Many WW1 locos of English/French/German/USA origin ended up on narrow gauge railroads around the world. Brazil has/had a wonderful collection from most nations in near origin and after quite creative modification condition. Everyone is right that they would make a great addition to the ON30 line. Forwishing to follow up on this topic, there have been a number of articles on prototype and model interest published by the Narrow Gauage and Shortline Gazette which has also published Richard Dunn's book "Narrow Guage To No Man's Land" (now available from www.bobhayden.com). Similar books have also been published on the English, French, and German WW1 NG railroads a good source for these is the fabulous London store Motor Books (www.motorbooks.co.uk/).

I suspect that Hamish is right in his excellent post, we are dreaming - but some days dreams do come true.

It may be timely, at this point in the thread, and especially for those using the short E-Z Track segments to remember the old classic John Armstrong book "Track Planning for Realistic Operation" (Kalmbach Books), chapter 5 has a long discussion on S-curves. There is also a very informative article in "Model Railroad Planning 2005", page 80, by Kenneth Anthony on managing S curves and perhaps more importantly on the smooth flowing/space saving design for pinwheel ladders.

Looks good, thanks for the link and photos. Does, however, look the cab could be even lower than that on the 2-6-6-2 which to my eye would be perfect if the cab was 1 scale foot taller. Maybe we can persuade them to include a taller cab on these and the IF 4-4-0.

Check the sale items 2 - 5 at Peterboro there the prices only $248.

Wow, exciting loco news. Think the prototype was from the Mad River line?

...and with the release of the DCC/sound Porters we have the ideal power units for some small Garrats!

There is also the possibility that you have a physical problem rather than an electrical problem. Bachmann On30 wheel sets tend to catch the frog unless you shim the opposite guardrail. This pulls the wheels towards the outer rail and provides a smooth transition. This was a big issue in the early days of On30 and widely adopted - and forgotten about since. A strip of styrene and a little liquid cement and your problems could be solved.

I have a sound equipped 0-4-2 Porter and had similar problems when first runs. I cleaned all the blue coating from the wheel treads and the backs of the wheels (where pickup occurs) and since then have had a perfect performer. Will pass through Peco electrofrog and insular of turnouts at a crawl with no hesitation but the wheels must be kept clean. I have found that the new arrangement of the trailing wheels is no longer the benefit found on the original analog design engines - the DCC engines would benefit from the original spring loaded trailing truck arrangement. Unfortunately they are not inter-changeable, you also need to be careful of any bumps in elevation in reverse or the trailing truck will derail.

Can not speak for recent production but both of mine have the 8 pin plug. Only difficulty is finding space to tuck the decoder out of sight. TCS T-1s work very well with the Bachmann on30 engines.

I have not used an MRC decoder but F8 is the commonly used mute function.

See the banner heading above, select Parts & Services then DCC Onboard then Sountraxx. Scroll down the page and you will find a column for On30 and all the CV specs for the Porter and other sound equipped engines. The data can be printed out for convenience. Note that all the cVs are not consistent across the various boards.

My Porter has a whistle so faint that it may as well not be there. Is this to protect the speaker? Or a defect on this particular board? All other sounds appear normal, though they too are lower volume than any other sound system I have heard.

See the banner at the top of this page. Select "Parts and Services" then select "Product References" scroll down until you come to ON30 and pick the locomotives you wish to view the desired diagram. You can also find details on CV settings and informnation of decoders in the DCC section.

How about a diminutive Garratt? The Tasmanian K-1 0-4-0 + 0-4-0 would fit in with past Bachmann ON30 engines, but perhaps in a 2-4-0 + 0-4-2 comnfiguration for good electrical pick-up. There was even a very elegant 1913 0-6-0 + 0-6-0 built for the 30 inch Buthiduang-Maungdan tramway in Burma.

Does the current Climax stock have the new gears or the old?

Will the Heislers have the new gears or the old gears?