The "N" Crowd

[Cederstrand]

I had an early version as a youth which was total junk with binding gears, etc. Now I have a version that sorta runs if given plenty of current, but it has no creep speed and still doesn't run smooth like my old Concor S2. I have a Bachmann Mountain that runs reasonable, but all my other Bachmann steamers are for display purposes only. Not much of a fan personally, but have heard pretty good things about their 2-8-0 Consolidation. One day I will try one of those and see for myself. Perhaps someone here has had better experiences with Bachmann steam or modified them to make them run better? Good luck! -Rob

[Dave Vollmer]

I have the Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 I turned into a Pennsy H10.

I'm interested in building a Pennsy M1b 4-8-2 from a Spectrum Mountain.  I hear the tender from the 4-8-4 can provide the trucks for a Pennsy coast-to-coast tender as used on the M1b.

[nscaler711]

Thanks but i just talked to a guy on the B-mann Forums and he says he has two of the northerns and they run pretty good

[Cederstrand]

[I have the Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 I turned into a Pennsy H10.]

Dave, how would you rate that Bach 2-8-0 of yours? Is it an excellent runner and worth the cost? Sounds like you have some neat conversion projects in mind. What a great hobby!

nscaler711, I should have clarified that even my current Bach Northern is not one of the new Spectrums, so that is undoubtedly the difference between my experiences and those who have runners. If you get one, please post what you think of it after a good trial period.

-Rob

[Anonymous]

Great Idea. I just started N scaling, pretty fun.

A place to chat would be great.

-Bull86

[Dave Vollmer]

[I have the Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 I turned into a Pennsy H10.]

Dave, how would you rate that Bach 2-8-0 of yours? Is it an excellent runner and worth the cost? Sounds like you have some neat conversion projects in mind. What a great hobby!

nscaler711, I should have clarified that even my current Bach Northern is not one of the new Spectrums, so that is undoubtedly the difference between my experiences and those who have runners. If you get one, please post what you think of it after a good trial period.

-Rob

The Spectrum Connie's a good puller.  I had to remove almost half the boiler weight in my kitbash, but she'll still pull the bumper off your car.  She's not very quick, but she's strong as an ox.

Here's what she looks like after I was done with her.

And here's what she's trying to be:

[Blue Flamer]

    Bull86.

As you can see by the number of pages, this is a popular spot. You will get a lot of help from the many knowledgeable people that visit The "N" Crowd. If you have a question, just ask and you will invariably get several QUALITY points of view. One of them should help you out.

All the best in your "N" Scale endeavours.

Blue Flamer. 

PS. Thanks again to Dave for starting this thread. 

[Cederstrand]

[The Spectrum Connie's a good puller.  I had to remove almost half the boiler weight in my kitbash, but she'll still pull the bumper off your car.  She's not very quick, but she's strong as an ox.]

***Nice job, Dave. Sounds like it would come in handy for moving furniture. Now if I could afford to buy one on Monday, I would have it for the big move next week from our old cabin into the new house (about 50' away). Then again, I would haveto lay all that tiny track across the yard. Well, perhaps by next Christmas I can swing it. Bottom line is, after reading your post, now I want one. :^) -Rob

[Wdlgln005]

The only "effective" HO + N layout I have seen was a wedding cake type display at the Adventure Museum here in Nashville. The Museum has a permanent Lionel display.

A circle of Bachmann EZtrak may be done in 22" & 18" radius. Nscale can be 9"-11" to 15". Each scale can have it's own level, separated by some foam. For small children, you could get a Lionel Thomas set.

For fun, perhaps you can get a similar GP unit & freight cars to make up a train. Schedule the Normal Scale train to appear when the Horribly Oversize one is off stage. The smaller train may appear to be running miles away! 

[R. T. POTEET]

[I have the Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 I turned into a Pennsy H10.]

