Speed Matching

I've invested in a speedometer from Accutrack and I used it to do some speed matching.

My DCC equipped Mikados (two Model Power and one Kato) have all been speed matched and will run together flawlessly. When the last Kato, the one with the L1 conversion, gets its chip it, too, will be speed matched.

I also did some diesels. The two Life-Like Burlington SD's have now been matched, as has one of the Bachmann Pennsy SD9's that I got from Micro Mark for Christmas. This is a great locomotive with sound and everything, and I really wish they had Burlington paint schemes like the Life-Likes, but unfortunately they do not (and the LL shells will not fit on the B-mann chassis without modification, so that's out, too). Tragically I found out that the second of the Bachmann SD9's wouldn't run in reverse. I cleaned wheels and checked gauge and the front truck fell right out of the chassis. When I put it back in place I found that the gears wouldn't mesh and the wheels would spin freely.

So back to Bachmann it goes. Of course I don't have the receipt, so I'll end up paying full repair price on a brand new locomotive. That's my life. I'll suck up the cost to get it fixed, though, because I do like it, and I love the sound. The N Scale Encyclopedia didn't think so highly of them, but perhaps since I got a later run I got better locomotives (at least one of them anyway). Time will tell.

I didn't get around to speed matching the J's or the GP7's, so that will have to happen at a later date.