i have had my Bachmann spectrum acela for about 3 weeks now, i have only run it a few times at a local model railroading club and would you guess what happened? the trucks decided to fall apart. i took a look at the insides of the trucks after removing them and the rods that hold the gears in place slid out due to a complete lack of anything holding them in. the gears proceeded in slipping away from the main center gear resulting in the lack of movement. i ran several tests in which i placed the gears on the rods and slid the rods back into place and the same thing happened every time, the only object holding the rods in place are the two metal power collectors that ride on the wheels and have two rods that run up into the powered cafe car. After having paid full price for my acela, the failure of one of the most vital parts of my train due to poor engineering is a VERY serious letdown. i would be glad to take part in re-designing the entire internal system of the trucks if Bachmann would contact me via my personal email address- all4saradomin@aol.com - also, i would like to find out where i can get a new set of trucks for my powered car so that i may mod them myself. despite the poorly designed trucks, the acela is perfect, everything is according to the real acela, (i visited washington D.C.'s central station and compared) the train has a very powerful motor and the couplings hold together better than i have ever seen in any other model train, i thank you mr. bach-man for reading this complaint and i hope that you shall take this to the superiors within your company
Thank you
Thank you
and i need some ideas. my layout will be using wide radius curves (for my beloved acela =]) on the bottom bunk of my bed, i removed my bottom mattress and the board and raised the plywood up so it is flush with the edges, but i cant get past either the simple oval or the figure eight. i would like to have a larger layout but my parents wont let me build anywhere in the house (ahh the troubles of being fourteen and unimployed). with this limited space i was wondering if you wonderful forum people would like to post pics of some layout ideas or just give some simple suggestions. oh and by the way, i am using the woodland scenics mountain valley scenery kit for my layout and my grandpa is coming out to my house for christmas and we are going to build the layout together over about 5 days to a week (is that even possible?)