It’s been a while since I’ve had my own trains set up. Many years in the Navy, moving overseas and then moving back and getting married and starting a family pretty much does that I guess.
In any case, I’ve made a couple of new purchases and I’m dusting off my older engines and renovating my basement so that I can lay down some track and I thought I should ask some questions.
Will these new DCC trains and non-DCC trains run together? I have recently purchased a Norfolk & Western Class J engine ( 603 ) with DCC tech and I have 2 ( two ) GS-4 silver series engines - The Freedom Train and a ‘War Baby’.
Is Bachmann still honoring their lifetime warranty? I just ( as I am on-line here ) opened my war baby up and the drive wheels fell out ( wasn’t like that when I put it away ). It looks like the axles have split. I’ll have to go to their website and check it out but I thought I’d ask here while I was here.
Any suggestions on track layout software ( affordable software ) that includes all atlas products? I was looking at Atlas’ Right Track software earlier but it doesn’t seem to have much more than basic components and I couldn’t see any way to add them ( specifically, I was trying to add a wye switch and just couldn’t get it ).
Any Bismarck-Mandan folx about? I also purchased two undecorated SD45s and want to do something with them as BN or BNSF engines ( I am not originally from the area ). These are DCC on-board engines as well.
Guess that’s all for now. I need to find out about this war baby engine now. I hope Bachmann will repair it.
First off greeting and welcome to the board. I’ll try and give you some answers to your questions and throw my two cents in so take that for what it’s worth. The bottom line is have fun with your trains and do what you like. BTW like your screen name , one of my closest friends in was in the Seawolf’s in Vietnam
Will these new DCC trains and non-DCC trains run together? I have recently purchased a Norfolk & Western Class J engine ( 603 ) with DCC tech and I have 2 ( two ) GS-4 silver series engines - The Freedom Train and a ‘War Baby’.
The answer is yes, but from what I understand by some who are better educated in the ways of DCC then I am is that the engines will not perform up to their true ability. In some cases they will need your DC power pack to be turned up to past half way just to get them started to move and you will not be able to take advantage of all the DCC functions like directional lighting, sound etc. I have read but can not confirm that if run for long periods of time on DC it will cut down on the boards life span. Also you will not be able to run multiple locomotives on the same line unless you want them all to run at the same speed.
Is Bachmann still honoring their lifetime warranty? I just ( as I am on-line here ) opened my war baby up and the drive wheels fell out ( wasn’t like that when I put it away ). It looks like the axles have split. I’ll have to go to their website and check it out but I thought I’d ask here while I was here.
Yes as far as I know that policy has not changed but be prepared for a long wait. It took me 4 months to finally get a J class replaced that I had problems with and cases where it’s a brand new under warranty engine they typically replace it rather then repair it. This presented a problem for a friend of mine on two separate occasions. The first one was concerning a Heavy Mountain that he had nicely painted and weathered etc. They sent it back to him once telling him it
Welcome to the forums and welcome back to model railroading.
Above posts gives you some answers, probably more informed in those subjects than I am.
I will say that there have been many changes in modeling over the past few years. Get some of the new books on scenery, old techniques still work and are often used, but some new ones are easier and less messy (sort of). John Armstrong’s book “Track Planning for Realistic Operations” has many ideas to get your track plan something that is functional. As mentioned DCC is going strong these days.
My suggestion is take your time, read, plan and enjoy. If you really are itching to get something running, you can always plan it as a part of your future layout.
This is a great place to ask question. Looking forward to answering more.
Thanks for the answers and suggestions. I am not jumping right back into it. It will be a few weeks before I can get serious about a new layout. Still a lot of wall-work and wiring to do in these rooms. I do know that it will be fairly simple to start off. I plan to run a perimeter track around two rooms with a small bench for the helix and very small yard. Hopefully we will be getting an addition done to the house this summer that will include more basement space and I can, fully, annex the second room.
Unfortunately, I cannot find any parts to replace the axles on my war baby. So I’ll have to send it into Bachmann. Maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll replace it with a DCC ready version.
