In most cases, cars that had a capacity of 70 tons or less would have 33" wheels, larger cars, such as 100 ton cars, used 36" wheels in the real world. There are some exceptions out there, but that's usually the case. In model railroading, its not always the case depending on the manufacturer or what particular product line, but the most common you will see is 33" wheels on model train cars.

A couple suggestions:
-Just a theory, the Bachmann Magnets might be stronger than Kadee Magnets. I would assume this is to give a little more power when placed under EZ Track, since there is a little more depth when they are glued under the EZ Track roadbed, compared to under the ties on standard track.
-Coupler slack is very important in the operation of uncoupling magnets. Just like on real railroad cars, if the couplers are stretched out, the conductor cannot "pull the pin" to uncouple the car. He will then ask for the pin, in which the engineer will bunch the couplers, allowing for the pin to release. Make sure the couplers of bunched to allow the couple knuckles to easily open.
-If a magnet it placed in, or just outside of, a curve, it can make the difficult to uncouple, or couple for that matter sometimes. Being the self centering action of model train couplers, the knuckles will tend to stay hooked into one another.

I couple sets I can think of off the top of my head were called "Pegasus", "Prussia" and "John Bull", there may have been one more but I cannot think of what it was.

Quote from: sd45elect2000 on March 24, 2013, 09:41:21 AM
I have all of the bachmann cars in multiple. I have renumbered more than a dozen cars but I really have better things to do with my scarce modeling time. I agree that a collector set of unique numbered cars would be a good seller. UTLX,SHPX,GATX,NATX etc. were pretty common.

Highly agree! I do beleive plain, common reporting mark tank cars are something that hasn't been made available enough in this scale. I have a decent sized model railroad that operates and uses car cards (at least whenever I get all the cards finished). I have a few customers on the railroad that take tank cars for different uses, and may not always end up at the same customer every time they end up on the layout, per the waybill cycle. It is required to have cars on my layout with individual numbering, as the cars come into the layout as sometimes just one car, other times as multiple cars, and occasionally, the customer will not have some of the cars released on their siding during an operating session. 

It is nice to have a fleet of plain black tank cars, with common reporting marks (UTLX, GATX, SHPX, NATX, etc.) because they can be used in a variety of services, and reflect contemporary railroading more so that most of the bright, colorful paint schemes. Plain black, basic reporting mark cars much of the time lasted a longer period of time than the colorful ones, and/or in a lot of cases, cars with company logos on them. I can, and have decalled, or at least renumbered several cars over the years, but being able to not have to worry about matching decal fonts, sizes, and colors is a great thing. I would love to see 3, 6 or 12 packs of common cars in different number available.

Tom,
Forgot about that, good idea! I have used trim film from Microscale as well so similar projects, and it workds very well.
Ryan

A agree with Doneldon, you will see a difference if you only remove one number. I also recommend using a gloss coat over the area, to adhere decals, and also to cover us the glossy finish that may occur depending on how you remove the lettering, the decal film will also look glossy after being applied. After the decals fully dry, you can either add another light gloss coat, then add a dull coat, or just do a dull coat over the dried decals. the second gloss coat however, will make sure everything looks consistent when you're done.

jbrock27, I now understand, you have an F7A and F7B, not FAs and FBs. The F7As and F7Bs were built by a General Motors division called "Electro-Motive Division", while FAs and FBs were a product of American Locomotive Company or "Alco". Bachmann offered F7As and F7Bs in their Plus line, and have recently reintroduced them in the Standard Line with sound. The FA-2 and FB-2 models were brand new models for the Standard and Sound Value Line. Bachmann never offered FA-2s in Southern Pacific Daylight paint that I am aware of. An F7A and an FA-2 have different Physical Charactoristics on the body. Here are some examples:
F7A: http://rr-fallenflags.org/lv/lv0512pma.jpg
FA-2: http://rr-fallenflags.org/lv/lv590rpa.jpg

Now to answer your original question, If you are trying to fit an F7A shell onto an FA-2 chassis, it probably will not work due to body length and shape. If you are trying to put an old F7A shell on a new F7A drive, it may work, but you would have to compare the shells to see if the tabs that hold the shell to the chassis are identical, and that there are no tabs or anything in the shell that would restrict the engines mechanical performance. As for the motor change out, that I am not 100% sure on. I seem to recall a manufacturer or two in the past, use to skip putting flywheels in their train set engines, to keep the cost down, unsure if Bachmann did this or if it was another manufacturer, without looking at some samples.
I am also not sure if Bachmann had changed motors since then, but I do remember most of the old Plus engines were not DCC friendly by any means, without having to do some milling on the chassis to make room for a decoder. The only way to really know would be to try and see if the new motor is identical, dimension wise, and that there are clearances for the flywheels. The flywheels will make a difference, performance wise, but just keep in mind that if the engine runs good as is, I don't think I would go through the trouble. I enjoy tinkering, and understanding the mechanics of models, but I myself, find that if the engine works fine, I don't both changing things like that.
The main thing that flywheels will do for your engines is they it will make the engine run smoother, the motor will not "jolt" as hard when stopping or starting, and it will assist an engine in getting over dead spots or dirty track.
Ryan

