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I have converted one of my DC steam locos to Digitrax DCC with sound. On this loco, in particular, The chuff and stuff starts before the loco starts to move, which is about 10 on the controller. It will sit there chuffing away at a good clip without any movement unless I shut it down or wind...

I have a BLI 282 PRR steam locomotive with Paragon 3 sound. I use a NCE Powercab controller. I have only owned the loco for a few months and all has been well. Recently, I noticed that sometimes the loco would bog down slightly, as evidenced by the chuff sound change. I thought it was maybe...

I have amassed 9 steam locomotives from various brands and have converted non-smokers to smoke and updated smokers to a better smoke unit. I have tried different brands of smoke fluid. Bachmann fluids are OK but Seuthe fluid is much better and is edged out by Mega-Steam. I have also tried...

I just picked up a Bachmann N scale train set. I would like to duplicate my HO layout in N scale. My HO layout uses 15", 18" and 22" radius curves. N scale track is available in 11 1/4", 12 1/2", 14", 15 1/2", 17 1/2" and 19" radius. Is there a chart that shows how to convert HO to N? I...

How does one remove the shell from a Bachmann 060 locomotive to change the smoke unit? I have removed the two tiny screws on either side of the boiler front and the front and rear chassis screws. It appears that the center screw can remain in place since it secures the underframe to the chassis.

I bought two MRC Terminal strips with jumpers to wire up my illuminated buildings. In my mind, I thought connect the plus feed wire to one row of screws and the minus feed wire to the other row. Then by installing the jumpers, each row would be plus or minus, so I could connect the light wires...

I am running two HO trains, one with horn hook couplers and one with knuckle couplers. The horn hooks run all day long and hold together. The knuckle couplers are troublesome. I have cars from different manufacturers that have their own version of a knuckle coupler. Coupler height varies...

Well, my layout was running well until I reversed the direction of both trains. I had two cars that would derail at every turnout. I took the front truck off the worst car and gently rolled it thru a turnout. You could see that the wheels were stumbling over the frog because the inner wheel...

I recently came across a website that had HO scale background scenery that was 10 feet long and a couple of feet high. It was just what I was looking for. Alas! I didn't bookmark it and can't find it again. Any ideas?

My layout is to the point that additional details like HO scale vehicles would be a big plus. The down side is I have seen some that cost more than some rolling stock. I can see a lot of money could be spent to add some realism to a layout.

Today I began the task of illuminating my HO houses and buildings. I had bought some very nice lamp assemblies for that purpose. I set up a test lamp and I set my buildings and houses over it one at a time and discovered that the light colored structures glowed and the light through the...

I have a caboose that I need to remove some of the lettering. It looks like the lettering is painted on rather than decals, but I'm not sure. I thought of trying a tiny bit of lacquer thinner, but am afraid of damaging the surface. I also have a tender that I want to remove the line logo.

I vaguely remember many years ago that there was a way to turn off the juice to a turnout just by operating the points. Lets say you have a spur that you want to power a locomotive and short train in and park, so another loco could use the layout. As I recall, the spur was hot when set to turn...

My 060 Bachmann loco leaks smoke fluid but I don't believe I have overfilled it. I just noticed it a couple of days ago when the bottom of the loco was sopping wet with fluid. Is this considered normal? The smoke unit doesn't glow red like it did when new a few months ago. It won't smoke...

I previously mentioned the problems I had with the Bachmann 30° crossing causing my 040 and 060 locos to stall, stop, or jerk hard enough to cause cars to uncouple. The only way around it was to run the train much faster than scale or longevity would allow. I felt this was a design flaw of the...

Has anyone successfully removed the rails from Bachmann EZ Track? I don't mean lift the rails and ties up, I just need to remove and replace the rails from a crossing for a project. I believe they are just held very snugly in the plastic ties. I think they should pull out from the end, at...

My new setup is coming along well. I recently noticed that the long edges of 2" hard insulation foam are bowed down a bit. Enough so that track laid near the edge is distorted. I built a frame of 1X6's sized so that the foam would drop in. The inner side of the 1X6's has 1X3's all around...

I just bought a brand new Mehano Canadian National Steam Engine "Gold Bell" on ebay. Any comments?

Hello all! First time poster here. I will give a brief rundown on what I have. I built a 4X8 setup using a 2" hard foam base set into a wooden frame with stringers underneath to give the foam support. It was set up square and level. I have a double circuit using two turnouts and a 30°...