Excellent buy Johnathan, Those old PFM/United models are built like a tank. Actualy with some proper turn up, that original motor and drive will operate as quiet as a modern can motor.  The gear box and ratio are good on these models, normaly the rubber tube that connects the motor to the box is hard and brittle, both of which cause noise, as does dried and congelled grease.  clean out the old grease from the gear box, hit all the bearings with a light weight oil, clean the communtator on the motor and put a new piece of rubber tubing in there.  You will have to adjust the tubing so its not putting thrust loads on the gear box or motor bearings, once you find the sweet spot, she will run smooth and quiet.   I have done many of these engines and have had guys think I have put a can motor in them, when it was just the old Pittman.   If the old motor is done for, a simple can motor like a Sagami, Cannon or Mashma is all you need, mount motor with bathtub caulk and connect it with a fresh rubber tube. I usualy strap the motor to the frame with electrical tape till the caulk cures overnight.   Then you can remove the tape and test run/adjust the rubber tube.  The gear box floats per sea on these and they are best left this way, allowing the rubber tube to keep it in place.   Enjoy your new model!!!    Mike

Train Control Systems (TCS) have excellent low cost decoders. I use many of thier T1 decoders for basic installs, cost is around $20 from the local hobby shop.  We have had excellent reliablity out of them over the digitrax decoders and they are more easily delt with when there is a problem with thier "goof proof" warrenty from TCS.     Mike

After seeing a nice shelf layout at a show this weekend, my wife and I are really leaning toward On30 instead of HO for the little shelf logging layout I am planning to build this winter.  Just bought the Cass Scenic 3 truck Climax w/DCC and sound.  Love it, runs nice and smooth with excellent sounds in DCC mode.  Would love to swap it for an On30 Climax with the electric style headlights, unlettered but with the red and white trim work and sound/dcc.  I might just put all my HO stuff sans a few keepsake items up for sale online and take the plunge!  I will use proper narrow gauge track and not HO track however.  Mike

I vote for a 3 truck Climax similar to the new HO one I have, and a big huge, did I say big?, vote for WP&Y Alcos, espicaly the road switcher units.   I used to have a LGB G scale one.  HOn3 versions from PSC are almost impossible to find and pricey.   The White Pass would open up a whole new market segement for Bachmann's On30 line up with freight cars, the unique caboose, the ore cars ect.  And doing a EBT Mikado works as well as White Pass had a Baldwin Mikado as well.    Mike

agreed on the size of the mill Jeff.  Most layouts dont have the space for a real world size mill and associated buildings.  But as modelers we all know about the need to "shrink" things a bit so the modeler community can have the "feel" without having to build a large layout to just fit the mill in it.  There have been nice kits made years ago, Sydam had one if you could build a metal kit, many different wood craftsman kits ( I dont have the patience or time for those anymore).  Walthers set looks to modern for steam era logging in my eyes.   A run down looking wood sided mill is more my idea, motive power being 1 or two Climaxes or shays with a few log cars.  Probably going to use Kaydee disconnect cars myself to run behind my 3 truck Climax.  Great post Jeff, I enjoyed reading it.   Mike

But you have to want to deal with those type of kits.  Most of todays average modelers would rather not have to do that.  I was just thinking it would make great add on sales for Bachmann and excellent follow up items to their logging locomotives in HO scale, much like they have done in On30.   I will say it seems the rush on the On30 stuff seems to have died off around here.  Most stuff I see at shows and in shops isnt selling. I hope that nice scale isnt a passing fad.  Mike

How about some HO versions of the "camp" cars that Bachmann did in On30?   They could be sold seperatly or in a compelte set.   Bachmann has done the motive power, has a logging flat car and car if you want to haul the tourists.  But we need some proper camp cars for the loggers, affordable skelleton style log cars.  The flats are nice, a bit over priced IMHO for what you get.   Rivarossi used to do a nice plastic one, Kaydee still does but also higher priced and a kit that many modelers might not care to attempt.  The Skel log cars plus the bobber caboose would make the perfect train for the Shay or Climax engines!   How about structures, a nice small sawmill designed to put next to a log pond, one that would fit the average home layout and not the huge variety.  How about an unloading "jill poke" to go next to the track and some skidding donkeys to put at the log loading area and out in the woods.   Logging is the prefect small layout prototype when money is tight in the train budget.  Most logging RR's had only a couple of engines, a small sawmill and a few log skels or disconnect style trucks to haul the logs.   A small back woods engine house that is long enough to house the 3 truck Shay or Climax would also be an awsome add on sale.   Bachmann could offer a whole logging series that doesnt require the modeler to deal with craftsman style kits that make up the bulk of the logging theme buildings on the market that work on a small layout.  HO versions of all the logging items in the On30 line up would be a good start.  Walthers did a sawmill series, but it was more modern and took quite a large layout to deal with the size of the structures.   How about it Bachmann?

