Thank You Bachmann for doing this. The C-19 was next on my list to scratch build.
You have saved me a lot of work

Rodney

  When I pull track up the caulk and some paint comes with it cause the paint doesn't stick well to the stryofaom. Then the caulk comes off the ties easily. For but joints, I use a piece of stringer about 14" long and use some scrap cedar to back that up so the screws have something to get a hold of.
Yes I do use 1 1/2 " small nails into the cross pieces to hold the track. In the winter the nails would push out of the wood so that is when I went back and glued the track down.

I biggest problem that I have is the foam roadbed with expansion and contraction of the ladder.  If I could find something just as cheap to replace it I would.  I'm lazy and the foam need to be touch up 2 of 3 times a year with paint. The UV will eat up the foam that is not protected but if you are in a barn, you'll not have that problem.

My radius are 12' (24' diameter) and larger, and I haven't tried it on a tighter radius but I would think you could get it down to 6' to 8' radius with out too much problem. 

Later, I'll post some more photos of the layout as it is now.

Rodney

  Bill
PVC is 2" schedule 40 and when I go to the big box store, I compare prices between the pluming and electrical conduit and buy the cheaper of the two. The post are on 5 foot centers on the straights and 2 1/2 in the curves to keep it level. The foam is 3/4" and can be either pink or blue and I glue it down with acrylic caulk.  Once the roadbed is done, I paint it with 2 coats of paint with primer in it.  The reason for ripping it to 3/8" is so I can bend it around curves and I use it on the straight for the cost factor.  I use tan colored caulk to glue the track down to the foam.

  On the tables I lay 1/2" hardware cloth on the frame, then lay weed barrier on that and back fill with limestone screenings with a little portland cement mixed in. It is a very solid base when it is done. 

I do brag about how well this has worked for me cause I have run trains for 100's hours unattended (while testing gearboxes) with NO derailments.     

  It is sooo much easier on the knees and back too once you have it done for us that is getting older.

Rodney

  Steve
I done this to my "traveling loco" and it track very well now.




I took a piece of 1/16" X 1/4" brass and bent it in a "Z" and added screws to each end.
I will go into more detail if you want to try it.

Rodney

   Bill
I use post and ladder construction on my layout with the post being 2" PVC and the ladder out of cedar. I thought about using PVC for the ladder but the cost and lack of strength, decided against it. You could use my type of ladder with 4X4 posts setting in deck block made to hold the 4X4 posts.
For the ladder I start with a clear 1 X 6, 12 feet long and rip it in half. then I take the half's and rip them on edge so I end up with 4 pieces that are about 3/8" thick by 2 7/8" wide and 12 feet long. I take cheap cedar fence pieces and rip them the same width and cut them 5 1/4" long. Using 1 1/4" deck screws, I put the cross pieces about every 8" on one side of the stringer at the workbench. At the layout I get the one side with the cross pieces on it up and screwed to the posts keeping it level and then keeping the other side level, start screwing it together. Using acrylic calking I glue 3/4" stryofoam on the ladder for the roadbed. 
  Here is the ladder before the foam is added.



  With the roadbed in place





I use Richard Smith's table method for my towns.







If you need more information on this, just let me know.

Rodney

  Here is a stock AMS and a Bachmann







  Jon
  That is a very nice car

Rodney

Jon
Thanks for the plug on my gearbox

Ironlake
My gearbox is installed on the stock K-27 Pittman 9000 motor and at 24 volts it will run about 25 to 30 scale mph. I've never really clocked it on any of mine.
The price is $140 installed on your motor or $195 with a gearbox installed on a new K-27 motor.
Here is the link to my website

http://www.randkrailroadproducts.com/

Thanks

Rodney

  Ed
The K-27 gearbox is bulletproof. It is the best motor-gearbox combo that has ever been built for a plastic locomotive. The only thing is that it is geared too high. It OK on a layout with little or no grades on it.

Rodney

  I just got two sets of decals for 2 of my K-27 from Stan Cedarleaf


http://gold.mylargescale.com/StanCedarleaf/WebPageDecals/CustomDecalsx.html

Stan has done a lot of large scale decals over the years and is one of the best

Rodney

   Bill
Yea I tried to charge them individually and both charger responded with a open circuit. I only made 2 packs by soldering them.  At the time I made the 2 packs I only checked the first 10 that I took out of the bag. Then when I received the cell holders I checked the rest of them and found these two. I told the supplier that they could wait till I do another order to ship the replacements.




This weekend I'm going to convert one of Kristi's (wife) shays to battery with Aristo Revolution and a P8 sound board. This is one of new releases so we'll see if it truly plug and play. It has a factory installed speaker so that will be a big help too.

One of the packs that I built is in a early DRGW Bumble Bee converted to a Annie with Airwire, P8 and a Sluthe smoke generator. I have about 2 hours on it and still going strong (only run with the smoke on for about 30 minutes). I'll wait till she stops to charge it and see how many amps it will hold on the first charge.
This is going to be my traveling locomotive as it is the smallest that I have and shouldn't have any problems on most layout we go to.




  Rodney

 Well I have 2 batteries out of 36 that will not charge. Sent a e-mail to the supplier and they are going to replace them. I tried to charge them on both chargers, so I don't think it the charger but I went ahead and ordered 2, 5 cell smart chargers from All-Battery and will see if they will charge them. I received the battery boxes yesterday and will start building some packs this weekend.


  Bill
The Bachmann K-27 was designed with everything you ask for and I have a new shay that I've been told that is this way also.(never had it out of the box yet)


Rodney

   Chuck
  I have Cordless Renovations CR1705 (18 volt 5600ma) in 2 of my K-27 and have only ran 1 of the batteries till it stopped. It was the day I had my layout running all day for the National Convention tour and I would guess that I got about 6 hours out of it pulling 15 AMS cars pulling 2% grades with Airwire throttle set at about 50%.

Like Kevin and Bill said, you could just switch out the battery packs.

Rodney
 

   Bill
  Thanks for your work in testing these batteries.  Even if they are only 2600 ma, they are still cheap at only $3.20 a cell and is about 1/2 the price of the Tenergy 2600 ma cells.

I wonder if it will get any better after a few cycles on the packs.

Rodney 

  Rick

Yea if you got one of those chargers, stick with it.

I'll be looking for the motor out of your K then

Rodney

  Rick
I use Aristo type connectors that I get from All Electronics (polarity is reversed of Aristo though) on all my battery packs and I use type "N" charging ports from Radio Shack for charging onboard batteries. I make my own charging cables with banana plugs from RS with these connectors on the ends.
Here is one hooked up for charging onboard batteries.


If your going to use the cell holders, if I were you, I'd just buy a cheap 4,5 or 6 cell smart charger from All-Battey and go that way for now. They are a lot easier to use cause it is a pain to program the TB6ac that I have.

Rodney