Thanks, guys.  Real good ideas for me to work on.  I do have some of my own but wanted to see what others had first before I did anything.  I'll let you all know how it turns out when I've finished. 

I've already added figureines to both the motor car and trailing coach car and they now both look more like the real thing.  I'm still working on a way to add a motorman to the front cab without the powered truck assembly hitting him, it's a real tight area.  Might have to cut off the motorman figurine below the waist to make him fit.

Thanks, again.

Frank

I have a Galloping Goose Soundtrax sound decoder I want to install into my Doodlebug but there is hardly any space to install a speaker w/enclosure.  Has anyone done this and if so what speaker and enclosure did you use and where/how did you install it?

There's plenty of room for the decoder (where the OEM decoder was located on top of the OEM circuit board) but not a speaker, there is hardly any space above the OEM circuit board that has the passenger area LED's for a speaker, it has to be very thin along with its enclosure to fit.  The curcuit board is just above the top of the windows.

Frank

I took off the shell of my new Spectrum Doodlebug to add figures (coach, too) and replace the OEM decoder with a Tsunami 1000 for the Galloping Goose (I'm not sure what speaker to use yet) when I noticed that the passenger LED's didn't light but the headlight did.  After checking the OEM decoder plug I noticed 2 objects on the plug board that I was not able to determine what they were.  Anybody know what they are?  I'm sure they have something to do with the passenger area LED's lighting up as I can tell the normally unused plug pin #3 is connected to the unknown objects via circuit board trace and through-holes.

I find it strange that they dim when the headlight does but don't go out when in reverse.  Is there a wiring schematic somewhere I can see what they are doing before I continue?  This is no problem, I can work around it.  Just courious.

Frank

I have converted 14 Bachmann FT-A & B's and 5 GP-40's with NCE drop-in replacement decoders with no problems.  Just a little playing with CV's 2, 5 & 6 (if needed) and I had them all running fine in their respective consists.  Even one of the FT-B was a DC  model and after replaceing the OEM DC board with a NCE decoder mentioned above it ran fine, too.

Frank

Jonathan;

Myself, I have converted, so far, 6 Mantua DC engines, (1) 0-6-0 'Big Six' and (5) 0-4-0 'Shifter's to DCC without having to change the original motor.  I'm with you, you can never have enough of 'em running around.  

My next project, when I can find the time, is to add sound to them; a neat trick seeing they all have such small tenders without very much room for a decoder + speaker.  

BlueFox

I just received at Spectrum Item #81423 "EMC" Gas Electric Doodlebug w/trailer coach (DCC) Boston & Maine (maroon) and found that the parts sheet has the exploded view of the insides but doesn't say how to remove the shells of either.  I need to know how to remove the shells without damage to both as I want to change the docoder for a better one that will give better lighting effects and for the trailer coach I want to add a capacitor to eliminate the flickering.  For both I want to add people sitting and an engineer in the forward control cab.

If anyone knows of a decoder w/sound that sounds like a Doodlebug's gasoline engine please let me know.  

Jerry;

Thanks for the url but it turns out that every place I checked for the part number it's sold out!  I couldn't find anyplace that had one in stock.  Bummer!

Frank

Does anyone know if Bachmann makes a powered truck?  I couldn't find any by searching their product database.  I'm rebuilding a homemade wooden 60's era Doodlebug and the powered truck assembly is totaly wore out (all screw holes are stripped out, homemade shims, etc.  It's toast!)  I picked up this little gem at a train show for $5 and would like to get it going again as it is in otherwise good condition; fully lighted, seated painted figures and interior, etc.  A lot of work was put into this unit when it was hand-built way-back-when.  When I can get it running again I plan on adding DCC to it and change all the light bulbs to LED's.

Thanks,

Frank

Does anyone know what Diaphragm kits to use with the following:

Bachmann FT A-B-B-A consist
Atheran D&RGW HW (3 axle trucks) passenger Ski Train cars

I've been looking at all the kits available on the net and can't come to the conclusion as to what kit will work the best as there are so many makes and types.

Has anyone had some experience with these?

Thanks

Frank

I just purchased a new EMD GP-40 (DC only) that was removed from a McKinley Explorer set (all the paper work came with it) and discovered that the Alaska road name is missing on one side!  Is this normal or did Bachmann make a mistake?  The loco runs nicely but the lighting sucks big-time.  I plan on adding a Bachmann decoder board once I get the missing road name solved.  It's a nice looking loco in the ARR paint schme.

