Lovely announcements! I hope they are not discontinuing anything though...

I love that when they are reintroducing the TAR Tanker, they are giving it updated details, so they are different from the original TAR Tankers. I am also glad that we are finally getting the diesel barrel flatbed.

I hope they would be willing to upscale the new N Scale rolling stock for bigger gauges.

I am glad Sidney is finally being made!

If they are willing to make the obscure Mainland Diesels, then maybe at some point in the future, if the CGI Mandate gets lifted, they would be willing to also make Splatter and Dodge. As I have said before they already have the correct chassis and body shell. ('Arry and Bert) Given that Splatter and Dodge always appear onscreen with identical faces to each other, all Bachmann would have to do would be design a single face mold that both models could use. And given that Splatter and Dodge have more characterization than the Mainland Diesels, and the fact that on a lot of these Thomas Tuesday livestreams show that modelers often make custom Splatters and Dodges, I think Splatter and Dodge would sell quite well. This could also be presented to Mattel as an incentive for lifting the CGI Mandate. And given that a lot of people are asking for Diesel 10, it would be fitting for Splatter and Dodge to be made as well.

And another thing that I like from the non-Thomas announcements is the Two-Stall Steam Era Engine House. It looks like a building a lot of Thomas Modelers would like. I hope it is compatible with the Thomas Range.

Hello all, I'm new to this forum.

I just got hooked on HO Scale trains in the last year or so.

I have (2) HO Bachmann 'DCC ready with NMRA 8-pin plug' locomotives.

My question is, are there any good DCC 'sound' decoders with 8-pin plug for these HO scale locomotives ?

If not sound decoders then what are some good regular decoders?

I really am hoping to get sound without a lot of soldering and hope there are good decoders for these locos for sound.
Solderiong a couple speaker leads would be ok but with the 8-pin plug I hope things would not be too involved.

I have one Bachmann HO steam locomotive and one HO Bachmann diesel locomotive, both are'DCC ready with NMRA 8-pin plug'.

I have attached pics of the Diesel Locomotive for reference.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank's y'all ! 

I suppose they weren't kidding when they called this a catch-up year. After they said the same thing last year and then blew everybody away at NMRA later on, I wasn't quite ready to take them at their word, ha ha. Given these circumstances, I think this year's additions are fairly pleasing.

I'm surprised Mattel allowed Bachmann to make a nameless character like Mainland Diesel for the line. Part of me wonders why they would bother making it alongside Sidney, since Sidney as a lone release would have been perfectly acceptable... But the part of me that adores weird, niche picks for the line is quite taken by the move, ha ha. New HO Scale 'Thomas' rolling stock is nice as well, very happy to see the Tar Tank make a come-back and the Diesel Fuel flatbed looks very nice as well.

N Scale really shone in this mid-year announcement batch, in my opinion. Both in terms of the standard range and 'Thomas' range. The inevitable Henry has finally been announced, and the two N Scale-original rolling stock offerings are a welcome surprise. Hannah looks excellent and it is interesting to see her already sporting a painted sample. Even if she isn't making it to release this year, she definitely seems like a sure shot for 2025... I'm also quite please to see a generic brake van, even if it wasn't the exact model everybody had been clamoring for. I wouldn't be surprised if this choice was made so that a future Spiteful could co-exist with this brake van in the line up at the same time, and its inclusion also lays groundwork for a future Bradford from the same tooling... Said tooling seems like it will be the same as the Graham Farish LMS 20-tonner, given the brochure says its merely 'new' as opposed to 'new tooling', which is fine by me. That brake van is a beautiful model and I won't mind having a few in screen-accurate 'Thomas' colors, ha ha.

The main range Roundhouse migrating to N Scale well before Tidmouth Sheds is interesting, especially with the various detail changes being made to make it resemble Tidmouth Sheds less... I think it is a smart move, since that means its development (hopefully) won't interfere with the 'Thomas' pipeline, and it can be retooled into better resembling Tidmouth Sheds once the 'Thomas' pipeline is ready. And as a non-'Thomas' product, I think it has potential to be a more approachable roundhouse kit for starter-level hobbyists, at least compared to other kits on the market...

