I concur  Don has an excellent reputation.  And a nice person as well.

Stan

Quote from: Udo on October 30, 2011, 08:54:26 PM
Hi all,
yesterday I had some pieces of the new track in hand..... at Bachmann shop Shanghai.
It has dark ties (US spacing) and the connectors are srewed from the side. Aditional srews are glued under one of the ties. There is no brand name in the ties, only "made in China".
I have seen this kind of traks earlier already... may be Aristocraft?
Udo

Udo

Often you see things much sooner than we do in the states.  However this time I think your shop had some Aristo Track on hand rather then the new Bachmann track.  I got a few samples to try out and it is clearly different.

1) The ties I have say Bachmann underneath
2) The ties are more of a dark brown then black
3) The spacing and tie length is US Narrow Gauge in 1:20 rather then Standard Gauge in 1:29  The look is clearly different.
4) The Aristo track places the extra screws in wax under the ties.  With the Bachmann track the extra screws are placed in the track holes at each end.

In my opinion the new track complements the 1:20 rollling stock a lot better then other code 332 product in the market.

Following are two photos I took of the new track.  The first shows a close up of the track.  The second shows the Bachmann Ties in the center with an Aristo US ties on top and European ties on the bottom.  A short section of the Bachmann ties is shown on the top left to show that they are also a little longer.




Stan

Lets keep this simple.

1) Place the locomotive on the track and connect the track to your system.

2) Your system will control the sounds with no problem.

3) It should operate the locomotive on level track with no load.  Under load the 3 motor 3 truck shay will exceed the rating of your system but under no load it should be fine.

Hope that helps

Stan Ames

1) Yes and Yes

2) Yes  vynil rub on, and yes

Note some cars already come without numbers and rub on numbers would sure help.

Stan

Quote from: Jon D. Miller on September 23, 2011, 08:23:39 AM



For the rear truck there is only ONE screw on each side that attaches the bolster to the locomotive. Look along the locomotive side frame.  You'll see a screw on each side that attaches the rear bolster.  Remove these screws and the rear bolster along with the motor block can be removed.

Seems like this same question has been answered more than once on this forum over the years.



One of the "Enthusiastic" Chlldren

JD

Thanks so much.  A good post for an FAQ.  Now to build a replacement part and get the loco back in service.

Stan

What is the best procedure for removing the rear truck from the Heisler.

Thanks

Stan

The plastic K27 trucks have some improvements over the 2-8-0 trucks and seem to only be different in that they are missing the two spacers on either side.  These parts can be removed from the 2-8-0 trucks and inserted on the K27 trucks. I have done that with several 2-8-0 tenders.

The metel K27 trucks are vastly superior.  Alas when I ordered the K27 trucks some time back I got the plastic ones.  You would have to call to determine if they now have the metal ones.

The only problem of using K27 metal tender trucks on a 2-8-0 tender would be to figure out a way to instal the spacers.  Without them the trucks rock a great deal.

Hope that helps.

Stan

This past weekend we held our first Northeast Large Scale regional convention. With almost 90 registered for the 3 day event and over 60 at the Saturday "bring your train and run day" at our railway, it was quite a weekend.

I would like to thank Bachmann for attending.  Those who attended really appreciated the participation.

I have placed photos of Saturday and Sunday on flickr

Saturday –http://www.flickr.com/photos/23959355@N05/sets/72157626764459805/show/
Sunday –  http://www.flickr.com/photos/23959355@N05/sets/72157626782432559/show/

As this was an experiment to determine the desire and need for an event in the Northeast, I am not sure what he sponsoring organizations follow-up plans are. We sent a survey out to all who attended which hopefully will help shape the future.

Stan Ames

Next weekend we will host Large Scale New England 2011

The intent is for a stress free enjoyable weekend for Large Scale in New England.  We hope all that attend will enjoy the event.

Friday afternoon/evening we will host an operating session on the SJR&P.

Saturday is a bring your trains and run day.  We will subdivide as necessary the layout for DC, DCC, RC, and Live Steam.  A no fee white elephant table for Large Scale items will also be available.

We now have 6 layouts open on Sunday for you to visit.  Visitors are welcome on all 6 layouts during both the morning and afternoon sessions.

