Thanks, 261 - I'll do that.   

BTW, I like 261 - a nice engine.  I remember her when she was at the National RR Museum in Green Bay, before they sold her for restoration.  In fact, I was the guy who pulled her out of the "hole" where she had rested since she was donated to the Museum.  I drove a 20-ton Plymouth gas-hydraulic switcher to do it, and it was quite a challenge.  She had been sitting for so long in the same place that the rails under the drivers had sunken into the ground until the railheads were at ground level, and the pilot was resting hard on the railheads in front.  We put some STP oil treatment on the railheads in front of the pilot, and some sand under my engine's wheels, and up she came, slick as a whistle.  Fun. :-) 

Gary M. Collins
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I have an old Doodlebug (1st-run) that has developed (while sitting on a shelf) the dreaded cracked-gear "thump".   Can I get replacement wheelsets?  If so, How do I go about it?

Gary M. Collins
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You should keep in mind (for your video) that water doesn't scale down.  Ripples, waves, etc. are 1:1 scale, not 1:87.

The Consolidations have the receptacles in the tender.  The 4-8-2s (Light & Heavy) and the 4-6-0 have the receptacles on the locomotive (under the cab).  The tenders do not all have the same plug/receiver setup. and are not interchangeable without modification.  I can't speak to other wheel arrangements, but I would guess that the newer ones have LEDs, and thus different connection setups (to prevent frying the LEDs).

Gary M. Collins
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Now that's something I did not know.  Thanks, ebtnut!  In that case, the 4-6-0 has the eccentric crank on the right side in the wrong position - it's in the middle - that is, the crank is lined up with the hub.  Well, that I can live with -  for a while, at least... 

Gary M. Collins
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I have 7 of your beautiful Spectrum steam locomotives:  3 Baldwin 2-8-0s, 2 USRA Light 4-8-2s. a USRA Heavy 4-8-2, and a Baldwin 4-6-0.  These are great-running engines, but being detail-oriented (or why would I buy these beauties?) there are a couple of things that you need to talk to your Chinese builders about: 

First, and most obvious (to me), the builder's plates and trust plates of all of the Baldwin locomotives, though very well done, are printed in a "negative" image -that is, they are gold where they should be black, and black where they should be gold.  Locomotive builder's plates are cast in brass, with lettering and numbers raised.  They are painted black, and the raised lettering sanded off to show the brass.

Second, the eccentric cranks on the fireman's side of the Light 4-8-2s, and the 4-6-0 engines are pointing in the wrong direction.  When looking at the main driver, with the side rods down, the eccentric crank should be angled approximately 10 degrees forward of the axle hub.  The cranks on the engineer's sides are oriented correctly.  It appears that during assembly, when the assembler was putting together the main driver pair, the assembler put two right (engineer's) side wheels on the axle, instead of the left and right. With most steam models this would be a simple screwdriver fix - loosen the crank, shift it counterclockwise, and tighten.  However, with these models, the fix requires filing off the lugs that hold the crank in position, and then using the standard friction method to hold the crank in the proper position - i.e: tighten the crew to hold it.  By leaving the crank in its as-delivered position it is possible to cause the eccentric rod to be jammed in an upward position, instantly jamming the valve gear and stopping/preventing the engine from moving.

These issues are by no means deal-breakers for me.  The first is merely cosmetic, though uncorrected, the second might actually be an operational problem.  However, they are annoying, and since you have gone to such great length to improve the quality of your products by several orders of magnitude in the HO scale lines, I'm sure you will wish to address these issues.

Thanks for your attention;

Gary M. Collins
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Thanks, guys, but this I know already.  I'm looking for the capacities of the specific prototype of the tender on the Spectrum engines.

Gary

What are the tender capacities (tons, gallons) of the prototypes of the Baldwin 2-8-0 and the Spectrum Light and Heavy 4-8-2?  I would like to make decals for them for my fleet.

Thanks!

Gary M. Collins
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I love the smell of coal smoke and hot valve oil in the morning!
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