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I have 6 Amfleet cars which run as a unit. I put a MT 1015 body mount on each end of the set to couple to my Life Like F40PH. This requires a bit of surgery to remove the mount for the Rapido. I kept the Rapidos within the set, but replaced the long shank couplers with short shank ones off some...

Bachmann and Model Power cars run fine on Micro Trains bogies. :) Cheers David

Basically you get what you pay for. Micro Trains are excellent. Kato is excellent but I hate Kato couplers. Atlas, Athearn, Model Power, Life Like, Walthers and Intermountain are all good. Bachmann and Con-Cor are okay but some of the older stuff is quite toylike. Still a good basis for...

Life Like is pretty good. I have several Life Like E8s (including the EMD demonstrator) and they all run fine. You shouldn't have any problems with the E8 unless it's second hand or you unfortunately got a dud. If it's new and faulty it will be under warranty and you can get a replacement. If...

Only modification to this recommendation is to run it at mid speed for 10 min in each direction to run it in. Cheers David

The "white box" Bachmann locos are cheap rubbish. They might be okay for an absolute beginner but they won't give the "feel" of good quality N scale. They are 1970s quality. Bachmann Spectrum are better but are still way behind Life Like, Atlas or Kato. Spectrum also tends to draw a lot more...

Would love to have a look but since I use Firefox I can't view the video. Cheers David

I have an Atlas GP7 and SD60. Both run flawlessly for hours at exhibitions. Cheers David

As I said, even with shipping from the US I pay around half the local RRP. Cheers David

Trust me, even with the current exchange rate there has to be markup due to customs duty and GST. Cheers David

By all means check out your LHS for bargains, but if you're on a limited budget you really are throwing a LOT of money away buying RTR Life Like or similar at a Brisbane hobby shop. What sells for US$50 can be over A$150 by the time it hits the shelves here. Remember the importer has ordered in...

Starter sets aren't cheap. You'll be lucky to get change out of $80 and many are over $100. You can get a Proto-N SW8 for as little as $40 or a GP20 for ~$50 if you shop around. Cheers David

I have recently acquired a Model Power SD45 to add to my growing collection of EMD demonstrators. Anybody who knows the history of this model will know what a complete piece of crud the Mehano mechanism is. The box says it's from the Model Power days but the mech is basically the same as when it...

A layout doesn't need to be very big before it becomes more or less a permanent fixture of the room. Even a door layout is quite large, so perhaps something like a small shelf switcher to pactice your skills? Here's a few sites with plenty of good ideas for small layouts...

Where did you get them for $55? I'd really love to add an SD70M to my growing collection of EMD demonstrators. :) Cheers David

Yes, we've used ribbon cable to power Tortoise point motors on the club's modular layout without any problems. Cheers David

I don't think I took any close ups. This is rough sketch (not to scale). The joint is soldered on the outside of the rail with a good quality liquid flux. The solder spreads out nicely across and into the joint and into the metal joiner, but is relatively thin so it gives good electrical...

Yes. You just need a switch on each bus wire to isolate or power each block as required. There are several topics in the Technical Q&A section on block wiring. Yes. Copper speaker cable has a much lower resistance than nickel silver track. Let the bus wire distribute the track power around the...

I don't see why you would block up a section of single track. Train control goes to great lengths to prevent more than one train at a time on single track! For plain track I solder all rail joints and add a feed wire to every second joint. I find it is convenient to solder the feed wire to the...

Has anybody ever bashed a Bachmann Amfleet coach car to an SPV2000 in N scale? I know it's been done in HO and IIRC the cabs were available commercially for a while. But I don't know how it was powered. Possibly the Metroliner mech? The IHP N scale Metroliner retroframe might be close enough...