# My new trains



## GNfan (Jun 3, 2016)

Here are my new trains. The locomotives are undecorated Bachmann 0-6-0's. The cars are a mix of Atlas and Micro-Trains, and the cabooses are Micro-Trains. The caboose on the right is a GN with the older "Glacier National Park" herald. The cars that aren't either NP or WFE have some Puget Sound/Pacific Northwest connection (Stokely's processed peas and carrots in Bellingham).


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

GNfan said:


> Here are my new trains. The locomotives are undecorated Bachmann 0-6-0's. The cars are a mix of Atlas and Micro-Trains, and the cabooses are Micro-Trains. The caboose on the right is a GN with the older "Glacier National Park" herald. The cars that aren't either NP or WFE have some Puget Sound/Pacific Northwest connection (Stokely's processed peas and carrots in Bellingham).
> 
> View attachment 569283


GNfan;

Nice looking collection of cars. I hope those 0-6-0 switchers are the new Bachmann that I hear run better than the old Bachmann. The Old ones switched at their minimum sustainable speed of 50mph!


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## GNfan (Jun 3, 2016)

I bought them from modeltrainstuff.com in the last 6 months or so. Spookshow.net gave them an "A". The only real downside to them is that the stock tender isn't big enough for a DCC decoder, and spare tenders that are big enough do exist but are pretty rare.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Love that GN caboose!


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## dlbraly (Oct 13, 2013)

Nice.


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

GNfan said:


> I bought them from modeltrainstuff.com in the last 6 months or so. Spookshow.net gave them an "A". The only real downside to them is that the stock tender isn't big enough for a DCC decoder, and spare tenders that are big enough do exist but are pretty rare.


GNfan;

Well good. Since they are new production, they will probably run a lot better than the old dogs ever did. There are some very small DCC decoders out there. I have one of the old version of that locomotive. The tender is a dummy one that just hooks onto the locomotive with a plastic drawbar that fits over a pin on the locomotive. The tender is empty except for a flat weight. If you have the same tender, it should hold an N-scale, or Z-scale, decoder. As long as you don't exceed the current capacity you can use a Z-scale decoder, and some of those are really tiny. 

Traction Fan 🙂


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## GNfan (Jun 3, 2016)

All I know at this point is that spookshow.net says that you need a tender larger than the USRA slope backs mine came with to convert these little beasties to DCC; and then he walks you through how to modify a "Spectrum" tender to work. If I ever get another 4 square feet I'll look into DCC. In the mean time, I did buy an undecorated Spectrum slope back tender because on a whim I bought some lovely Japanese prototype Kato freight cars, and they all have rapido couplers! So I thought I'd put a Bachmann rapido on one of the tenders for when I want to run this "other train". Although there's a nice looking Kato freight locomotive at modeltrainstuff.com.


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## scenicsRme (Aug 19, 2020)

Lot cheaper to convert the rapidos to Micro train couplers (MT makes conversion couplers for about any brand out there) than to buy a loco just because it has a rapido coupler. Most of the locos so equipped are older units that may not run well (spook is a good reference) or difficult to convert to DCC. I think that Spook is referring to using a plug in daughter board rather than a hardwired replacement decoder. As stated some of the decoders are smaller than a couple tic tacs. Of course it is a little more difficult install to locate the proper wires, splice in and solder the decoder than a plug in install.


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## GNfan (Jun 3, 2016)

I don't know a whole lot about DCC, but I can tell you that the pickups are in the tender so the DCC board (however big it is) might as well go there. As far as the Kato rolling stock, it's all on single axle trucks.. I was just going to put a rapido coupler on a spare tender, which I've already got.


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## scenicsRme (Aug 19, 2020)

Yes, Bachmann put a rather large DC main board in the tender of their steam loco that feeds power to the motor in the loco and controls the lights (DC only forwards/back, on/off) On their "DCC ready" locos they added a socket for a second rather large DCC daughter board to the large DC board (which in some cases is not completely DCC compatible i.e light are not addressable by CV). These boards take up a large amount of the space inside even a good sized N scale tender and the slope back tender doesn't have enough space inside for both boards. There is however plenty of space even for sound and speaker if the original DC board is replaced with one of the small DCC (or DCC sound) decoders. This does require some wire tracing, splicing, and soldering, and possibly running new feed wires between the tender and the headlight. Digitrax and others make replacement tender to loco wiring harness and sockets if you don't want to have the tender hardwired to the loco.


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

ESU offers a micro Loksound 5 specifically for N scale that should work for you depending upon header configuration.

Check out their website for possible compatible models.


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## GNfan (Jun 3, 2016)

*Update: *I've come to the sad conclusion that I just can't do the kind of fine electrical work I used to. So, in today's mail was a package from modeltrainstuff.com with a brand new MRC Railpower 1300 and the Kato wiring products to make this almost "plug-and-play". I'll still have to connect the spade lugs on a Kato cable to the screw terminals on the side of the Railpower. I think I can manage.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

So you don’t like the Kato power pack….?


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## GNfan (Jun 3, 2016)

Old_Hobo said:


> So you don’t like the Kato power pack….?


It was out of stock. And pre-DCC, MRC powerpacks were considered the "gold standard".


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

True enough….


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