2024 On30 Annual

[Ken Clark]

  White River On30 annual available for pre order, ordered my copy.

Ken

[Fred Klein]

Ken, thank you for the post. To tell the truth, it had kind of slipped my mind that its about that time of the year. I hope to place my order shortly.

[Mark B]

Got mine today. Nice issue.

[Fred Klein]

Well, I just placed my order. Curious to see how long it will take to get here.

[Mark B]

Fred- It took just under 2 weeks from placing my order to receiving the Annual. I was pleasantly surprised considering some of the more recent issues have been summertime arrivals.
Mark B.

[Ken Clark]

  Hopefully my copy will arrive next week, ordered Mar 26th, also waiting on Professor Fakes Rocket Sled ( from "The Great Race") 

[Fred Klein]

Last year's issue was ordered in early March and arrived at the beginning of October, so two weeks sounds absolutely fantastic. Looking forward to it.

BTW, Ken, if you don't get the rocket sled from "The Great Race" you can always try for the one from "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr." 

[Fred Klein]

Well, I am very pleasantly surprised. My copy of the 2024 On30 Annual arrived today. I placed the order on April 14. This is absolutely the fastest that I have ever received the Annual, and I have been ordering since 2017 or 2018. Usually, it has taken 8 to 10 weeks but last year it took about 6 months. Anyway, I'm a happy camper. Now to my recliner and some serious reading 

[Ken Clark]

  Fred

   Still! waiting on my copy to show up, on the bright side a Bachmann WW1 2-6-2T found it way here, needs a paint job, number plates and a weathering job to go on a diorama I am planning. Also waiting on Professor Fakes Rocket Slide (The Great Race) not likely to be found on the diorama, but I could be wrong     

[Fred Klein]

Well, Ken, hopefully, if my experience this year is any indication, you won't have to wait too much longer. I wish you luck. I received one of the 2-6-2s for my birthday last year and I've been very happy with it. Its a very smooth, slow runner. Since I don't care for sound on my layout, it frustrates me that there doesn't seem to be a CV where I can turn the sound off. Right now, every time I turn the layout on, I get sound. It's OK for about 2 to 3 minutes but then it gets on my nerves and I use F8 to mute it. I would much rather not have it come on at all. I've considered disconnecting the speaker (as in snipping a wire) but its such a pretty little engine that I would hate to have to resort to that. As I said before, the engine is a great performer and looks really nice so I don't want to get rid of it. However, it will probably be the only locomotive with sound that I will own.

As far as the rocket sled, its been a long time since I've seen The Great Race but do seem to remember it. I agree, it would look great on a diorama. As I said before, check out the old TV series Adventures Of Brisco County, Jr. They had a rocket sled in a couple of episodes as I recall, and the scientist was played by John Astin.

[Ken Clark]

Fred

  Only caught a couple of episodes of Brisco County Jr, will have to visit U tube and go through them.

   E mails tell me the On30 manual should arrive today, Prof Fake's Rocket Sled on Thursday, had good intensions of cleaning up back yard
but Mother Nature is dumping Rain and blowing Wind = Cold so that is out!.

  Jury is still out on the sound, will give it a try and see how it go's?.

[Fred Klein]

I remember those cold and rainy days when I lived up north. Lived in Winnipeg for about 7 months also (a loooong time ago - I was seven). Got my first train set at Eaton's department store.

Anyway, for those cold and rainy days the On30 Annual is just what the doctor ordered. Nothing like a comfortable chair/couch, a cup of hot coffee or chocolate and the Annual to take away those winter blahs.

Hope the rocket sled arrives on time for you also.

As far as the sound is concerned, I'm probably one of the few oddballs. I like to run trains and usually, I'm working on another model or project and I just find that the constant sound interrupts my concentration. I've been considering adding a very faint background soundtrack of ambient sounds to the layout. I subscribe to Trains.com and David Popp did that to the Sand Creek portion of his Olympia layout and it sounds (no pun intended) like I might be able to tolerate it while I'm working. There is a company called Fantasonics that sells a small player and has a selection of different soundtracks. Anyway, that's a little ways down the road for me.

Best of luck with your diorama.

[Ken Clark]

  Annual arrived yesterday, getting comfortable to have a read through, lots of interesting articles to go through.

  "Professor Fakes Rocket Sled" should! show up today, will need to take a look at a drive for it. Not likely?    to be found on planned diorama.

   Have a couple of nature sound CD's I usually listen to when working on the layout or modelling.

[Fred Klein]

Glad to hear your annual arrived OK. I've been enjoying mine.

As far as a drive for the "Professor Fakes Rocket Sled" is concerned, check out the Stanton drives at Nortwest Short Line (NWSL). One of the projects I'm currently working on is a "homebuilt" switcher for my car maintenance facility. I purchased one of the 0-4-0 Gas Mechanical shells from Bachmann parts and am fitting the Stanton drive to it. I'm at the point where I've got the drive installed along with a basic Digitrax decoder and the engine runs fairly well. The Stanton drive was finicky at first when it came to electrical pickup but cleaning all the wheels and contacts with isopropyl alcohol solved the problem. After weighting the engine judiciously it now runs very nicely. I am now working on building the undercarriage. One nice thing about the Stanton drive is that it is wired such that installing a decoder is a breeze. Perhaps this might work for you.

[Ken Clark]

  Fred

   Taking a closer look at the base, not likely any drive would be small enough to fit into the base for On30, will have to live with a stationary model.