The short answer yes, absolutely, as a matter of fact any DC locomotive even the cheapest of cheap “toy” type locomotives and be converted to DCC it’s just a question or is it worth it to you or not. The theory behind it applies to all. Isolate the motor from the frame if not already done so and pick power from each wheel set LF-RF-LR-RR to the decoder, hook the four wires to the decoder, hook the two motor wires to the decoder and connect the light(s) to the board and you now have a DCC locomotive. Thats a basic rough idea of what needs to be done. Diesels are much easier to do as you remove the shell and everything is right there. Steam locomotives, you have to remove the boiler and in some cases the drive wheels so they can get a little complicated.
If you go to the TCS website listed in the link below click on the installation pictures and then on the Bachman Niagara non DCC and it will give you a pretty good idea what you will be up against if your locomotives are not DCC ready. A real quick and easy way to tell if your Bachmann’s are DCC ready if you don’t have the paper work that came with them is to just pop the tender shell off. If you see a PC board with an 8 pin NMRA plug on it your good to go. I would say if these were purchased with in the last five years they are more then likely DCC ready.
Man, that’s a scary story- a real cautionary tale. And I can’t believe the callousness of Bachmann in this instance… to not even give the guy an opportunity to have his original loco back that he put so much work into. If for no other reason than to give him a chance to strip his detail parts off of.
I always thought Bachmann had more class than that.
just one answer: I found RTS pretty easy to understand, but as always learning takes some time and RTS has some twists.
Your first piece track is done by the “lay-down-key” , all other pieces can be “ädded”. The flex track option only works between pieces of track. When a switch is added the wrong way use the “turn around” key.
The real problems are in the somehow not well ordered functions. How do you find out how to represent your track? Line, out lines, filled outlines? (View/desktop!!) I just asked this forum and get responses within a day.
a big [#welcome] from the other side of the Big Pond.
Like Paul, I am using the freebie RTS to draft up my track plans. It takes some getting used to, as some of the vital functions seem to be hidden somewhere, but once you have the knack of it, it is a pretty powerful tool. It will not, just like any other CAD system, take away your design effort, for which you better employ paper and pencil, but it helps to come up with a nice drawing, showing you, whether all things fit the way they should.
You can even enhance your drawings using MS Paint to look like this:
Here is the thing. DC just sends power to any motor on the track. DCC can individually send commands to locomotives. With DC, you can run DC and DCC locomotives, but all will move at the same speed in the same direction. On DCC, all the DCC locomotives will run separately from each other depending on what commands you give each locomotive. On DCC, you can run DC locomotives by setting the command address to “00”. Basically choose DCC.
To give Bachmann a minimum amount of credit for customer service recently I inquired about a problem with Spectrum J-class where the rear of the locomotive actually would lift off the track in a curve, didn’t matter the radius of the curve pretty much unless it was a large 60" sweeper like we have on the club layout. So the props go for what it’s worth to some women who in their customer service/repair dept. actually called me on the phone to discuss my problem. She didn’t offer any solutions but she did call. I also made a call a few weeks back looking to purchase the pil
Well I figured they’d have something like that standard disclaimer in the warranty. But still, being model train mfgr’s- and one that’s been around the block a few times at that-- it seems nearly unconscionable to me that they would simply TOSS OUT a modeler’s hard work instead of simply sending it back, or at least contacting him or her to ASK what to do with the original unit. I know that I would be OFF THE SCALE furious if they did something like that to me. And would quite readily understand anybody else’s fury in a similar situation. It’d be one thing if it was a mistake or an accident-- it’d be a terrible thing, but things happen. But it sounds like they just tossed it on the trash pile without a second thought-- and that is just horrendous to think about.
Thanks to everyone for the information. I’m slowly taking it all in.
And, to Allegheny, thanks for the info on DCC power. It may be a pain to do but unless Bachmann has some sort of ‘upgrade’ program, I’m going to give it a try converting my Freedom Train to DCC.
Now I suppose I should start a whole new thread for this one, but I’ll give it a go here. I have a pre-war lionel 2-4-2 engine (#229) that doesn’t run. I can apply power to the motor but it just hums at me. I found a working motor, but it looks different from the one I have (totally different mount). Did some research on the engine number and found two different units (same shell, different location for the reverse lever). In any case, If I could get the motor apart, I think I could repair it. But everything is riveted together and I’m half afraid that if I drill the rivets out that I won’t get it back together. Any suggestions?
