a very nice lady in the Parts Dept just offered to send me new trucks;)

turns out the axle gears are split, and i asked for the gears, but she said they would just go ahead and send the whole trucks.

thanks for the great service, Bach-Lady!

great find, JAck !  Thanks very much

nope?

k//im gonna tear this coffer grinder down, and ill let you know what happens;)

i've seen and done some tuning tricks for other brands, but im wondering if anyone knows how to tune up the bachmanns

i've got a lovely 70 tonner here, but would like to quiet it down, and sweeten ip up a bit

thanks in advance

anyone buy one yet?  reviews? opinions?

i heard that this has an upgraded drive from the old bachmann playmouth,,,is this true, and how do they run?

bridgette is a sweetheart

too bad bachmann can't hire a couple dozen more bridgetts

that's very convincing, and clever as heck...very nice!

scotty is correct,,,ebat has pretty much eliminated the "great deal" because everyone knows the value of every darn thing in the world, now that the world is one big marketplace

take nice pictures of it, and use words like "rare" and you might get an even higher price than it's worth;)

thanks for the tip, Ken!

i like the idea of rentin one out, but my LHS doesnt even have one for sale.

heheh..ok,,jim is out


who was the gentleman that showed me how to make LED light kits?

i'll have to go din that thread..I bet HE is brave and crazy enough to try it;)

..come up with a plan for a homemade static grass applicator!

It can't be very complicated, and the Noch Grasmaster seems a bitpricey

But WOW!! that static grass looks amazing!

Anyone tried making something like this?

anyone electrocuted himself trying to do so ?

math teacher from sacramento, california, spending my days nostalgic for the great fallen flags from this area (western pacific, southern pacific, etc.)

i've got two small shelf layouts, one in my office at work ,and one here at home. Someday I may do something bigger, but for now these small layouts give me tons of fun;)

that really makes a big improvement;)

thanks lanny;)

the road crossing and blacktop are made from a thin sheet of black extruded foam. It comes sandwiched between two layers of black paper, and i peel the paper off, then cut, sand and shape it the way i need it.

the foam boards are display boards for school project displays. You can find them at office supply stores or craft stores. I like the texture of the foam, and you and dust it with whatever shades of greay or tan you like, giving it a pretty realistic look.

to make the road crossing, i just pressed the foam right onto the track, which leaves grooves where you need to make the cuts. Then sand it down to fit.

(it's a lot thicker than the track height, to you have to plane it down quite a bit)

the stuff really wants to warp and peel back, so I break the foam in several places, kind of "breaking its back". This makes it easy to glue securely, and it also leaves nice looking cracks in the pavement;)

the yellow lines i masked off and sprayed. The crossing markings i made using a brass stencil i picked up at the local train shop.

be careful with paints. Enamels eat the foam, however, this actually looks pretty cool too, as long as you dont use a heavy coat, the paint will just pit the foam lightly, again making things look naturally worn

Quote from: Mark Damien on February 22, 2007, 06:41:00 AM

G'Day keddiewye,

I find Bachmann Branchline locomotives runs very smoothly, have excellent detail, & with the exception of the eight wheel tenders, follow NRMA wheel standards pretty closely.

They are however geared just a little [& I mean Just a little] too high. US outline locos seem to gear their locos a little better. I have several British outline locos capable of scale 250 mph - beat that Mallard - oh wait a minute - I think that is my Mallard? [I think we found the answer to your speed record thread Stewart   If they were geared a little lower, say, a scale 150mph their low speed running would be as good as US outline.

Hornby are in the same boat, except they pay little attention to NMRA wheel standards, but run OK, albeit with more chance of derailments.

I have over 170 British outline ranging back to my first loco; a Tri-ang 0-4-0T in yellow, my father bought me to the latest BoB's, Britannias & 9f's, & love them all.

There is something about a large Brit' in motion - it appears to move effortlessly & faster than the wheels seem to turn - Elegance in motion.

The tenders are large enough for DCC with SOUND [two speakers], so I hope they will get on the band wagon soon. I hope they adopt the BLi type wiring harness, that plugs directly into the back of the loco & in line with the tender with the excess wire disappearing into the tender & not dragged along the ground. Can only hope.

If the prototypes never existed, someone would have created Model Trains anyway.

to the american train fan's eye, the British and other European equipment is magically exotic. I wish it was more available over here. It would be nice to go to shop and actually touch the stuff before I buy. I really dont like to buy train stuff online.

thanks for the excellent infomation;)