Dave, how would you rate that Bach 2-8-0 of yours? Is it an excellent runner and worth the cost? Sounds like you have some neat conversion projects in mind. What a great hobby!

nscaler711, I should have clarified that even my current Bach Northern is not one of the new Spectrums, so that is undoubtedly the difference between my experiences and those who have runners. If you get one, please post what you think of it after a good trial period.

-Rob

The Spectrum Connie's a good puller.  I had to remove almost half the boiler weight in my kitbash, but she'll still pull the bumper off your car.  She's not very quick, but she's strong as an ox.

Here's what she looks like after I was done with her.

And here's what she's trying to be:

Where, pray tell, did this term "Connie" come from as a moniker for a two eight oh Consolidation?

Lockheed L749/1049/1649s were monikered as "Connies", short for Constellation; Bombers were usually referred to as twenty-fours (this was sometimes referred to as a "Lib" short for Liberator but even that was uncommon) or seventeens or twenty-nines - fighters, however, usually retained their P or F identity as P-51, P-38. P-47; the F-86 was officially a "Sabrejet" but this was usually shortened to a simple "Sabre" in common usage from the Korean War era; the F-105 was a "Thud".  Even the ubiquitous C-47 was more commonly a "Gooney Bird" instead of a Skytrain or Dakota (the British designation) - it wasn't a "Sky" or "Dak".

Challengers (4-6-6-4) are Challengers; Yellowstones (2-8-8-4) are Yellowstones - or EM1s or M3s or whatever.  There are some steam locomotives which have acquired monikers over the years; Berkshires are frequently referred to as "Berks"; Mikados are "Mikes"; 2-10-4s are 2-10-4s unless you are a Pennsy fan when they are J1s or a Chessie fan and they are T1s - I still refer to them as 2-10-4s; Hudsons may be Baltics but they are never "Huds" or "Balts".  There may be other Monikers which escape me at this particular moment.

Until a couple of months ago when I saw this "Connie" here on the forum I had never, in forty-five years in the hobby - heard a 2-8-0 referred to by that expression; "Consol" sometimes - usually just a "2-8-0".

[Dave Vollmer]

I heard that expresion here too.  Pardon the slip of tongue.

Hopefully it doesn't detract too much from the point of my post.  Enjoy!

[nscaler711]

Dave,

thats a beautiful locomotive you have on your hands.......she seems pretty well detailed!

did you detail her yourself?

Also i had to pitch a DD40AX i dropped her and she well..... quite litterally exploded when she hit the ground (darn butterfingers) I feel so ashamed of myself  

[Dave Vollmer]

Dave,

thats a beautiful locomotive you have on your hands.......she seems pretty well detailed!

did you detail her yourself?

Also i had to pitch a DD40AX i dropped her and she well..... quite litterally exploded when she hit the ground (darn butterfingers) I feel so ashamed of myself  

Thanks!  Yes, I did all of the modifications myself, including detailing.  I chopped up an old Minitrix K4 boiler, added a Minitrix B6sb cab, and other details to a Spectrum consol chassis.

If you do Pennsy in N and you want to do steam, it's a do-it-yourself world.  The HO guys can choose RTR Pennsy K4s, for example, from FOUR different manufacturers.  Not so for us.

[TrainsRMe1]

Hi my fellow "N" crowder's, it's a great day here in Portland Oreg. I have a question, can anybody tell me (step by step) the way to install a decoder in a Kato accdx4400?? I just don't want to fry anything!!!! Thanks Trainsrme1

[R. T. POTEET]

Does Any one have a B-mann 4-8-4 Northern?

if so how does she run? 

I do not own one nor have I ever owned one - that may shortly change, however, if a rumor which I picked up somewhere or another that Bachmann is upgrading this mechanism to Spectrum standards turns out to be true.  Now, IF this mechanism is, indeed, improved, and IF it at least achieves N-Scale's notorious standard of steam locomotive mediocrity, it is not beyond the pale of possibility that this could just be the tempest which blows me out of the eighties back into the fifties even if that does mean learning to live with twenty-five car freights - every time someone comes out with a new steam locomotive it rings my bell and I devolve into profuse salivation.

