On Bachmann coaches, the roofs come off if you're careful. Taking some of those cheap ePay Chinese passengers with their feet cut off above the ankles, you could use some long-nose pliers to place them into seats with ACC.
I took the entire car apart because I didn't like the lighting, and I tossed the lighting later. But the roof can come off. You'll have re-solder something into place no matter what you do to be able to get passengers inside them.

Quote from: ScottyB on October 11, 2016, 06:47:55 PM
I do think this is the area which has led to the slowdown of the on30 market. On30 freight cars used to be very prevalent, and most importantly, inexpensive. Three cars for $39 was the norm for over a decade.

If Bachmann can reintroduce more freight cars and bring back the geared engines that got most of us started, I think you would see a great resurgence in the on30 market. After all, on30 was supposedly the "poor man's narrow gauge." The market needs to have the eye candy (i.e shays and Climaxes) that draws in new modelers.

Yeah, I remember buying Bachmann freight cars for about $20 each everywhere I went. I started buying a few here and there every time I found some, long before my layout existed. I'm SO glad I did that now, as the prices have gone up considerably. Ironically, the locos are cheaper now than when I first bought mine...
Beats me on this "chicken or the egg" concept, as I can't tell if the market subsided causing Bachmann to scale back, or if general interest in On30 is allowing down at all or if Bachmann simply has lost interest in this gauge...

Quote from: Dbarefoot on September 30, 2016, 06:51:46 PM
I could modify the engines to look like ET&WNC #1 and #2

Hmm. I hadn't even thought of that. I model the ET&WNC in the 40s, but yeah, you make a very interesting case for that.

Quote from: Kevin Strong on October 03, 2016, 02:00:09 AM
I think there's definitely a market for locos like this, especially with these colorful paint schemes. When I think of the folks who run their On30 among Dept. 56 villages and the like, these colorful Victorian-era paint schemes would be an absolute perfect fit. Likewise, for those modeling rural narrow gauge around 1890s - 1910s, I think they'd fit in very well as well. I'm not sure the colorful paint would be quite the right fit for the Duct Tape & Bailing Wire-type of backwoods railroads, but there's no reason Bachmann couldn't do a "basic black" version as well.

Very good points here. Maybe Bachmann might pay heed to them. Heck, they could always release a 'dressed up 18th century' version of their 4-4-0, as well?

Quote from: dutchbuilder on September 25, 2016, 02:12:17 PM
This feels like a business opportunity for someone.
After-market parts for model trains.

There's an entire industry devoted to the Lionel stuff for extra parts. I know a guy who's made a very nice living doing only that.

While I do have a soft spot for 2-6-0s for a reason I can't explain, I think any good representation of a 19th century-looking loco in On30 in any class/wheel arrangement would probably be welcomed by modelers.

I've personally seen my favorite Bachmann prototype a few times in my life:

This is former ET&WNC 4-6-0 # 12:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKDs5IlVbM4

Quote from: Yardmaster on August 02, 2016, 03:52:06 PM
Shipping March 2017

D'oh, there it is in the original graphic. I can't believe I missed that...

Anyone have a clue when we'll start seeing these among the retailers?

NICE!   I've been wondering what (if anything) Bachmann had coming at the NMRA convention this year.
For a long time, I've been wanting to make one of the laser kits that looks a lot like that. I'm glad I put that off, now.
I model the WW2 years and it wouldn't be much of a stretch to see one of those in either grey or OD green with some soldiers sitting in it on my layout...

I'd love to see what the Lee Riley one looks like. I never met the man but I'm eternally indebted to him for all his work in On30 and being almost single-handedly being responsible for bringing me back to the hobby.

As much as I love On30, maybe your available space for a layout might be better served by a smaller scale? Just sayin'...

Quote from: The train kid on June 16, 2016, 03:45:03 PM
I actually like the micromark track and specifically the price.

Well, the Micro-Engineering stuff looks good, it's amazingly fragile. I had two turnouts break at the switch points (of course after the track was all soldered together) and a third had the rails pop right off the 'ties' coming out of the package. I salvaged that one with some HO spikes and some ACC glue, but I shouldn't have had to.

Frankly, if I had to do it over, I'd have used Peco track. It's much sturdier.

I run sometimes on a large On30 layout and often run the guy's ten-wheelers. There's a substantial grade and to be honest, I hadn't attributed the 'back and forth' motion going downgrade to gearing in the locomotives until just now.
I only run the ten-wheelers on my own layout but I intentionally put no grades on my layout, so I never see this in action at home.

Same thing happened at the show in Portland last year. I was there and all the buzz was about other scales and gauges, but hardly anything in On30 (if you were a N-scaler, though, you'd have loved the show). There wasn't even any club On30 stuff, just one single module that a modeler put together and that was it for the entire show, from this photo I took of it:

Dang, I showed the Bachmann folks my ET&WNC tank car and was told that they might consider making it part of their line as it's just the unlettered one with the right lettering, and I was hoping maybe it might be in this year's line-up


I still think it'd make a great car as it's not an exact model but it's awfully darned close and the tank cars were used during the timeframe the ET&WNC had the green/gold ten-wheelers and also in the wartime black/gold colors. Two made it to the abandonment of the 3-foot line in 1950.

ET&WNC 205 would be perfect for this...

I find it odd how many diesel conversion kits are out there, yet hardly any RTR diesels are made for On30.
I gotta give props to Bachmann for the Whitcomb, even though I haven't bought one as it simply doesn't work in my 1943 ET&WNC layout concept... I still drool over them when I see them at my local hobby shop. I've seen/heard one run with the sound installed.