What was the driver diameter on these 0-10-2s?. If it is 57in then Bachmann could use  there USRA Light 2-10-2s.

Maybe Bachmann should sell steam with out tenders/shells for kitbashers.

I do not know the thickness just some cheap electrical tape. I can check the roll,maybe it is listed.

Mark, I finally got around to adding electrical tape to the bearing area (only to the rear TT driver) and it seems to pull  better and it had a rhythmic clanking noise that I do not hear any more.
I assume this was the driver oscillating in the frame.

Thanks for the Info      Bob

I think a revised 0-6-0 would be great.New cylinders, brake rigging and metal boiler,coreless motor or one not sticking out the back with a spectrum tender. And as long as they are at it stretch the chassis to make a USRA 0-8-0 or even, dare I say it  2-10-0 .

I am not really thinking this would happen,but a  improved ( cosmetically) 0-6-0 would be nice and it may not have massive production change cost.

I just ordered another spectrum tender for a project. I t is so nice being able to fix poor electrical pick up or just changing the look of a steam locomotive up by adding a spectrum tender.

So thank you Bachmann for selling them separately.

I hope that Bachmann will sell the then sound decoder that could just be plugged in with the existing engine wire harness that they now use. I would need to up grade my Js coated nonremovable harness. I already did this on one that was shorting out,I soldered my own wires between the engine and tender ( not fun, using the original pc board and tender contacts) It again shorted out,then I removed all of the pc boards in the engine and tender and solder direct between them. ( the problem ended up being the metal boiler was shorting on the chassis halves) I know this takes out the head light circuit but I burned out the LED when trying to solder on the pc board ( leds do not like track voltage). Now that this engine is some what wire/pc board gutted there is space to do sound mods.

Now that  the the real J is up and running. Might it be a good time for Bachmann to  release there N scale J with  DCC and SOUND. I believe the 2-8-4 has the same driver size ( Exhaust rate should be the same) so would not the same sound decoder work with only different whistle?

the work has already been done with the 2-8-4 so I think adding it to other  LARGER N scale steam would not be too hard.
Bachmann what do you think?

Yes I know I can add my own sound, but I still run DC so I need dualmode.

The FM H 15 44 has the hand rail glued in place.

I ordered a N scale FM h 16 44 shell from Bachmann and it was send out the next day. I ordered it Wednesday the 18th and got it today Monday the 23d. I wish all service/parts departments worked this fast.

Thanks Bachmann.

 Thanks.    I had already checked the explode view. It shows the hand rail as separate parts. Sometimes these things will come right off and others times they will break,I have not painted up any newer Bachmann shells and am wondering what others had experienced with these?

 I just order a shell from Bachmann for this engine and  plan to strip and repaint this  shell ( bought a lot of chassis but no shells) Are the hand rails friction fit or are the glued on?
I need to remove them to paint the shell up in Milwaukee road colors.

I had to unsolder the stock coated wires and add my own between my 2006 release J tender and engine because of the coating coming of and causing intermittent shorting.
I ran great except I burnted out the head light checking the connections on the engine board( LEDs do not like track voltage) to find which one were motor leads. Then 6 month ago it quit so I just remove the tender board and solder wire  to the tender leads work great again      UNTIL  I put the boiler shell back on.  Yep metal boiler was shorting the frame haves up front by the stack
so I painted it and will add more tape.

I know the stock wires had problem with the varnish flaking off  you can solder wires between the stock connection ( I only used two wire no room or patience   for more )

I had a similar problem with my Bachmann 2-6-6-2. It kept snagging something on one atlas switch I had. I finally tracked it down.
The details are very good on new Bachmann steam,and it was the sanding lines that were hitting,I just trimmed them a bit and problem solved ,they were very close the the rail head like the real thing. Also check brake shoes,I had a bad rail joint and my mallet snagged the brake shoe,again a couple of file swipes and problem fixed.

On MT trucks. I have had problems with the trip pin being to low and catching on frogs. easy fix  i cut them off.

It is possible the some wheel set are out of gauge. old atlas metal wheels can be slide back and forth on the Axle if the are out it will cause binding. some times mixing different brands of trucks and axles does not work well ether.

I have hold the car upside down and  try spinning the wheels,if they do not spin for a few seconds I remove the wheel and check for problems , maybe crud on the inside truck where the axle point goes.

MT trucks normally  roll very well,so maybe different brand of wheels in the MT truck or the axle is popped out on one side