These lokes were almost immediately labeled as "dogs" when they made their appearance twenty plus years ago.  Now, if I don't own one and have never owned one what am I doing here responding to your post???  I have a windy to spin in regards to your "How does she run?" inquiry.

I have posted this story before but you may not have seen it.  There used to be an N-Scale club which met on Davis-Monthan Air Patch at Tucson; this club modeled the Western Pacific through the Feather River canyon and had some of the most awesome scenery which I have ever seen on any layout in any scale.  This club was forced to dismantle because, post-September 11th,  the many non-DOD associated civilians in the club lost their unescorted-access privileges.  About seven or eight years ago I drifted into the clubroom during an open-house and was greeted with about a forty car freight trailing a pair of Uncle John prototype 4-8-4s.  These were running smooth enough to be brass imports; they were not brass, however, and I was informed that they were heavily reworked Bachmann Northerns - and to which I responded with a certain profane incredulity usually abbreviated as Bee Ess.

These two lokes belonged to a WAF who was an instrument tech stationed there at D.M.; she had, I was told, tore these "dogs" down to bare-bones and then fine-tuned them.  Out of the box these lokes used to go up, down, and sideways simultaneously.  Most of these problems were caused by binds in the gearing as well as a lack of concentricity in the axle/wheel relationship.  This lady - I did not meet her as she was out having a bite of lunch when I was there and I couldn't linger - had trued everything up even to the point of turning new axles and plugging and reboring the drivers.  The gears no longer growled like a lion one week into a bad hunting season.  They, instead, purred like a kitten.

Why do I relate this story?  Well, we would all like it if everything ran perfectly straight from the box; this does not happen, of course, although I have, perhaps, been more fortunate than others because it has been many, many years since I got lemons.  The story of these two Bachmann Northerns reflects a singular fact associated with model railroading - if you have the proper skills (which, as an instrument tech I am sure this lady possessed), and if you have the propr tools (which I am equally sure she had available to her courtesy of Uncle Sugar), and if you have the time available to do the work (which she apparently did) then the worst dog in the pound can be turned into a show breed.  How does she run? you ask.  Somebody has said that he had a couple and they didn't run worth a darn; somebody else had a couple and they run just great.  In short, it may run great for you but not worth a danged for somebody else; every time you bring something home from the hobby shop you are taking a risk on the quality of that item.

[Cederstrand]

That is an interesting story, R. T. POTEET. Would like to put someone like that to work for me, making every engine "the best it can be".

Curious, how do you all feel about altering the length of a stock locomotive shell, just to install a slightly larger (and superior) motor inside? What I am thinking of doing is extending the tender/coal section (not sure what it is called?) of a Kato n scale 2-6-4 loco, to replace the dying motor with a smooth running can. I don't know how accurate this model is to the prototype, but I would certainly be adding at least one scale foot (or more) to it by the time it was finished. Any thoughts? -Rob   

[R. T. POTEET]

Found that this topic, The "N" Crowd, had slipped all the way back to page 6 on the forum which, by a quirk, was where I found it the last time it got lost and I had to go hunt it up.  At that time I made what I thought was a frivolous entry and ask if anybody wanted to fight about anything - my G***, you would have thought I had threatened to criminally assault Nancy Pelosi.  Won't do that here tonight!!!!

And while I am doing this I have a little problem:

back on 4 Jan instant I made an entry here in The "N" Crowd; ever since, every time somebody posts an entry to this topic I get an informative message telling me that there is a response to my post.  It informs me that I activated something and I need to go back to the post and turn it off; it tells me that I can also edit my profile but the information in my profile has been screwed up since the downtime last July; I can't edit my profile because it tells me that my email address is in use by somebody else.  HUH?????

At the bottom of this message there is a little bar labeled "PATH:"; sometimes when I am preparing a message as a response a little symbol will light up on this line; this symbol will go out if I raise the cursor to the top of the message board which I always do but I am wondering if the possibility exists that back on the 4th of January I inadvertently posted a message with that little symbol on this "Path Line".

