I'd stick with the 1:24 cars because of your buildings. They look like they are mostly compressed 1:22.5 and 1:24 scale. 1:18 cars would make them look a bit like kid's play houses.

-Brian

You might have gotten a bad one Phil. I remember reading about a problem with some over on the Aristo board. The two smoke units in my E-8 usually run about 20 minutes.

-Brian

I like the Aristo couplers. They work well for me pulling 20+ car trains. They are not as prototypic looking as the Kadees but you don't need to carry around a flat blade to uncouple them. I can easily uncouple cars even with my big fingers. I have converted all my rolling stock over to them. All you need to do is cut the round tang off the end and stick on the Aristo coupler with the same screw. In rare cases a bit of filing is needed.
A tip - find someone who runs mostly standard gauge with Kadees and you can usually get his unused couplers free or cheap.

-Brian

I guess the question is why would you want to defeat the circuitry that prevents the unit from over heating and starting on fire? 

-Brian

Most of us kitbashers prefer to take the boards out and run wires directly to the motors. Its a much more reliable connection. Make sure you test the wiring first before you put them together otherwise you short something out.  If you are running plain old track power you really don't have a need for noise suppression.

-Brian

I think you are talking about either the pop valve or whistle on top of the steam dome. You're are probably better off buying replacements of much better quality from Ozark Miniatures. These are most similar but there are few different styles so you may want to look around at the others too -

http://www.ozarkminiatures.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=197

http://www.ozarkminiatures.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=199

-Brian

This is my first endeavor into 7/8's scale (1:13.7) large scale trains. 7/8n2 trains run on "G gauge" 45 mm track with it representing two foot narrow gauge. My first project is rail work truck. The rear power truck and much modified front hood are from a 45 tonner. Big Mike and Max make up the track maintenance crew for the two foot narrow gauge line of the C&A Railway.

A few pics -








and a size comparison pic with a 1:24 scale flatbed truck




construction details are on my blog - http://www.grblogs.com/index.php?blog=25&title=my-7-8-s-rail-work-truck&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

-Brian

I don't think there is a scale dimension in that particular toy. From what I have heard its seems to be smaller than 1/32.

-Brian

Ralph,

If you picked this up new from an authorized vendor and still have your receipt you're all set. Legally, you do not have to send in warranty cards to have your warranty be valid. I doubt it would be the motor but probably something fried on the pcb (just a guess, but I'm really talking out my backside on this). Just send it into Bachmann with a copy of your receipt and warranty.

-Brian

Here's the fix -
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,3256.0.html

-Brian

I would do a real life test. I would try both settings, testing the voltage at the track with a voltmeter. You may find the 20v listed at the higher setting may be less by the time it gets to track. Same with 14v setting. Also, try testing it with the locos running. I think the ten wheelers hit their top speed at less than 16 volts (maybe around 12v). You may find that nothing is gained with a higher voltage setting.

-Brian

Bryan Smith over on MLS has done a few neat scratch/bashes -

http://archive.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=29143

http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/forumid/8/postid/47/view/topic/Default.aspx

I did a little boxcab last year -



http://www.grblogs.com/index.php?blog=25&title=my-boxcab-diesel&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

and  there's Bruce Chandler's boxcab based on the 45 tonner -



http://www.jbrr.com/html/boxcab.html

-Brian

Welcome D,

Zubi answered most of your questions. Large scale is bit different from the smaller scales. The same 45mm track (about 1.75 inches) is used to represent multiple track gauges and hence different scale are run on it.

7/8n2 (1:13.7) - 2 foot narrow
1:20.3 - 3 foot narrow
1:22.5 - 1 meter narrow (the original large scale in modern days)
1:24 - 42 inch narrow (but most models are 3 foot ng)
1:29 - 4' 8 1/2" standard (incorrect standard gauge but the most popular)
1:32 - 4' 8 1/2" standard

Your ten wheeler is based on a real ET&WNC 3 foot narrow gauge loco that is still running.

Like Zubi said, Bachmann is four foot diameter (2 foot radius but large scale is usually listed in diameter). Its meant for indoor use only and is the smallest diameter track. Lots of choices for track and power options (lots of homework to do).
Some helpful sites -
http://www.btcomm.com/trains/
http://www.trains.com/grw/default.aspx?c=ss&id=16

Also online forums like mylargescale, largescaleonline (a pay site), and largescalecentral can be a lot of help.

Click on my logo below to see what I have done with my railroad in the past two years.

-Brian

It will work just fine. The only problems I have heard of with large scale power packs is some Aristo power supplies put out PWM (pulse width modulation) which can be incompatible with some Bachmann and LGB circuitry. Most of the Aristo units can be set to linear power mode and they will work fine with most everything.

-Brian

I have never heard of Dr. Mike's and I'm not sure if one brand is better than another. I have used a few different brands (Jet, Zap, HobbyLobby) and all seem to work. If you go to a hobby shop you will find that CA glue comes in a wide range of thickness from ultra thin to gels. It also comes in a range of setting times from a few seconds to a minute or so. There is also a product made by Zap called "Kicker" which will make your CA set up ultra fast.

-Brian