stupid question

[Rickenbacker 325]

I now this is a stupid question but I have $300 from mowing the neighbors yard and shoveling snow from the winter and I was wondering which is stronger 4-6-0 or 2-8-0 or 2-10-0.  These are all the Bachmann Spectrum line. Or the 4-8-4 southern pacific daylight in MTH HO

[Guilford Guy]

The Daylight painted GS4 was not meant for freight. Out of the 4-6-0, 2-8-0, and 2-10-0, the 2-8-0 is slightly more powerfult han the 2-10-0, with the 4-6-0 coming in third. How large is your layout, how many cars will you be running, and what grades will you be using?

[Rickenbacker 325]

my layout is 17ft by 20ft with 4 main lines and 2 branch lines. 3 main line tracks go up a 1% grade. The branch lines are both 2% grades.  I wanted to pull up to 10 bachmann medal wheel cars. Thanks

[Guilford Guy]

The 4-6-0 may have a problem with 10 cars on a 2% grade, but the 2-8-0 and 2-10-0 should be fine.

[Rickenbacker 325]

thanks but what about the 1% grade?

[Guilford Guy]

If a locomotive can get up a 2% grade then it is common sense that it can make it up a 1%...

[Chris350]

If a locomotive can get up a 2% grade then it is common sense that it can make it up a 1%...

and pull a few more cars up it as well...
Also unless you run DCC or Mikes DCS systems, most of the reasons for buying the MTH are lost.  Sure they are pretty, and run quiet well.  There are better priced DC units for a Southern Pacific GS loco.

[Rickenbacker 325]

I have the dynanamis system, so I cant run DC

[Guilford Guy]

I have the dynanamis system, so I cant run DC

You can on address 00.

[Rickenbacker 325]

I does NOT work on the dynamis

[Pacific Northern]

I have the dynanamis system, so I cant run DC

You can on address 00.

I thought that you were unable to run any DC engines on the new Dynanamis control unit, and that only the E-Z unit would run one DC engine on #10?

[Guilford Guy]

I have the dynanamis system, so I cant run DC

You can on address 00.

I thought that you were unable to run any DC engines on the new Dynanamis control unit, and that only the E-Z unit would run one DC engine on #10?

That's odd, on Lenz, NCE, MRC, and Digitraxx you can run DC locos on address 00.

[Jim Banner]

Seems odd, but it is true.  This may well become more common as the price of decoders continues to drop.  When DCC first came out, decoders cost several times as much as locomotives and we might run a  locomotive for months before we could afford a decoder for it.  Now that decoders are a fraction of the price of a locomotive, and locomotives are available with decoders pre-installed, it has become more a matter of whether we want the decoder rather than when can we afford it.

Jim

P.S. to James - not such a stupid question - at least one other person (me) was interested in the answer.  A year or two back, we had a young fellow who wanted to know why Bachmann track wore out so quickly.  It seems he had replaced all his track because it did not work any more.  Turned out he never knew about cleaning it.  Was he stupid?  No, just uneducated about track cleaning.  Was his question stupid?  No, because he did not know the answer.  If he had not asked about it, now THAT would have been stupid.

Jim

[Guilford Guy]

Hm, I'm wondering how much extra money and time they would've had to invested to be able to run DC units. Bachmann Standard makes DCC equipped GS4s. BTW, any pix of your layout?

[Pacific Northern]

I have the dynanamis system, so I cant run DC

You can on address 00.

I thought that you were unable to run any DC engines on the new Dynanamis control unit, and that only the E-Z unit would run one DC engine on #10?

That's odd, on Lenz, NCE, MRC, and Digitraxx you can run DC locos on address 00

I checked wihttp://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/ez_content/dynamis_manual.pdfth the on-line manual and the Dynamis DOES NOT allow a DC engine to be controled.

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/ez_content/dynamis_manual.pdf

The same holds with MRC, only the original Prodigy allowed a DC engine to run on the layout. I will upgrade my DCC system soon and still want to be able to run a DC engine at times. I have a rather large roster of engines and have not added DCC to all of the engines.