I saw on some auction website there are several of the new Atlas 4-4-0 steamers for sale but I didn't see any on the other vendors I checked. How do they seem to get these out there so soon?
I have an e-mail from one of our distributors that said they were down less than 10 of each road numbers after getting them in earlier this week. Haven't seen them show up at the shop yet though.
Back in the previous thread on the Disney Locomotives this was posted about two days ago and the gentleman who made the post should know. "We did two Disney related locomotives for Lowell Smith - the Santa Fe & Disneyland one is only available at the parks. The Lilly Belle is available at the Disney Family Museum and through Lowell. The regular production run of 4-4-0s is shipping to distributors now. Paul Graf" A check of my regular big vender to the North of my location did not list any and I would think with the normal shipping methods and time that they will arrive by the end of the coming week. So unless somebody lives next door to the Atlas facility and walked over to pick up thier shipment I don't think anyone actually has them yet.
Soooooooo. If you live near Disney, you should buy a few of the ones that are only sold there....... so you can then auction them off?
A check of my favorite pusher of things train related showed none yesterday. However this morning there they were, so they had to have arrived possibly Friday and just got added to the inventory. I already like what I see of the tender which will make the addition of an oil bunk a lot easier than Bman's version. I will most likely acquire the undecorated version since I don't want to have to mess with a lot of lettering removal. The only thing I lament is the stack offered on the undec. I would have like to have seen both stack versions but other than changing the stack to a straight stack, adding an oil bunk, a Pyle generator reflecting the change of the headlight from oil burning to electric and maybe a single lung air compressor. It will be pretty close to the little steam kettles that made it into the late 1940s early 50s in light branchline service for my road. The next question is will it be as good a puller as the Bman version? I already expect it will perform better than the Bman due to the fact that the Bman suffers from having tender pick-up only as it's main fault. However the Bman does out pull the anemic Model Power version. So if this latest offering equals the Bman in pulling power, plus eliminationg the pick-up issues, I would say that Atlas has another winner in the small steam category. Somebody will have to check and see what the possibilties are for adding a pilot coupler since these locos could be found doubled headed with another 4-4-0, 2-6-0, or a 4-6-0 in the later years.
I ordered an undecorated from my favorite retailer this morning. They appeared yesterday, and I spent a day questioning if I wanted one. In the end I figured it was like most things N scale: If you think you want it, get it while you can. The undecs. seem to be going fast. I also picked up a z scale decoder, although I'm not real sure I can get one in the little 4-4-0.
Now if we could just get some decent 19th century passenger cars... I can't even remember the last time Athearn ran their Overton and Overland cars, and the Bachmann cars are only available in trainsets. -Mark
Well I bit the bullet and dented the credit card and ordered two of these. Decided to take the one that came close to what I needed with the straight stack. Just need to blackout the tender lettering and stripes and get rid of the gold on the engine with some more black. They should be in by this Wednesday or Thursday. Then I will see if I can slide the steam dome just a little more forward enough to slip the Pyle generator behind it and add a single lung air compressor. Hopefully the dome is a add on part. If not I'll leave it alone and mount the Pyle somewhere else. Going for the GN class B look. As of about an hour ago there were at least 9 Pennsy locos left in that place up West of Baltimore for those folks who were bemoaning the lack of Pennsy steam.
I am brand new to this'll site does anyone have any experience withatlas n code 65 true track? and are there only two switche available?
The 4-4-0 showed up on my doorstep yesterday. Not much time to wring it out, but here's a quicklook. Looks like a much refined Bachmann, motor in tender, much finer detail. A surprise was the rigid "trucks" on the tender, but did not cause any problems on my test loop which has 11" radius curves. Traction tires on one set of drivers, IIRC, it's the front ones. It pulled 12 40' freight cars (Atlas and MT) plus Atheran combine and a caboose with no problems and no slippage or stalling. Didn't have time to try to find it's limiting displacement. Slow speed after a few minutes of roundy-go-round in both directions was "OK" on DC, better with pulse. (Tech II 2400). I need to investigate ways to bulk it up to resemble something from the 1890's instead of 1875 ... it looks like about a 25-27 ton prototype, a little on the small side. Goal is to build it to look like GB&W No. 26 and or 23, both Schenectady products of 1897-98, as they appeared in the 1930's. Stay tuned ...... Resp'y, Bob S.
My undecorated showed up to-day. It comes with the balloon stack installed, BUT....ANDDDDD......>drum roll, PLEASE!!!!<, it comes with the stovepipe stack in a little plastic bag. If you will screw off the balloon stack, you can screw on the stovepipe stack. Like the Bachpersonn, it has only tender wheels live. The driveshaft is QUITE discreet. Unlike the mogul, all tender wheels are live. It has what appears to be a MT coupler on the tender, no coupler on the pilot. The handrails on the pilot deck are really fine. It appears that there is a one lung compressor on the starboard side between the drivers. The pilot trucks hang on a really long connexion from the drivers. Mine came with the pilot's having a pronounced downward cant, which caused it to snag at track joints and turnouts. It bent back up with a little pressure and now runs fine. Mine pulled three MDC thirty four foot passenger cars up a one per cent grade. The were riding on MDC trucks with MT body mounts. It slipped with four on the grade. Mine is still in break in, so I am not sure about the real pulling power.
My 4-4-0 showed up today. Its running circles behind me. Its very similar detail wise to the Atlas 2-6-0. The paint isn't as glossy as the 2-6-0s and looks more realistic for the scale. The engine has good electrical pickup. All 8 tender wheels and 4 driver wheels pick up electricity (Confirmed by placing paper between the rails and the tender wheels. The drivers do pick power) . She runs slightly slower than the Atlas 2-6-0, but the two can be coupled together. She runs too fast to be coupled to other engines of the era (Athearn 2-6-0, 2-8-0) without converting to DCC. Like others have mentioned, the undecorated/unlettered units come with both stacks. Its a much better model than the Bman 4-4-0. I want to paint it for a V&T engine, but I'm also hoping that one is included in the next release. Unfortunately mine was sent minus one of the tender wheels. I sent Atlas and email, and I'm hoping that they have spare parts, or will have them soon. The engine runs fine without it.
Is Micro-trains using this Atlas loco for their civil war trains? Hopefully Atlas will do a new release soon in some other roads! (hint hint) V&T, UP CP-golden spike locos, maybe even a NorthWestern Pacific green/gold scheme!!!!
