Well, I spent the day at the train show in Springfield. The big purchase of the day turned out to be some scale lumber that I intended to use as ties, but they ended up a little too thin. I spent the day chasing my tail. I walked around until I found something I was interested in. Then I wandered some more. Each time I made up my mind to make a purchase, when I went back to where I had found the item, it was gone. At one point, I finally committed to purchasing a steam sound engine. I found what I thought (and was told) was a Spectrum 0-8-0 with sound for $180 and a good road name for my layout, and after asking "does it really have sound and dcc" and being told "yes". I handed the salesman my credit card, and they processed the purchase. I was already a little suspicious, and then I saw him putting the engine into a Proto 2k box. Then I got way more suspicious. They were extremely nice at the booth, and took the engine to a nearby track to check that it really did have sound (which would have been a great deal), and came back and reported that it did NOT. I don't think it even had DCC. They showed me the box for a P2K that indicated it DID have sound, and could not locate the engine on display. I think they really did intend to sell the sound engine for the stated price, but it appeared to have been stolen from the display. They credited the purchase back to my card. By that time the show was closing. In a separate attempt, there were several items at Tony's trains that I asked for and they didn't have.
I may regroup and try again early tomorrow morning. I still know were I should be able to find both Spectrum and Proto sound engines, and I should be able to find the items Tony's didn't have.
Bummed,
Jim
Jim;
You may want to refresh your knowledge of who makes what before you go - Walthers is a good place to do so, and what are reasonable prices - Trainworld is one good place for that.
Bachmann has never offered a Spectrum 0-8-0.
Currently or recently, only IHC and P2K have offered 0-8-0.
Have fun.
I did try to educate myself ahead of time, but even now that I've seen them in person, I am having trouble finding the exact models on the manufacturers sites. The models do seem to come and go. I don't think the guys at this booth were trying to be dishonest with me, but I don't think they really understood what they had either. As for finding places on the internet to purchase an engine from, that's really confusing with tables of locos that you can pre-register to purchase and some that are out of stock. It was actually easier for me to look at what I could actually find at the show. The reason I assumed (and tried to ask about) that the engine was a Spectrum and not a Proto was it's price. I'm really glad I figured it out before I got it home. I wouldn't have considered purchasing it at the show except that these folks had a brick and mortor shop that is within driving distance for me. I was convinced they would support me if I had a problem.
Thanks for the tips,
Jim,
Sorry for your bad day at the show. I guess that's a lesson to all of us: When purchasing a locomotive from a vendor at either a show, insist on having the seller put it on the test track to verify that 1) the product works, and 2) you are getting what you think you are getting. If they won't (or say they don't have a test track set up), walk away from the sale.
I just bought that same Proto 2000 0-8-0 switcher off eBay this past week for $89.99 - without sound. It had a C-9 rating and the online seller had over 11,000 sales and a 99.9% satisfaction rating. I guess I'll find out how well I did in a week or so.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Jim, since just about every state in the country has a "Springfield" in it, could you be a little more precise as to your location? Thanks.
Dick
Texas Chief
Dick,
I think Jim is talking about the big Amherst show in MA.
tstage wrote: Dick, I think Jim is talking about the big Amherst show in MA.Tom
I was hoping someone would post some pictures from the show>
If anyone has pictures from the show, Please post them.
The FP45 would be nice to see.
Thanks
First of all, the show is in West Springfield, MA. Details, details!! Many people mistakenly call it the Springfield show. Great show though a lot of old people wandering around.
http://www.amherstrail.org/show/show.htm
I hope I got it correct. The forum does not allow cut and paste.
The Bachmann tables where well hidden. No signs at all. Just two or three tables piled with Spectrum engines. It appears Bachmann does does not want the Bachmann name associated with Spectrum. Just my thoughts.
The new Spectrum HO 4-4-0 with DCC was $140. I bought one from Micro Mark a couple weeks ago and payed $155.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
So I dragged my family to the show (yes, the amherst show in West Springfield MA, sorry) late this afternoon and had much better luck. The wooden platform kit that dissapeared on my yesterday un-dissapeared itself before my very eyes today, and a P2K 080 with sound accidentally followed me home :-)
There was still not a single NCE Cab04p to be had anywhere, but I think I know where to find them online.
The P2k is great. As expected, the programming track feature of my NCE PowerCab won't even stay engaged for this engine, but using programming on the main, I eventually cut the volume from 127 to 15 (may have to try a little higher). I also was able to program in the engine number for the long address, but I had to activate the long address through CV 29. I'm going to search out old threads on using the programming track on these engines. Maybe I would need a programming track booster or a resister accross the rails. Anyway, I made it do what I wanted. I was amazed at the sound capabilities that were available on plain DC.
Jim 22,
yes the show can be confusing. I thought we approached gridlock yesterday afternoon. A couple of tricks are to download the list of vendors and locations off Amhearsts' website and make a seperate list of who you want to see. There is so much stuff that my eyes just glaze over when I first walk in. Glad you ended up with what you wanted and hopefully you had some fun. J.R.