Started playing with the CV's on my DCC/Sound equipted Climax.  To get your headlight to spool up and down with the generator function(F5 button), you need to change CV's 49 and 50 to a value of 15.  After this mod you need to have the generator running to get the headlight on via the headlight button or F0 on your controler.  I set my master sound (CV 128) to a value of 25.  The fast chuffing gets annoying if its to loud.  I find this setting excellent for home layout use, at a club or modular meet in a show enviroment, a louder setting might be needed to hear the sounds.   This sound is about perfect, espicaly in idle, step near the engine and you can hear the pumps working and other boiler related sounds, step away and they fade into the background noise just like they should.   Operation is smoothing out the more I run it around my small loop of track.   I have not played with the LED compensation yet to see if it improves the spool up and down of the headlight as the generator comes up to speed.   This model exceedes any brass model so far in detail as well as out of the box running with just a simple lubrication job.  Still havent decided on what road name she will wear as mine is a painted/striped but unlettered version.   I love the whistle, reminds me of the whistle on the "19" in Emperor of the North.   Mike

I am giving a nice Bravo to Bachmann on the beautifull new Climax engines.  Almost totaly diecast metal, drive system is as close to prototype as can be done in HO, much closer than any of the PFM brass ones I have.  But being so, it does take more upkeep than the average steam engine.  All those many bearings and gears require grease and oil to keep them turning easy for the small motor hidden in the firebox to turn.  Mine was essentialy dry as a bone and was really stiff out of the box, but after a proper backshopping for lubrication, most of this was gone.  I suspect the rest will "bed in" like a real engine with some run time.  As soon as I figure out the CV to turn the damn sound down to a level that doesnt blow the ears out, I plan to put a good solid hour in each direction pulling 1 Kaydee disconnect log car and caboose.  Just a light load to allow the gears to wear in and bearings to smooth out.   Bachmann has to be applauded for doing the trucks the way they should be done and not with just worm gears.  Any closer would need a larger model and live steam in the boiler.  Only long term will tell if Bachmann solved the gear and line shaft splitting issues, but I suspect they have upgraded the drive parts from the previous model, it only makes good business sense!   There will be duds, espicaly in a highly mechanical model with lots of moving parts.  If your mail ordering, test it right away and keep all the boxes, if buying at the LHS like I did, test it before you leave the store.   Saves grief later at home.   Time to go run some trains!     Cheers   Mike and Michele T

I just got my 3 truck Climax w/sound as well.  A bit herky/jerky and stiff out of the box, but after flipping her over and adding a drop of Labelle light weight oil on every bearing point in cross boxes for the truck line shafts, axles ends and valve motion, then a drop of heavier oil on the bevel gears themselves, the engines running smoothed out and the piston motion very closely matched the sound most of the time.  There are lots of movement that little motor has to deal with, so some good break in time will do wonders I think.  The oiling of the line shaft bearings did the most improvement to the way my ran.  It was late last night, so today after I view the DVD and figure out which CV to turn down the sound, I will put a good hours run time in each direction pulling 1 Kaydee disconnect log car and caboose. Only time and operation will tell if the drive is gonna hold up.  Not having owned one of the 2 truck models that split gears, I cannot say for sure that the new 3 truck has the redesigned gears, but we would assume it would.  Do as Bachmann says and return that dead one for one that runs.  Something is definatly amiss in the gear box.   These little wonders are more prototypicaly correct than any of the high doller PFM brass ones.   These little Climaxes are driven exactly like the 1:1 scale ones other than using real steam!  These engines in real life are maintance hogs!  Engineers and firemen would be under the engine greasing those bevel gears and line shaft bearings each day, thats whats in those old metal buckets many times that you see in old logging photographs.  Cheers   Mike

I remember seeing a deluxe starter set that came with a PRR K4 locomotive and a few passenger cars, along with a transformer and track.  Try to track one down to add to my collection, but I cant remember what Bachmann called the set?   Anybody have an older catalog that can refresh my memory?   Thanks in advance.   Mike

Just try to store the engines somewhere dry and that doesnt have extreme temps like a garage or an attic.  if you have the original boxes, put them in there as that will protect the handrails and paint.  A bedroom or spare room closet shelf will be perfect.   Its the extreame high and low temps, as well as humidity such as in a basement or leaky attic that that does the damage to them.   Mike

I would step up to either the Bachman Dynamis system or look into the NCE Powercab intro system.  That is what I am using and I am very pleased with it, very easy to understand and operate.  Manual is written in easy to understand terms and language.  I use a mix of TCS and NCE decoders along with QSI Revolution and MRC sound decoders.   Good luck in whatever system you chose, just make sure its a NMRA compliant system, makes finding decoders and dealing with issues much easier.  Mike

Changing over the dim headlight bulb in your DCC ready K4 is very simple evening project.  You need 1 Miniatronics 3mm Yelglow LED lamps and a 470ohm resistor.   I removed the light bulb from the front PC board with my soldering iron and replaced it with the LED.  I then cut the black wire back in the firebox area that feeds that board and spliced in the 470 ohm resistor into that line.  If you position the LED in the same basic spot that the light bulb was, the boiler shell will go right back on the chassis without any issues.  Now you can enjoy a much brighter headlight in both DC and DCC mode.   If your going to be running just DCC only, I would suggest a 1K ohm resistor instead of the 470, that way if someone bumps or runs the track voltage on the high side, the LED will be ok.  I run on both analog and DCC and find the 470ohm works fine with DCC track voltage set at 12vt.   Cheers   Mike

I loved that Reading 2-8-0, along with the "stubby" heavy Mikado that made using the same tooling with a vanderbilt tender in B&O.   I would buy one of each if those came back with spectrum quality drives under them.   I think if Bachmann went on a 2-5 year PRR kick with a new engine each year, but with all announced up front, thus giving modelers time to plan/order and save thier pennies, they would all sell well,  I can see a B6 0-6-0 doing well, followed by a H class 2-8-0 and the L class 2-8-2.   Keep the steam on the smaller side and let BLI/PCM do the huge monster steamers.   The H8/9 class would make an excellent starter set engine, bet it would sell like gang busters on the east coast.  Not everybody has 36"+ radius curves for huge steam to look and run good.  Bachmann seems to have a good mind set to produce smaller steam, ie the 4-6-0 and the 2-8-0, now we need models of more greater known prototypes and the PRR definatly is one of them that has a absolutely huge following in both collectors and modelers.   The K4 has been a lone wolf for to long in the Bachmann line up.   Lets see a follow up PRR freight class engine Bachmann!