The best way to see if the passenger cars will match up is to measure the locomotive's heigth with the passenger car's heigth. Bachmann lists the sizes of their new products on the website and in the catalog.
With differant brands, like a Lionel engine and Williams passenger cars, it is a guessing game. Most companies have differant measurements for a scale product in O gauge trains.
I have seen Amtrak engines with passenger cars that don't always match the same size, sometimes the passenger cars are double deckers and are much taller than the engine.

Lee F.

When talking about the Shadow Rail, do you mean track that looks like Super Snap but without the extra plastic pieces on the ends and uses O gauge tubular size track pins?
I have some O gauge straight track by K-Line that looks like a cross between Gargraves and Lionel tubular track with plastic ties that have pre-drilled holes for mounting.

Lee F.

My guess at why prices go up every time a company changes hands has to do with lawyer fees. Even a simple buy-out costs money to go through the paperwork cycle in the court systems.

Lee F.

I don't know about the Peter Witt streetcars, but there have been a few, pre-Bachmann, Williams that have a direction switch on the bottom side of the engine.

I have an SD-45 that has a very small switch under the fuel tank that locks it in one direction. Also the F-7 powered units have a direction switch that locks it in one direction, but the way that switch or circuit board works leaves me wondering if the F-7 powered unit was meant to be run in reverse, as it will lock into reverse after sitting(no power to the engine or off the track) for over an hour. These engines that I mentioned are pre-Bachmann.

Lee F.

Hi DonTrain,

Have you tried using an MTH Z-1000 transformer with the Williams TB-2 sound unit? All my Williams sound units(True Blast 2 and regular units) like the Z-1000 transformer.
Try another transformer besides the MRC transformer, and see what happens.
It is true that Williams sound units need to have the wires reversed(actually the polarity reversed) with a transformer that has only the whistle feature.

Another thing that I have noticed is that you may have to hold the whistle or bell button for three seconds for the TB-2 unit to activate.

Lee F.

I too would like to see K-Line's Super Streets return to the market, as it was a nice looking system to install for a trolley style track on your layout. Looks a whole lot better than to have a section of regular track inside a city setting.
Also a set of three powered diesels was a nice invention as well, the only drawback that I could see was the tether connection. Not that many companies did much with the interurban passengers either.

Lee F.

Allen,

I am not that familar with recent Lionel, as most of their stuff is out of my price range for the current time. So I didn't know that Lionel used a battery in one of their newer steam engines.
Batteries in engines are just something else to go wrong!!

Lee F.

Mr. Bach-man,

Just thought that I would mention that there is a whole lot of speculation about what is going on with K-Line on the Classic Toy Train forum under the heading "K-Line Dead."
I know that there is nothing mentioned on here about what is happening and that is probally the wisest course for now.

Lee F.

Roger,

Most modern day engines, except MTH, do not have a battery installed for any reason. The only Lionel engines to use a battery were in the post WW2 era, from 1946 to 1969, and that was for the horn.
K-Line has a freight car or two that has a set of batteries installed but that is for a sound recording to be played back.

Lee F.

Joe S.

Thank you for the information.
One thing that I should mention is that there was only one center rail roller pick-up on my lighted caboose that shorted out.
About the Lionel 6-23010 series switches, I used the corrective measures in CTT mag & O Gauge train mag and still that didn't help me with my Williams engines going through the switch. Fixes that I tried were extra piece of copper soldered to the center rail area of the switch to prolong the center rail area of contact, the other fix I was told to do was to use a piece of copper at the curved section of the switch to keep the SD-45's from derailing when going through the switch.

Lee F.

Bill,

Thanks for replying, even if you don't have any parts I can use.

The place I bought from was www.choochooauctions.com
"R.I.P." to ebay and other on-line auction sites in my opion!!

Lee F.

Bob,

Glad I could help you. Sort of FYI info for you on what I did with some Williams engines.

I have bought differant versions of Williams SD-45's and they are basically the same plastic shell and metal body but with differant circuit boards installed. One SD-45 has no switch to shut-off the direction and has traction tires, another has a switch to shut-off the direction control but no traction tires. The other differances are not that easy to see at first, one has a plastic set of flangeless wheels for the third set of wheels while the older one has metal non-flanged wheels.
I have added extra wire connectors(plastic guick disconnects) and hooked up three SD-45's together with a Baldwin shark B unit with a True Blast 2 diesel horn in it. The B unit gets it's center rail power from the powered SD-45's and helps to add an extra return or common to the set of SD-45's. Had to drill some small holes in the plastic shells for the wires but I am not that worried about the value of my older Williams engines, as they run great and have what I want. Also I didn't pay a whole lot for my engines.

I have two sets of F-7 diesels, one is the Santa Fe and the other the Pennsylvania. I have taken out the circuit boards on my Santa Fe engines and put in 6 amp bridge rectifiers, lost direction control but gained about 10% speed. Had a problem with direction control in the circuit boards, that is why I did that.

Lee F.

July 9 and still NO Platinum Club Car!!

Is there problems with China shipping it?
I just read an online news article about China's people demanding more wages.

Lee F.

Quote from: 3rail on June 18, 2010, 10:13:29 PM
Philly,

A more powerful transformer does not make a train run faster.  It just supplies power.  More powerful transformers just allow you to run multiple units and lighted passenger trains without overloading.

AG if you want to try another transformer find one that has a lower starting voltage.  You can try the other throttles on the ZW too, maybe one starts at a lower voltage.

Regards,

3rail

3rail,

What I suggested was to use a CW-80 in my first reply to this post, because I was told on CTT forum that it has a super low starting voltage, almost at zero.
A lionel post war ZW starts at the same voltage(about 6 volts) for all four outputs, and has NO accessory output. The p.w. ZW will make most Williams engines start at a very rapid pace! I have about 10 Williams engines to play with and several differant Lionel transformers.
The smaller watt Lionel transformers have worked well for the GP-9's to cure the starting up like a rocket on rails.

Lee F.

Quote from: Bill Mutch on June 28, 2010, 08:16:25 PM
I have a extra shell I bought for the railings if you are interested. Shell no railing!

Is it possible you have a cab railing left over for an SD-45? It is the short rail by the engineer's entrance to the cab. I have one that I bought without a cab rail on one side.
I got duped on a train auction web-site, as the guy said it had all the parts & was in excellent condition, one rail missing and a cab window had come unglued. The SD-45 ran great but had some minimum cosmetic damage to it.

I don't want to sound negative but I usually stay away from auction sites, especially ebay! Usually I buy stuff at train shows so I can see what I am buying!!

Lee F.