I didn't think to check the website for a list of venders. The flyers only had layouts listed. Eventually I decided I needed to go in order by vender area number. It was pretty amusing, once or twice around a table and I'd head off in a whole different direction and not know it. I started making notes about where I saw stuff - that worked pretty well.
jim22 wrote: and a P2K 080 with sound accidentally followed me home :-)
We're you allowed to keep it? Much less trouble than the puppy that followed me home when i was kid lol. Glad to see the show worked out for ya!
jim22 wrote:The P2k is great. As expected, the programming track feature of my NCE PowerCab won't even stay engaged for this engine, but using programming on the main, I eventually cut the volume from 127 to 15 (may have to try a little higher)...Maybe I would need a programming track booster or a resister accross the rails. Anyway, I made it do what I wanted. I was amazed at the sound capabilities that were available on plain DC.Jim
The P2k is great. As expected, the programming track feature of my NCE PowerCab won't even stay engaged for this engine, but using programming on the main, I eventually cut the volume from 127 to 15 (may have to try a little higher)...Maybe I would need a programming track booster or a resister accross the rails. Anyway, I made it do what I wanted. I was amazed at the sound capabilities that were available on plain DC.
Elaborate a little further, if you would please. What exactly are you seeing on the LCD screen of your Power Cab when you are trying to program on the programming track? Does it say "Can't read CV" or something to that effect?
NCE boosted the programming signal on the Power Cab slightly for the specific purpose of programming the more power-hungry sound decoders. So, you shouldn't need either a resistor across the track nor a PowerPax booster to program on the programming track.
I'm glad that today went better for you than yesterday. Congrats to on the Proto 2000 0-8-0.
jim22,
Your disappointment may have been someone's else's joy. The mismatching of sound/DCC loco could have resulted in someone else getting a loco with these features who thought they were getting an analog loco!
Re chasing around the three exhibit buildings at Big-E for vendor with what you need. The handout(pink foldout) they give at building entrance with map and legend key always seem to identify layouts only. From my understanding a vendor may wait several years to obtain display space; that being the case I don't know why Amherst can't also identify their regular vendor locations on map. I was looking for BLI/PCM display because I knew from Internet posting they would be there and I nearly missed them due to no key on map. I only came across them by thoroughly retracing my steps through all three buildings.
Guess next year I'll print out vendor building location from Internet.
Giving Amherst Railroad Society folks a break-may be they can't cover all the bases due to finite number of volunteers to address organization of event. I sure am very enthusiastic and appreciative about them putting on this must see show.
Jon
Okay, you visited the BLI & PCM booth and did they present or announce something new?
- some finished PCM PA's maybe or what did you think of the just announced New Haven I5 4-6-4?
To all who did not check the layout PDFs from the Amherst site, the layout is one page to cover three buildings. It ends up being small print. A page for each building might be better.
The Vendor list is Ten pages. No way can the group put out that many fliers for free except via the internet.
A sign board similar to the location maps that you see in a Mall might be a good suggestion. I am going to join the Amherst group again and make the suggestion.
rich
Wanted to go to the Springfield show, but still trying to get settled into the new digs here. I have to say I'm sorry I missed it. After living in West Texas for 12 years I must say that you guys in the NE are somewhat spoiled. I can't wait till I can go to a train show that not only is more than just 10 or so vendors, but three buildings worth. WOW!
On the positive side, upon reading folks here talk about that crowds that were in attendance - doesn't that speak well for the hobby?
Iwill definately be there next year and look forward to meeting some y'all!
Hello Tom,
Lets see, I put the engine on the programming track and isolated the remainder of the track. I hit the program button until the LCD displayed "Use program trk" and hit enter. I did all this with the programming track disconnected completely using switches, so there was no chance of power getting to the engine before I activated the programming track. This is my SOP when installing a new decoder to verify the wiring before applying full power. What happened when I switched the programming track on was that I think the PowerCab reset and main track power was applied to the programming track. This was a little disconcerting.
Now that I have forced the address and volume settings I wanted and know the decoder wiring is correct, I tried to duplicate the problem. I drove the loco onto the programming track and entered program track mode with the engine powered. This time it entered programming mode correctly. I get the occasional "cannot read CV" message when I step through the settings, so it doesn't work perfectly. I also tried to duplicate the problem starting with a disconnected track, but again, it entered programming mode fine. It is possible the power supply capacitor was still charged. It's also possible I didn't hit the correct key sequence - not sure. Anyway, I managed to program the settings I wanted.
On a side note, this engine runs great on the portions of my layout that I actually built. I used Atlas customline #4 switches and tried to limit the radius to 24 inches. I had one or two spots where I had trouble actually building the radius I wanted. It does NOT run well on a 4x6 section of the layout that I was given. It uses old shinohara (I think) turnouts with power-routed points and frogs, and has radiuses which may be less than 18 inches in spots. There is a grab-iron on one side of the cab at the rear of the engine which interferes with the tender and the engine derails. I didn't plan to run this engine on the majority of that section, but it needs to get through the first turnout because I used it as a run-around end point. It even shorts out the system backing through that turnout to get to the run-around track. I'm going to have to replace that turnout and/or re-lay that area to increase the radius - not sure if it's going to be practical.
jim22 wrote: I did try to educate myself ahead of time, but even now that I've seen them in person, I am having trouble finding the exact models on the manufacturers sites. The models do seem to come and go. I don't think the guys at this booth were trying to be dishonest with me, but I don't think they really understood what they had either. As for finding places on the internet to purchase an engine from, that's really confusing with tables of locos that you can pre-register to purchase and some that are out of stock. It was actually easier for me to look at what I could actually find at the show. The reason I assumed (and tried to ask about) that the engine was a Spectrum and not a Proto was it's price. I'm really glad I figured it out before I got it home. I wouldn't have considered purchasing it at the show except that these folks had a brick and mortor shop that is within driving distance for me. I was convinced they would support me if I had a problem.Thanks for the tips,Jim
For locomotives and rolling stock, I always take a list of what I have and what I want, whenever I go to a show. I am less picky about scenery, structures and supplies. Of course that might explain a few things like the bags of unused trees and ground cover.
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/