think of the beyond rare mention of DM&IR (if it ever occurs in their lifetime) as the casual consumer in America

Like how I'm a enthusiastic 25 year old steam locomotive model railroader brass collector, I'd have to still recognize that I fall into an extreme minority.

Wow, what an interesting conversation this has turned into , well ...um how about those who are into railroads from areas they've never been to? If they even model a specific railroad  or a fantasy line? I guess famous locomotives comes first and foremost before anything else but when I first learned of the Yellowstone wheel arrangement, it was from the DM&IR and I never would've thought B&O had them, until Bachmann announced them. It was as obscure but not doubtful and a PRR 0-8-8-0 made in Brass, which I never knew existed until I had seen it at my Local Brass dealer.

I don't see why some  would be up in arms over a DM&IR Yellowstone it wouldn't be a bad marketing idea considering the locomotives' popularity

I just tend to lurk a TON of online forums on model steam and I just more gripe for DM&IR M's than ever hearing anything to do with EM-1's, but that's just me. The other part of me is like  "YEAH, I want one of those(but don't like it's B&O counterpart as much as that DM&IR prototype)" Plus the DM&IR had a lot of trackage too, they were borrowed in WWII by the D&RGW to aide in the demanding war traffic.

I'm from the east and prefer rugged western mountain conqueror D&RGW steam locomotives  

Why not the non-Alco pacific northwest challengers?

Why not Harriman Mikados and pacifics?

Why not non-USRA generic designs one can modify from?

All I can say for me as an enthusiastic model steam locomotive modeller I cannot wait for the fruits of the future because there's still a lot more new products to come

If you're running on DC I would suggest NOT using "pulse power" as that will fry PC Boards and DCC/Sound components as well. Some MRC power packs are equipped with that for DC users. Before DCC became a household name, Pulse power was able  to keep engines running smoother without too much hiccups save for dirty track. But now it's become obsolete and rather a nuisance for those who wouldn't know.

If the Bachmann makes a DM&IR M-3 or M-4, I'd be willing to purchase a couple, the EM-1 doesn't fit any of my needs, and I was really surprised they came out with an EM-1 instead of the sought after DM&IR yellowstones

I'm imagining Bachmann came out with an engineering sample of the turntable and released a picture of it to see what kind of feedback they would receive. While some were welcome to the idea, a lot of guys pointed out that the bridge length was lacking severely and the track spacing on the perimeter was too wide. So I'm going to make an educated guess and say that Bachmann is redeveloping this particular item to fit the needs of their customers such as myself. I would be a lot more interested in this turntable if the bridge was a bit longer to support at east a decent amount of medium steam. I have a couple D&SL 2-6-6-0's that i would love to use an EZ-track turntable with if they do end up fixing the bridge length as the engineering sample proved lacking in that case.

While it may be common in the real world roads, if I really want a USRA Mike I could have one in a couple days flat without much effort because there are so many done in HO presently with all the bells and whistles. I could get a Oriental Powerhouse that would be a real puller for a ballpark $130, a high end collector's one for $250, and a run of the mill DCC/DC with sound and smoke for $200, the market is FLOODED with them. So forgive me if I must say it's not a rare model to get in HO  whatsoever and I  could be wrong but from an investment standpoint bringing another version in from another manufacturer could prove kind of fruitless.

On the other hand the competition proves in our favor as it will drive prices further down on said other models and Bachmann is being pretty smart about road specific details such as different size tenders, but will they have road specific details like marker light placement and headlight differences?

Why not bring out what has seldomly been done like a Heavy USRA 2-10-2? The tooling is there or even a DM&IR Yellowstone with the 2-8-8-4 chassis tooling?

And what of those who have been asking for Harriman locomotives?

I look at things from a marketing perspective as well as personal inquiry.

Like the $4 million dollar brass collection up for grabs and none of the major brass dealers want it. Simply put, the man owned practically every steam locomotive ever manufactured in brass and  bought 50 of each model of specific engines he liked. The thing is once is goes on the market, it'll be flooded with all these models and after so many are bought up there will be such an excess that the supply and demand ratio will make prices plummet below even that of diecast on Pre-2000's made brass. Which is good news for me but bad news for every major brass dealer out there.

It's about supply and demand, I look around online and rarely have I seen people ask for another USRA mikado to be done in diecast/plastic or even a EM-1 for that matter but I've heard more about DM&IR yellowstones and Harriman locomotives.

I hope I don't pop any rivets in this debate, if I'm wrong as I could be I am always open to learn something new 

They produced the EM-1 which is a pretty obscure engine considering  I hear more people ask for the DM&IR Yellowstone than anything B&O, the aesthetics of the EM-1 don't interest me, but if they release a DM&IR engine I would definitely be on board.

Cab forwards are plentiful, and if anything I'm surprised bachmann is coming out with the USRA Mikado, it doesn't make sense to me but if it's a better mechanism than the others by all means I'll pick up a few to repower some brass lokies.

The USRA 2-8-8-2 was found on a variety of roads, so I can't see why not

I think after the USRA Mikado, Bachmann should do either the  a USRA 2-8-8-2 or a generic Non-USRA, Non-N&W 2-8-8-2 in its standard line

A non-USRA/N&W prototype would diversify the offerings seen in Plastic/Diecast considering it can only be found in brass. Think of all the roads that had 2-8-8-2's

Even a USRA 2-8-8-2 would be welcome considering they're not very common on the market yet found on a lot of Roads both eastern and western.


Of course this is only the plea of someone modelling western roads, considering recent medium/large locomotive offerings favor eastern roads over western.

I was kind of indifferent with the announcement of the USRA Mike considering having high hopes for a Harriman Mikado, maybe I shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch and Bachmann perhaps has plans to use the chassis for a western road style locomotive.

It does make me wonder why Bachmann went with so small of a deck length, it's like cutting out tender steam locos almost altogether, and the indexing spacing looks like it would look better in HOn30

If the bridge was a decent length to even handle a 2-6-6-2 I would've considered getting into N-Scale EZ-track