Bachmann Trains will attend on Saturday along with Remote Control Systems of New England and Train-LI-USA

Note: we will hold the event rain or shine.  Some rain may occur during the weekend but rain in New England can be very local and not stay for a long period.  Most layouts will be running in light rain but may not run in heavy rain.  If in doubt call.  If you get no answer they likely are outside operating the layout.

For more information  or to register for the event  the event www page is at  www.tttrains.com/NELS2011.

Thanks

Stan Ames

As Kevin has pointed out at speed a compond mallet will only have 4 chuffs per revolution.  However many compond mallets have a lever so that the engineer can switch the locomotive into simple mode at low speed for extra tractive effort.

On my mallets, I have a function that when ON both sensors are active and you have the slow speed sound effect of "in/out of sync"  As you speed up you, turn the function OFF and the locomotive acts like a compond mallet.

Hope that helps.

Stan Ames

Quote from: tlnibert on March 28, 2011, 09:45:28 PM
A friend ask me to find out what Kadee coupler fit the three truck Shay
Also for me, what Kadee fits the K-27
How should I remote control a K-27 with battery power. The only thing I have now is the Aristo TE.
Tom

Just a few minor notes to Kevin's post.  For Shay's I remove the truck coupler bar and lower the existing non used coupler pocket on the locomotive.  Then I put in a straight coupler such as the 901 or 1850 into the locomotives pocket.  Very prototypical look.

The K27 are much easier since the couplers boxes are already at the higher height.  I use the 916s for the front and 900s for the rear.

For DCC I use the Lenz Gold Decoders with power modules or backup battery for track power, or use them with the QSI receivers for non track power applications.  I use Phoenix for sound.

Hope that helps

Stan Ames

Quote from: Hunt on March 16, 2011, 10:30:29 PM
Bachmann E-Z Command Control Center has only 28 speed step control.

It can only program a limited number of addresses and the direction of travel.

Actually not quite so simple.

True the E-Z command uses the 28 speed step commands but actually it has 56 speed steps.

It was learned early on in DCC that command stations could effectively double the number of speed steps by dithering between two speed steps.  Not all decoders support this (I do not believe the DZ supports this) but for those that do it is hard to tell the difference between using 28 speed steps and 128 speed steps.

For an entry level system, I believe  the E-Z Comand provides great value.

Stan Ames

Quote from: Red26 on February 11, 2011, 05:53:55 AM
I have some small relay switches which draw 40ma on the coil side and which can power up to 10A on the output side. Do you think that piggy backing a second decoder with the QSI Magnum / Aristo and powering the smoke box and auxiliary lighting through the relays wired to the second decoder will overload the QSI receiver?

The smoke unit in the K27 draws only a few milliamps from the switched line.  The auxiliary lighting circuits also draw very so no relays are needed.

The high current needed to actually run the smoke come from the locomotives +- lines. 

The +- lines by default come from the output of the item in the socket (in this case the QSI decoder)  If the load is to high you can install a separate rectifier but in the case of a QSI decoder this is not necessary.

Stan

Quote from: Kevin Strong on February 03, 2011, 06:56:46 PM
Stan, are you piggy-backing the QSI and the Lenz from the same G-wire receiver or are you using just the Lenz with the G-wire? It was my understanding you couldn't piggy-back two decoders on the G-wire, but if you can, that's great news.

Later,

K

Kevin

Yes I am piggy-backing to the G-Wire receiver.  This only works because the Lenz decoder with USP does not draw any type of load from G-wire.  I do not believe this would work with any other decoder.

Stan

Quote from: Kevin Strong on February 03, 2011, 01:40:49 AM
To the best of my knowledge, the G-wire receiver that plugs into the QSI board will only control one board, so with the current production QSI board, you're out of luck. Word on the street is that the next generation QSI board due out "soon" remedies that deficiency.

Later,

K

It is actually rather simple to do but not inexpensive.

If you have the G wire receiver that has the solder connections, you hook the 2 signal wires to a Lenz Gold decoder using a small capasitor in line with the connection.  You then hook the +- of the QSI decoder to the +- of ther Lenz Gold decoder.  This will give you 6 extra functions you can use for whatever purpose you desire.

Stan Ames