Yes I noticed that but I bought a spare chassis anyway but I'll have to wait till sipping dept can return to get it shipped out. I doubt the price will go down even then because I agree with Bill stock is low.

Later Dr Who

I have made my own weights similar to the bar weights in the gen.5 Annie 4-6-0 locos.
I bought bar stock in the right width from a local hone improvement or hardware store and cut to length like the orig. cast weight. As I recall it took 7 -1/8 " thick lengths of bar stock glue them together with epoxy and drill the mounting holes. Make the bar weight the same design as the orig. cast ones.

  Later DrWho

Thanks Fred 2179 for the pics and info. I think I'll order the street car motor and see if I can make it work. We don't want to spend a lot of money on this project and the motor is very inexpensive.

Dr Who12

Hi all Dr Who12

Our railroad club was given a Santa/Christmas hand car and trailer. It has no motor and parts are sold out. I was wondering If the motor from an on 30 street car might work? It is available and appears to be similar to the hand car motor with worm gears at each end of the motor shaft. Or if anyone has a motor that fits for sell please let me know.
Any help/ advice would be appreciated.

Thanks Dr Who12

 Well I thought I would respond to my $53.00 bargain. I couldn't believe I actually won the auction for this loco but it arrived and every part was perfect and it runs beautifully. The loco is the Christmas annie#1225. I realize this is an old post but I thought I would update. I should make a correction. The loco was missing the cab hatch. I made one from some scrap plastic. Painted and installed it  and it is like it was never missing.
So long story short there are great buys out there sometimes.
Later
DrWho12

 The 2 chuffs per revolution can be corrected by adding 2 more contact strips to the axel drum. I have made this modification to all 8 of my big hauler locos. My locos have the original factory sound electronics. The volume could stand to be louder but without installing aftermarket sound equipment and a decoder you have to take what you get from the factory units.

Later DrWho12

Hi All

I have finished the install of the water pumps from Trackside Details on my Spectrum 2-6-0 locomotive and I would like to post some pictures with the install information.

Could someone on the forum give me some instruction on how to post the pictures?

Thanks in advance.

DrWho12

hi all

Theirs a Big Hauler tips article on the web by George W. Schreyer, one of the tips is Better Bachmann Sound For Under A Buck. He discusses how to eliminate the continuous chuff from the Big Hauler sound system along with other upgrades.

I have been in the process of using these upgrades on all of my Big Hauler locos with much success.

Later
Dr Who12

Dr Who 12 here

I hope with the new 4-6-0 locos Bachmann will send new as well as older loco replacement parts as the stock of existing replacement parts are being depleted. 


Thanks
DrWho12

 I just remembered.

I had asked anyone on the forum where I could get some crosshead water pumps that I could install on my 2-6-0 Russian Iron Spectrum loco. I tried to get a pair from the parts Dept. but they aren't available. I also considered buying a new 2-6-0 D&RGW loco with the 2 water pumps on it but I couldn't justify the expense. One of the forum members suggested I contact Track Side Details as the have the pump castings in their catalog. I ordered a set this week so when they arrive and I do the install I'll try to take some pictures and post them along with a description of the work. If anyone has done this modification any help would be appreciated.

Later DrWho12

   

Hi all again.

Well I have been adding to my 4-6-0 Anniversary loco collection buy buying parts and 2 new locos on very good deals, the last I spent $53.00 for loco and tender.
The loco is to arrive tomorrow so I'll see what kind of bargain I have. On all of the locos I have been changing the sound drum by adding 2 more contact blades  so that the loco has 4 chuffs per driver revolution. In the past I had difficulty removing the plastic wheel cover so the mounting axel screws are accessible. I used to drop the wheel end in boiling water and then pry the plastic cover off, this kind of worked but I still broke some spokes but now I heat the wheel up with a hair dryer and punch the cover out from the back side of the wheel so far I have done 3 locos this way without damaging the wheel cover. I was even able to leave the wheels on the loco and remove the covers. On the last loco I removed all of the wheel covers while still on the loco so I could paint the metal wheels. I hope this tip helps others doing this kind of work on their locos. Caution when doing this as the wheel covers can get too hot and warp them.

Later Dr Who 12

 I have reread this post and I made a mistake on one of my chassis installations by putting too much grease on the chuff contact drum in the front driver wheels/axel. After assembly I wasn't getting any sound ( I customize the drum by adding 2 more wiper blades/bars to make a 4 beat chuff sound with each driver rotation so I checked everything but the grease and finally took apart the chassis and cleaned the excess grease off and all worked fine. I recon I'll watch that from now on.

Keep chuffing
Dr Who 12

Hi all it has been a while since I have  visited the forum but this post about gears for the 4-4-0 spectrum has interested me.
I have a 4-4-0 and a 2-6-0 spectrum loco the 4-4-0 has metal drive gears and the 2-6-0 has plastic drive gears. The axel in the 2-6-0 is like the axel in the Bachman parts list with the D shaped axel/gear design not the spline shaft so the NWSL gear won't work ( I called them and they didn't know Bachmann had changed the design) I bought a replacement gear before I tore the loco apart to discover the different gear axel arrangement. I did buy 3 replacement gear/axels just because of the reported gear failures.
Now my question is will the metal gear from a 2-8-0 axel work on the D shaped axel of my 2-6-0? If not at least I have a replacement if mine should fail. The axel/gear replacement from Bachmann is sold out. Also what shape is the axel on my 4-4-0 splined or D shaped I don't want to have to dissamble the loco to find out if I don't have to.

Any help with my question is most apreciated.

Dr Who 12

I haven't been on the forum for quite a while but just noticed this reply for the water pumps. Thanks for the info.

DrWho12

Hi All

I'm looking for 2 water pumps to install on my Spectrum 2-6-0 like the pumps on a on the Denver and Rio Grand 2-6-0 and Atchison and Palisades locos. I called Bachmann parts but these pumps aren't available. Any help would be appreciated.

Dr Who 12