Ron, one more Acela question...

[peteski]

Wow, that is very, very involved.

I wonder if I can replace all gearing with Kato parts. This would eliminate the gear slop and wheel problems.

I have doubts. Too many mismatches.  Even if you could find Kato worm gear which had the right pitch to match the odd looking worm in Acela, nothing else will be a good fit. The holes in the gear case are way too large for Kato gear shafts. Then the wheelbase doesn't match any Kato/Atlas truck either.  It is a bit larger than the RS-3 trucks.  But maybe you will find a way to work this out (with less complication than my conversion).

Ron, thanks for the thumbs up! 

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I am thinking more in the lines of Kato or Tomix Japanese offerings who have a similar configuration (powered passenger car, dummy engines).

I wish I had started this project before my trip to Tokyo. I could have just rummaged through their huge parts inventory.

[peteski]

I am thinking more in the lines of Kato or Tomix Japanese offerings who have a similar configuration (powered passenger car, dummy engines).

Something like the Shinkansen?  You might be onto something there.

EDIT: I checked Kato Series 0 and Tomix series 300 Shinkansen.  The wheelbase of both is shorted than Acela's.  Also Tomix uses a truck design similar to Bachmann's (no axle-end bearings) but it has much tighter tolerances.