Any one have one of these? If so, any problems with it? I would like to have one, but would like some feed back from somebody that has one. Thanks
It is horribly out of scale, as in it is 3/8" too long. Mine ran fine after I was able to get a replacement set of drivers. It is the most expensive locomotive I own and except for the B-mann 2-6-6-2, it is the worst. The front is lined up with the scale drawing:
Yup, I have one, it pulls a bunch of cars, at least 40. Detail is standard ConCor mediochre. DCC conversion take just 2 or 3 minutes. The first run locos had a wiring issue that is only evident after DCC conversion; the headlight doesnt work with the DCC decoder installed correctly. I have run it on 11" radius trck without any problems. Not sure about performance on shorter radii. Bob
A couple of guys in our Ntrak club have them. One of them hooked up forty 40' boxcars at our last show, and it had no problem pulling them, and looked good in the process. His is a great runner, albeit not as pretty on the closeup photo as some of the more recent offerings from Bachmann and Walthers.
I have 3. All run well. The DCC one runs fine. They pull great. I agree with the detail. It is not as good as other offerings. I find the ability to pull a long train outweighs the sacrafice in detail. Why can't we have detail AND performance?
Looks wise , it is stretched a bit too much , and being that there is no valves and piping under the cab all the way to the cab rear end as in that diagram , it even looks less than the prototype IMO . Yes , I bought one .
Mine runs great, pulls 35 - 40 cars, easy DCC conversion and the tender is even ready for a speaker, I put a sountrax decoder in mine. Wish we could combine the running qualities of this engine with the detail of some others, seems manufacturers can't get it 100% right, they have to compromise somewhere. If you want an engine to run and a large freight engine that will pull a decent freight train I'd reccomend the 2-10-2.
In general I like mine, but I did some tinkering to improve the electrical path. As it comes the engine sends all the power to the tender (via wipers on the drawbar) and then back from the tender to the motor. This makes a decoder install a snap, but it relies on the wipers for the engine axles to deliver current. I found these wipers to be very unreliable. I hardwired the engine to the tender and now everything is fine! (I did a tutorial on it here on trainboard, just search for my topics and you will find it.) The engine is quiet, smooth (I might have gone lucky there) and very powerful. It walks away with 35 cars up a 2.25% helix! Not counting my heavily modified RR Challenger the most powerful steamer I own. Without the electrical improvements it was a shelf queen, now it is a stump-puller! Detailing is OK: Yes, the bell does not swing (like on the 2-6-6-2), but the handrails are free-standing and the cast-on details are nicely done. I have a UP version and I am still not sure if the grey steam dome is correct (I have yet to find a picture with that paint scheme), but I plan to repaint and weather anyway, so no big issue. It is too long, but I would never have found out myself, so it does not bother me personally. It just adds to the impression of a big, powerful engine. Hope this helps Dirk
I have one and really like it for it's pulling power and looks. But, mine, too, has wiggles and a herky-jerky stop-and-go motion. I clean track, wheels and pickups but that doesn't make it work 100%. I will definately be trying some of the tricks above.
I had an odd problem with one of my 2 Concor 2-10-2's. I run them both on DCC. One of them just stopped working. Light was on but engine would not move. I removed the boiler from the loco and found that there was an insulating sleeve that was inteneded to insulate the boiler weight from the frame. On my loco, the sleeve had melted through in one spot. When I replaced the sleeve with some Kapton tape, it began running again. For the life of me, I can't figure out what caused that sleeve to have a hole melted in it. Kevin