Overall a good show this year. I wish we could have seen some 7-Planks in N Scale but the exclusive rolling stock offerings more than make up for their absence, ha ha.

Now that we're getting HO Scale Sidney and N Scale Henry, we can hope the 2025 catalog will at least have N Scale Edward to complete the original Steam Team in N Scale. The N Scale Brake Van we're getting is the LMS one, when many people wanted the BR one.

I personally hope Narrow Gauge at least gets brown and gray brake vans and box vans, which would be easy because their tooling already exists.

If HO scale was to get Norman, that would complete the trio of characters from Day of the Diesels. Unlike Paxton and Sidney, Norman requires a new tooling. By the 2025 catalog, the sales for Rebecca would be in, and if they're good, we may see Hiro getting announced.

Well Henry happened and the Tar tanker .

That looks amazing Ken, I love your gravel and dirt work, looks so real.

I finally got a round "tuit" and wiggled my 'farm' onto my layout.  Here's a few pics to show my progress.













You can see a few more 'gaps' to fill in, rearrange, modify, etc...

Thanks for looking,
More to follow.

Ken

PS: I also wiggled in a Feed Store.

Lately all my trains except one have been stalling and stuttering randomly for no apparent reason, some more often than others. Yes I would clean the track and the wheels before running them, yet the same problem could still occur even right after cleaning. Some problem spots on the track I would vigorously scrub by hand with alcohol, and recently I caved in and bought a track-cleaning car to do the work for me by having a locomotive push it around the layout at max speed. Unfortunately, that's not 100% effective either. The problem is worst when running at slow speeds, although sometimes even at max speed a train might suddenly stop and start again, for no reason at all, on a continuous section of track that it went through without issue the previous time. And often a train might inexplicably lose power if positioned in a particular way no matter how clean the wheels and the track are, which is what usually results in sudden stalling at slow speed.

I put together a 2-minute video compilation to better show the bugs I'm dealing with: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uRaQdCGrLC7onssxM5xRk_D03UICTzV8/
(that's a brand new GE 44-tonner btw, which shouldn't have those issues right out of the box)

My layout also has 2 reverse loops, with the reversing sections forming an X, and some trains would often trigger the autoreverser when passing through the middle of the X at slow speed, while the entire train is fully within the reversing section, even though there should be no way for the train's wheels to cause a short or anything (this problem is also included towards the end of the video, where the clicking sound can be heard while a train crosses the X, or even when it's stopped there, when gently tapping it would do the trick; the exact position of the train's wheels is shown in the last 2 slides of the video). Both reverse loops used to use Bachmann autoreverse modules, one of which has since been replaced with an MRC AD520 autoreverser, which seems to be more reliable thus far. I just received the second MRC AD520 today, to replace the other Bachmann module, which will hopefully solve this problem.

At this point, I'm thoroughly convinced that having trains powered by the running rails is an absolutely terrible design, and how much better, simpler, and more reliable it would be to simply have each train powered by batteries and operated by a remote control, allowing them to run much more freely and autonomously (you could even take them off the track and run them on the floor if you felt like it!). Not to mention, nothing is more unprototypical than trains being powered by the running rails. The closest real-world example that comes to mind are rapid transit lines that use linear induction motors & reaction rail technology (and having had one of those in my city, I can say those trains definitely couldn't move as freely and smoothly as regular 3rd rail / overhead wire / diesel trains can; not to mention that they couldn't run at all whenever the reaction rail was covered in snow/ice, much like model trains can't run properly unless the running rails are spotless).

True... but with a file, a little plastic, and some glue, anything can be possible in this hobby!

Hannah's sample is at the show! Confirmed for a 2025 release, not the same time as Henrietta like I proposed. Samples of Rebecca, the vans, N scale Emily and her coaches, N scale Gordon, Topham car, 3 of the slate trucks (no tan), the high side wagon, Black Tallylyn, one of Tallylyn's coaches, and Henrietta. The narrow gauge figure pack is apparently stuck at UPS but should be shown off over the weekend. Unclear if anything else will be there or not.

According to staff Hannah is actually slightly modified compared to Henrietta, so it isn't a 1 to 1 recolor.