Model Forum / General / Railroads / January 2006

I was fortunate to receive a Bachmann weathered Standard 5MT for Christmas
but it seems to have little pulling power.
I ran my Bachmann Class 40 with 25 trucks and 5 coaches (all I've got), and
it pulled them around the loop (flat) with ease, I then ran my Bachmann

I have decided to go to DCC on my new HO layout.  I know the E-Z
system is very limited.. The price, ease of use are very appealing.
But I would like to hear from some one who has been using it for a
while.

All,
I'm thinking of jumping into DCC.
My currently layout has two ovals, with many insulfrog turnouts, and a
number of isolated sections (at the end of sidings/station platform area).

I've not sure if this has been mentioned before, but the Bachmann web site
says:
2006 Releases
Information regarding our 2006 range of Bachmann Branchline and Graham

I'm about to get back into the hobby and I only have a very limited
space.  I have some old 00 locos and so will be going for that scale.  I
will be using 1st radius curves to maximise the use of the space
available and I'm quite happy with their "unrealistic" appearance.  I

The last of the kids has now left home and I now have a 2.7 x 2.1 metre
space all of my own! I already own quite a lot of OO loco's (some 25
yrs+ some fairly recent) and stock with an amount of Peco track. I am
really after recommendations on where to start.

Since the P1s  (all three of them) were basically A1 boilers on a 2-8-2
chassis, it would seem a Fairly Easy Thing for a well known producer of
A1/3s to add a heavy goods loco to their offering. Has anyone ponted
this out to them... would anyone in Margate listen?

Can anyone tell me what scale is 00n3

Subject line more or less says it all, anyone know of a source of
motor vehicle towed caravans, nothing fancy - the standard touring
type and not the 'show-ground' type.

Does anyone happen to know what colour curtains were on GWR diesel
railcars and/or on the Brighton Belle pullman units.
The curtains were rather visible and I want to add them to the
sketches I have been working on.

Can someone tell me what size wire I should use to wire my layout.
The layout is 8x12 with no reverse loops.
I have some 20 gauge solid wire is this to thick?
And one more queston if you don't mind, what are suit case conectors and

So it seems Athearn will be coming out with a Big Boy. I'm sure it will be
really nice like the Challenger.  It's sure to be less than the Trix and
better than an old Riva. I'm sure I'll want one but I'm not going to go wild
with anticipation. Another Big Boy already? What I'm ...

Anyone ever fitted a dcc decoder to any Grafar loco's??
cl47 ect and apart from isolating the pickup that runs through the frame of
the loco from the bogie is there any other way to do this????

I wanted to publically thank Accurail for some top-notch customer
service. I received four box cars for Christmas, but all four of them
were missing the bottom of the car. I sent an e-mail to them, had a
response within 24 hours and had the replacement parts with zero hassle

Are there any benefits of having the ZTC 511 over the Lenz set 100?
I already have a Lenz set 100 and have a couple of small issues with it, but
on the whole it does OK.
The ZTC 511 is on offer until the end of today at £299 as opposed to its