Frank

Thanks jward;

The first URL I had already found but the second one I hadn't found yet.  So far all the info I've been able to discover is that this little loco was made sometime in the 60's, can't nail down the exact year, tho.  It never had lights, only jewels, just the later years, 1978 - 2001, had front and rear lights.

As my earlier post says I'm checking into Yardbird and see if their motor replacement kit D8120 will work in this little engine.  The original motor has a dead spot and won't start on its own if it stops in that position without me giving it a little "nuge".  I also plan on adding DCC and lights if the motor replacement works out.

Frank

Thanks, Hunt.   I sent an email to Yardbird to see of their D8120 motor replacement motor kit will work in this loco.  I hope it will as I would like to be able to make this very vintage (early 60's) loco into a DCC equipped w/lights engine.

For a few dollars this has turned out to be a fun project.  If things turn out right it will be fun to see an old loco running around the yard with all my new era Bachmann diesles.  I might even buy some excursion cars to go along with it, who knows?

I bought for practialy nothing a Mantua 0-6-0 diecast loco off E-bay for parts and after inspection was able to get it running again.  After repaining the broken brush holder with Locktite's Sumo glue then cleaning and lubeing the little loco runs pretty darn good.  It has lots of weight for its size and pulls over 20+ cars without spinning its wheels.  It's a pretty nice looking little loco and was taken care of.  The person I bought it from said his late father was an avid model railroader and had an extensive collection and layout.

After I found a site that lists all of Mantua's catalogs from 1978 - 2001 I did learn it was called a Bix Six and the photos show the model I have but every catalog lists it as having lights both front and back.  Mine never had any, just pockets for jewels.
Anyone have any info as to what I have?

You guys are nuts!!!   You made me remember way back in my HS days (59-62) when I first switched over to HO from American Flyer S gage and I had my first HO loco made by Revell.  I don't remember just what type but is was an F7 type and boy did it scoot!   It would go so fast it would throw itself off the tracks when it went into any curve.  It was blue and yellow, probably AT&SF, I don't remember now it's been so long ago but it wound up all scratched up and looked like it had been through a war!

Back to the original post:  I removed the DCC decoder board and put it back to regular DC and replaced the burned out lights.  It now runs fairly decient (but still has lousy pulling power but the low speed is good now) and somebody took the time to do a decient job of detailing it, even the trucks are detailed.  Not a bad looking loco even if it is an old "pancake motor" type engine.  It was fun working on the old thing even if I don't plan on using it except to show it off.  Too bad I couldn't use the shell on another better running chassis.  It would fit on a Con-Cor chassis but the couplers mount differently; on the chassis of the old Bachmann and on the shell of the Con-Cor (sigh).  It was a good try, tho.

I just received from a family member whose father passed away receintly a Bachmann EMD GP40 Conrail #3091 that has written on the label end of the box "July 1984".  This loco has only pickups on the rear truck wheels (2 axle) and has the motor mounted on TOP of the front truck assembly!  Believe it or not it actually runs, but it's noisy as heck!!!  I cleaned and lubed everything and it runs better now.  But the one thing that is puzzling is that the motor slowly speeds up as it goes along to the point that it seems it is going to jump off the tracks even with the power pack turned down to its lowest setting without shutting off the power to the tracks.

Now here's the interesting part: I installed a spare Bachmann decoder board (small enough for even N scale) and it worked, but still does the same thing it was doing on DC, slowly speeding up on its own but not as bad as when it was on straight DC.  Its low speed characteristics are lousy!  And it has a bad habit of sometimes stopping dead in its tracks (no pun intended) when it passes over any turnout, then continuing on, slowly picking up speed again.  I tried spreading the wheel contacts to make sure they were pressing tightly against the back of the pickup wheels and this seems to have helped, somewhat, but it still stops on its own from time to time when passing over any turnout.  Wierd, to say the least.  I whish there was a way to add pickup wipers to the front truck but I don't think it can be done after inspection.

Anyone have any experience with this type of loco?  It's all plastic with a lot of metal weights added, but it's still too light to pull anyhing worthwhile without spining its 4 wheels.  I don't plan on using this engine, it was just a project to see if I could get it going again, sort of a "man" thing I guess.  Oh, all the light bulbs were burned out, too, so it's unlighted for now.

Frank