Can anybody tell me what I did and how I can get out of it.  Any enlightenment.

[Dave Vollmer]

Sorry RT, I'm not sure how to help...

I did a little N scale work the other night.  Today I'll take pictures and post a project thread.  Of course, project threads don't last long in these forums because they don't draw controversy.

Anyway, I added a PRR Trainphone antenna to my Atlas GP9.  For those who don't know, these are induction-phone antenna arrays that run the length of the locomotive (or cabin car) and look a lot like handrails.  Though, I imagine if you grabbed one while it was in use you'd get an RF burn you'd never forget!

[spidge]

Hey guys, I haven't contributed much here but would hope you did not hold it against me.

My issue is with a Concor GS4. The tender wheels just will not roll. I attempted to use graphite on them but no luck yet. I put a bunch of wieght on top of the tender and most of the axles would roll, but that much wieght will not fit inside. One axle in particular refuses to roll. I read somewhere that pencil lead would work for the axle wipers. Is this true?

Thanks in advance, and yes I asked this in the general forum with no responses.

[Texas Zepher]

Does anyone here collect the "special run" cars that micro-trains produces?  I always wondered who bought those sorts of things and find out that my mother does.   She has started collecting the "States" series, and ask me to help her track them down.  Some of them in that set have gotten outrageously high ($150-$200).   Is this a normal thing?  Will the price peak until all the people who "really really" want them get one and then the price drop back to something sane?

[Wdlgln005]

The Special Runs that MTL runs have an appeal beyond model railroaders. They have done Pepsi, Hershey, Good Humor, Smokey Bear series. I'm not sure if the States series will end, or if they re-release some of the early models. IIRC some of them may have had shorter than normal runs, or they sold out very quickly. That's where you see prices in the $200 range.

The business model suggests MTL makes some $$ selling them. NOBODY forces anyone to buy them! This is a huge topic on Atlas forum to see if Disney or other cartoon characters could be done next. IMHO it may be too expensive for MTL to make partners with huge corporations.

Ebay & the NScale Collectors Auctions make a market for MTL cars. Please be aware MTL does not get $$ from the markup. It's all speculators that sell to new buyers. Prices may drop if nobody cares if you have a complete set, or if MTL makes more. THey have issued re-prints of high dollar models before, that does depress some models somewhat.  

[R. T. POTEET]

Found that this topic, The "N" Crowd, had slipped all the way back to page 6 on the forum which, by a quirk, was where I found it the last time it got lost and I had to go hunt it up.  At that time I made what I thought was a frivolous entry and ask if anybody wanted to fight about anything - my G***, you would have thought I had threatened to criminally assault Nancy Pelosi.  Won't do that here tonight!!!!

And while I am doing this I have a little problem:

back on 4 Jan instant I made an entry here in The "N" Crowd; ever since, every time somebody posts an entry to this topic I get an informative message telling me that there is a response to my post.  It informs me that I activated something and I need to go back to the post and turn it off; it tells me that I can also edit my profile but the information in my profile has been screwed up since the downtime last July; I can't edit my profile because it tells me that my email address is in use by somebody else.  HUH?????

At the bottom of this message there is a little bar labeled "PATH:"; sometimes when I am preparing a message as a response a little symbol will light up on this line; this symbol will go out if I raise the cursor to the top of the message board which I always do but I am wondering if the possibility exists that back on the 4th of January I inadvertently posted a message with that little symbol on this "Path Line".

Can anybody tell me what I did and how I can get out of it.  Any enlightenment.

I suspect I have solved my specified problem!!!  Won't know for sure until someone makes a response in this post.

At the top of this page are four boxes labelled "POST SEARCH RATE NOTIFY"  It appears that, somehow or another,  back on 4 January I got the "NOTIFY" box activated and for four months that is exactly what has been happening.

[SteamFreak]

I suspect I have solved my specified problem!!!  Won't know for sure until someone makes a response in this post.

