Except Williams/Williams by Bachmann is O/O27 equipment designed to operate from an AC transformer to maintain compatibility with older Lionel and Marx equipment.

Since the E-Unit in a modern locos is converting the AC from the track to DC for the can motors, it's theoretically possible to remove the guts and install a high current DCC decoder. But then you lose compatibility with any older AC equipment.

Len

Nothing to do with decoders. He's talking about the 'True Blast' sound unit that comes in the Williams by Bachmann locomotives. Some pre-Bachmann Williams locos had the QSI boards with 'live chat', similar to someone elses 'crew talk'. The Bachmann boards dropped that.

Len

If the pickups are tender only, it sounds like whoever did the repaint may have changed the wiring. I found the box with my Rivarossi locos in it and all of the older ones are wired loco picks up from one rail, tender picks up from the other rail. A couple of newer ones are wired so the loco picks up from both rails. None of them are tender only pickup.

Len

To add an inside passing siding to an existing 22" radius loop you would have to use 18" radius curves and either 'Standard' turnouts, or #6 turnouts to match the 18" curves geometry. You will need some short straights to fill the gap to match the 22" curves width.

That said, the recommended curve for the 2-8-4 is 22" radius. So trying to run it through 18" curves could be a problem.

Len

I worked on all scales in the 15 years my repair shop was open. There were only two times I saw solid core wire in a loco. One was prewar 'O' and 'Standard' gauge equipment, which usually had solid core wire. The other was newer stuff, manufactured with stranded wire, that someone else had "repaired" using solid core wire before it came into my shop.

Len

In a description above Jonathan said, "The blue LEDS will not be lit or wired.  They are there to fill in the hole, nothing more."

Len

"DCC Turnout" on the EZ-Track packaging just indicates there is a stationary decoder built into the circuit board under the roadbed for operation using a DCC controller. Just about an turnout can be controlled using a DCC controller using a Digitrax DS64 or DS52 stationary decoder. The DS64 will control up to 4 turnouts, the DS52 can control 2.

Len

When I was maintaining the 'Sodor' portion of a display layout at a local shopping center I had good luck with Hornby OO scale "Thomas" locos and cars. I also used some of their OO scale buildings.

Len

I'm in the, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.", camp. On ready-to-run equipment, plastic knuckle couplers with a plastic finger instead of a coil spring are considered 'broke' out of the box, and replaced with Kadee's. Plastic couplers with coil knuckle springs get a shot of graphite and left until failure, then replaced with Kadee's. Requiring too much force to couple is considered a failure. Kit cars that have to be assembled get Kadee's when assembled.

Len

The NEM Standards are:

Name...Kind of track...Model gauge...Real-world gauge
TT.....Standard gauge..12 mm.........1435 mm
TTm... Meter gauge......9 mm.........1000 mm
TTe... Narrow gauge.....6,5 mm........750 mm, 760 mm and 800 mm
TTi/f..Field railway....4,5 mm........500 mm and 600 mm

The UK also has:
TT9... 3ft gauge........9mm..........3 ft (914 mm)

Something else to be aware of regarding UK TT products is, like with OO, back in the 50's to fit the motors available in locos, mfg Tri-ang Railways made the bodies slightly oversized. Specifically, to 3mm scale. Or 1:101.6 rather than TT's actual 1:120 scale. This became known as UK TT:3 scale.

More recently, other manufacturers have started doing UK locos and rolling stock in true TT 1:120 scale. To differentiate these newer products from the older TT:3 equipment, they are generally marketed as "TT:120" scale. It pays to be aware of the difference.

Len

The diverging track of the 'Standard' turnout has an 18" radius to match the curves that come with most sets. The diverging track of the numbered turnouts is straight. The number indicates the distance from the frog point where there is 1" of seperation between the frog rails, with a smaller number indicating a sharper divergance. A #4 indicates there is 1" of seperation 4" from the frog point, #6 would be 6", and so on.

For EZ-Track numbered turnouts what you need to know is the angle of divergence to factor it into your planned curves. For instance, the EZ-Track #4 diverges at 15deg, so use a half section (15deg) 18" radius curve to add the #4 to an 18" radius curve. Or, flip the half section over to bring the diverging track parallel to the through track. The #5 turnout diverges at 12deg, the #6 at 10 deg, and the 'Y' at +/- 6deg.

Len

1.  No.
2.  I'm not a joiner.
3.  N/A
4.  No.
5.  No.

Unless it's an old pancake motor Geep, with one powered truck and one free wheeling for power pickup.

Len

The flangeways of the guard rails and frogs of most commercial switches are too wide, allowing wheels to go places they shouldn't. A bit of strip styrene can be glued in place to narrow the gap, so the wheels are guided better. Point picking can usually be fixed by filing the point ends to lie closer to the fixed rail.

Len

Pretty. But there's just something about the ALCO DL-109's that keeps dragging my eyes away from those EMD hussies.

Len