Yes it is!!!
  THANK YOU to Bridget and Everyone at Bachmann Parts !
  Your communication, service, and follow through have been awesome considering the demand you must have faced!
  I truly appreciate Bachmann "stepping up" and providing excellent customer service.
  This is a truly rare thing these days!
Rick G. in NH

Just my two cents,
  I have gained a lot of good info from the Conspiracy group, although there are a couple of "curmudgeons" lurking there.
  As Bill said,  it IS one of the better forums to stay up to date on items of On30 info.
  Personally, I have found all of the forums to be very useful, but a bit cliqueish at times. I fear it is because of the "graying" of the hobby and the fact we are all sort of set in our ways.
  Rick
PS....Harold, they are"melting" paint off of Model Power Plymouths, not Davenports which happen to be closer to O scale than HO.

Hi Steve,
   Regarding the gear issues, there does seem to be no rhyme or reason to it.
   My experience : 2 Shays, both with cracked gears; 2 Climaxes, run great, no problems; 4 Railtrucks, ALL with cracked gears - 3 right out of the box; 3 Davenports, no problems, love them; 1 Railbus set, "square gears", obviously ready to fail, just no run time on it.
   I love the detail, the availability of these models is a huge boost to On30 and when they do run it is great!
   I look forward to Bachmann' s addressing of the gear issues come June 1, just hope I get all the parts needed to upgrade my "fleet" !
   And to anyone hesitating on the Heisler, DON'T ! Great looking loco and runs very well.
Rick

Thanks all for the feedback!
  No probox just the basic system. At this point, it has happened three times. The last two while I was operating !!!! Running along, suddenly won't respond to command, kicks speed steps back to 28 and then goes to Stop. Restart and all memory is gone.....except if you enter a loco address it is still there, CV settings are what they had been set to, EXCEPT speed steps which have reverted to 28 !!!
  Bill, there are no batteries in the command stations.
  Steve, if the batteries can't stay in the hand set for more than a few hours, then the contacts must have been made from the same outstanding materials as the Shay, et al ,gear sets !!!!!!!!
  I guess I will pack it up and ship it to Philly ! So disappointing !

Rick

Hi all,
   Interesting problem popped up today with my Dynamis system.
   Used it earlier today and all was as it should be. Then came back a few hours later, powered up the command center, turned on the controller and SURPRISE all the loco addresses were gone !
   If I enter an address for a particular loco, that loco responds as it should with no loss of the CV' s as I had programmed them(except speed steps).  But I can no longer scroll through to select the loco I want, their assigned names/ addresses are gone. Also, the speed steps for all locos have reverted to 28 instead of the 128 I had them set at.
  I always hit Stop, then power off the hand set and lastly the command station.
  Is this operator error or a quirk with the system? Is there a simple recovery process, or must I reprogram all my locos?
  Any input will be Greatly Appreciated !!
  Thanks !
  Rick in NH

OK, here's a question for those of you who have the Heisler,
     Mine came with 3 pairs of optional headlights...great !!!
When I changed the originals out, one of the pair I used had a distinctly different, warmer, "golden glow" appearance. Very nice!! I tested the others and 3 of the 4 also had this appearance. Has anyone else noticed this and could it be that Mr B is making a change mid run ?
  I would certainly hope so ! I put one of the other pairs on one of my Climax locos, what a great improvement in appearance!

Rick G in NH

 Oh my, Royce,
   Just picture the 1880's MOGUL ala Balboa/ Ken Kidder, NWSL Spartan !!!
And everyone thinks the inside frame 4-4-0 is small......LOL !
   But as I said, Mr B. already has all the CAD work done for the saddle tank. And an 0-6-0 version should be equally easy given the HO mechanism that already exists.
Rick

  Here's an easy one Mr. Bachmann....an 18 ton, 0-4-0 Porter saddle tank. You already have the CAD drawings from the G scale version you did.  It was a universally used prototype, a very popular model no longer offered by Grandt Line, Line and would offer a nicely sized loco between the original Porters and the geared locos. And no one is going to give you grief about the gear train !
  Rick G. in NH.

THANK YOU Chris and Steve !!!!!
  Good call Chris, I reversed the plugs and got lights    !
  Reinstalled decoders #1 & 2 to see what I had and one worked fine ( put it in a rail truck and was able to give it a new address), but the other one went crazy ! The truck took off full throttle in one direction, stopped and reversed direction all by itself !
  Steve, I'm going to follow your direction and see if that decoder can be saved.  I am sure that will work.
   Thanks again ! 

Rick G

PS: I really DO have 3 railtrucks with NO broken gears ! Also 2 Climaxes.

Hi all!
    OK, so I am my own worst enemy ! I just got a Heisler ( LOVE IT !!) and that prompted me to try DCC with a Dynamis starter kit.
    As they say,a little knowledge is a dangerous thing ! After getting the system hooked up and reading Steve Lewis's info I was able to reset the CV' s to get the Heisler lights working properly. Hey this is great !
    So I then proceed to reinstall the decoder in my inside frame 4-4-0 ...... and it won't run. Well,  I try messing with the CV' s and still nothing. OK, so let's try ANOTHER never used decoder from a rail truck .... still nothing. Hmmm.... double check the plugs from the tender to the loco ... nope. Well, let's try changing the loco address ! Wrong again ! Wiggle the wires from the tender and WE HAVE LIFE !!!! Sort of.... only wants to run in one direction regardless of signal from controller and no lights. Messed with the CV' s again ...some people just never learn !
   OK, let's take decoder #2 and put it in a different loco - a Climax. Same symptoms, no lights and only runs in one direction regardless of controller input.
   Sooo....let's try ANOTHER never used decoder in the Climax. And it works ! Forward, reverse.... but no lights . OK, so I put that decoder into the 4-4-0 and yes we have forward and reverse, but no lights.
   So here we are,faced with two problems : 1) any ideas what I need to do to get the lights working ? and 2) does anybody know what the default settings are to restore the first two decoders or where I can get them ? Better yet, is there a shortcut to restore them ?
  Your help would be greatly appreciated and comments about my ineptitude will be accepted accordingly !

Rick Gannoe

OK, what am I doing wrong ? I have a brand new On30 Heisler which runs perfectly on analog  DC. A simple oval of track, no blocks or loops,  but two Atlas code 83 turnouts.
Just got a brand new Dynamis starter kit, hooked it up (2 wires) per the instructions, and NOTHING !
What am I missing ??

Rick