At the top of this page are four boxes labelled "POST SEARCH RATE NOTIFY"  It appears that, somehow or another,  back on 4 January I got the "NOTIFY" box activated and for four months that is exactly what has been happening.

I'm sure you're right, RT. The same thing happened to me with this thread, interestingly enough, after I posted my first response here. I tried deleting my post, but I still got those annoying email notifications, until I discovered the magical and wondrous "Notify" button. Problem solved.

Dave, did you take any photos of your kitbash? I'd be interested in seeing the modifications, including those to the frame. I don't work in N, but I'm curious just the same. All of the kitbash pictorials I've seen have been in HO or larger.

[Dave Vollmer]

Dave, did you take any photos of your kitbash? I'd be interested in seeing the modifications, including those to the frame. I don't work in N, but I'm curious just the same. All of the kitbash pictorials I've seen have been in HO or larger.

I'm avoiding putting too much detail out there about how exactly I did it since I was solicited to write an article about it for the N-Trak N scale steam book.  It should show up in the next adition.

[SteamFreak]

Dave, did you take any photos of your kitbash? I'd be interested in seeing the modifications, including those to the frame. I don't work in N, but I'm curious just the same. All of the kitbash pictorials I've seen have been in HO or larger.

I'm avoiding putting too much detail out there about how exactly I did it since I was solicited to write an article about it for the N-Trak N scale steam book.  It should show up in the next adition.

Will the book be generally available, or only thru their wesbsite? They show the last edition on the N-Trak site, but there's no order info. My LHS has just about every publication known to model railroaders, but I don't know if they carry this one.

Congrats, btw. Fame can be heady stuff, particularly for a younger feller. Don't let all of the celebrity go to your head.

[Dave Vollmer]

I don't know how that works.  They didn't tell me.  I suppose I should ask!

Ah, fame and fortune!  Not I.  I'm rather more worried about publishing an article in the Journal of Atmsopheric Science.

I also talked to Kirk Reddie about doing something on my layout in NSR.  One of these days, I'll do the photography for it.

Young feller, eh?  I haven't felt young in a long time.  Kids, job, war, and all that...  put some years on you.

[Anonymous]

 

For N scalers interested in Intermodal models & modeling there is a new site to check out -

Greenlight Intermodal.INFO at:

www.greenlightintermodal.info

Lots of model & prototype info and news and an all N scale Intermodal forum.

 

 

[NS2591]

Hey everyone. Its been a while. I got the Realignment done and I have even operated my layout a couple times since(the spurs aren't operational yet but the Sidings are) Now I'm toying with the Idea of Switching from NS to BNSF becuase I like BNSF and I do like NS, but its too hard to find NS stuff in N scale. If I did model BNSF it would be Southern Ill and it would be more ATSF than BNSF. Like maybe 1999 or 2000 Any thoughts?

[cpeterson]

Well, I've decided to start a new layout.  i've been working on a 1X6 module for about 6 years and its been sent to the local land fill minus turnouts, some wiring, etc.

So, after looking at several peoples stuff here (Dave Vollmer, etc), I've decided to go with a 40 inch by 90 inch layout with an attached yard of 2-3 tracks around the wall about 9 feet.  The CEO at my house allowed a space increase to the "space/closet" whatever under one of the eves on our second floor.  Space is about 6 X 8 foot with a small closet attached to it.  Its a 90 year old house so you can imagine the odd spaces here and there.  Anyway, I've got the beginning benchwork down, and will add the base layer of pink syrofoam insulation on top maybe today.  I'm going with code 55 track by microenginering and code 55 turnouts from atlas.  I've got dozens of tortoise machines to recycle so all the turnouts will be motorized.  I'm compressing a small town in Arkansas for the theme...loosely.  I'll let you know how it progresses.

[Dave Vollmer]

Well, I've decided to start a new layout... ...I'll let you know how it progresses.

Pictures!  Pictures!  Pictures!

Good luck.  6x8 is a mightly nice space for N.