Manufacturers do not use decals, the lettering is printed on. There are a couple ways to do it, and require patience.
-For small lettering, I remove numbers on Bachmann's newer models with an Exacto knife with a sharp #10 blade. This is a curved blade, using a straight blade will cause damage. Take the knife, place it on top of the lettering, 90 degrees to it, and very gently scrape the blade over the lettering, apllying little to no pressure. Pressure while doing this will gouge your work. Bachmanns lettering, at least on newer models chips off fairly easily using the process.
-91% isopropyl alcohol works to remove lettering one some manufacturer's models, HOWEVER it also removes paint all together on others. The alcohol must be 91% and no less. First, take a tiny paint brush, or a microbrush, and and put a small amount of alcohol on it, and put the alcohol on the model somewhere that is painted, but not visible when running when running your trains, and apply at the same spot for roughly 20 minutes, to see ig the alcohol will or will not eat the paint. If the paint starts something off within about 10 minutes, I do not recommend this process for removing lettering.
-Simple solution, find a model paint with a matching color, and paint over the old lettering, carefully, then apply a new number once the paint completely dries. You want to use as little paint as possible, so if it is not an exact match, a new decal will cover that problem.

I am sure others will have other ideas on here, but they are what I would normally do, and I have used these methods with great results. They key is patience, rushing through these processes will be regrets later. Just other words of note if you are not familiar with this product, Testor's makes a paint and decal remover, but it is just that, it will not remove one or they other, it will remove both.
Ryan

You're correct that the Plus and Spectrum lines, the drives between the two were basically identical. The difference I think came in the details primarily. The Plus models had basic details, but also lacked some much of the time, such as grab irons. The Spectrum Line tried to cover most details, making it a slight upgrade. I know one good example was the SD45, offered in the Plus and Spectrum Lines around the time of its first release. The Spectrum engine had working drop steps, formed wire air lines on the trucks, etc. The Plus line units has molded on Drop Steps, in the down position, and thick plastic air lines on the trucks. Other thans that it was hard to tell them apart. The newer Spectrum SD45s are even more upgraded. What color box did you FAs come in by chance?

Ah much better! This is a Bachmann 2-8-0 Consolidation, these were originally offered in the Spectrum Line, but later became part or the Standard Line.

Just curious, are you sure this is a Spectrum model? I was not aware of the Bachmann FA-2/FB-2s being offered in anything other than the Standard Line (Blue or Red-Orange Box). According to Bachmann's Parts diagrams, both Standard Line models, DCC/Sound and DCC ready,  should have the same drive. They difference is primarily the PC board and with or without a speaker it appears. Then again, maybe I will learn something.

Are they actaul waterslide decals or printed on lettering?

Sorry wxbeaz, but the photos did not load on my end, not sure if everyone else is having the same problem

As far as I know the U36B was never offered in the Plus Line, This model dates back long before the Plus Line was available. However, the HO Scale B23-7 was in the plus line at one time, which is now also made in N scale. Hope that helps

   I use two types of weighting on my cars. A simple one is to go to a local gun shop or outdoor store, and buy a bag of fine buck or lead shot, which if you're not familiar, are basically small lead beads, find the smallest size available. This is good for cars with only small spaces for weight or hopper pockets. I put the shot into the open spaces and put few drop of a thick glue/water mix on them, and let them dry. In hopper cars, if the car is not quite up to the NMRA weights at this point, I pour some into the hopper pockets and glue them in. I then weather the instide of the car, and cover over the lead shot with fine coal or ballast and glue it on top. A hint when doing this, real hopper cars have a tendency of having a few tons of coal left over in the car if the material does no readily dump out. Through transit, the leftover material will vibrate down into the pockets, which looks just like the coal that covers the weights in my cars. *Warning*: You are dealing with lead here, use the necessary precautions.
   Another way in which I weight cars is by gluing stainless steel nuts into the inside of cars that are enclosed (Boxcars, Covered Hoppers). I attach them either by 5 minute epoxy (recommended) or super glue. This is not a requirement, just an interesting little note, I use nuts because I get them for free, so I can't beat the price, and of the type I use, they are AAR (Association of American Railroads) signalling electronic nuts, which I get a basically unlimited supply of, as old signal relays and other parts are trashed. I found these to be exactly 1/4 ounce each, so they easy to figure out how many you need per car.