Where can i get info about N scale engines mostly steam as thats what i want to use. I meen technical specs and stuff, i dont have a hobby shop near by that i can go to to get information. Stuff im wanting to know isif the engine is DCC ready,compatable or equiped and things like that. Every online hobby shop i have gone to say almost the exact same little description and somtimes there isint one at all. So if anyone knows ether a website with engine info or knows of a list of known N scale DCC equiped and ready locos i would be very happy to know.
Thanks
Try here. http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/index.php?
There is a very active N-scale group here. We have some highly competent N-scalers here, too, of course. They should help you very soon.
I would think that the manufacturer’s website would be the first place to look. Also, post the specific loco question here and you would probably get good answers too.
Rick
True, i have checked alot of the websites like Bachmann and Athearns but there are alot of engines that dont tell me much.
This is one engine i would like to know if it is DCC compatable or will it be a hassle to put a decoder in it.
im also wundering if This 120’ turn table will be able to turn Bigboy and Challenger neather of them show there length so im not shure if they will fit
This subject of turntable requirements for a Big Boy got batted around on a Prototype Information posting a few weeks back. Onion Specific constructed 126’ turntables in 1936(?) to turn their expected Challengers even though, technically, a 110’ should have been sufficient for that task. Why a 126 footer you ask. Because turntables by that era had evolved into balancing bridges: this meant that a locomotive had to balance on the bridge and this meant that locomotives seldom balanced exactly at mid-point of their length and had to be pulled slightly forward onto the table. To achieve this balancing the Big Boy required its pilot to overhang the bridge.
Now, to your question.
Keep in mind that our model steam locomotives are usually five to seven feet longer than their prototype uncles because of the necessity of a non-prototypical gap between engine and tender necessitated by our hairpin turns. With that in mind one of Athearn’s new Challenger types MIGHT fit Walthers’ 120’ table; their Big Boy is almost certainly going to require their new 130’ table which costs an arm and a leg and a mortgage on your firstborn.
I don’t know just where your skills lie but in the October, 1989 Model Railroader Jim Kelly scratchbuilt one of Uncle John’s 120’ turntables and the following month he built an accompanying roundhouse. His outlined procedures could be modified to fit a 130 footer.
UP had 5 of the 135’ TT’s for turning Big Boys(IIRC). That old Heljan 120’ one is a really old kit and is not very good. The current Walthers N scale one(135’) will turn a Big Boy, though it is sort of expensive!
Some of the newer N scale steam has a socket for DCC decoders or has a decoder, but most of the N scale steamers are not equpped and you have to ‘hard wire’ them. IIRC, the later runs of the Kato USRA Heavy 2-8-2 have a socket…
Jim