I think he was talking about the pilot truck (as opposed to the pilot itself). As mentioned previously, it simply hooks to a little nub on the plastic driver bottom plate. And if said bottom plate has any kind of downward bend at the nub end, the pilot truck has a tendancy to fall off when handling the model. -Mark
Thanks Paul, that's good to know. One question for you - do you happen to know the internal specs of the motor (as far as poles and winding)? -Mark
I am sorry guys. Mark is right, I meant pilot truck not the actual pilot. I found it just flops right off if you aren't careful. Chris, thanks for the advice about the domes. And finally, thanks Paul for watching the comments. I was really looking forward to these locomotives and I hope that they are a great success. And if they are... what are the possibility of rolling out a line of 1860 - 1880 cars to go with them???
There's at least one guy out on Shapeways with 1856 B&O coach cars and several more civil-war era freight cars, also remember the Bachmann bodies aren't half bad when converted to MT trucks and repainted. Also check out the cars that Marshall Thompson has on Republic Locomotive Works.
This is exactly why I'll buy a dozen Atlas locos before a Kato. Knowing the manufacturer gives a hoot? Priceless!! Now where's them NP 4-4-0's? LOL
Ahh thank goodness that it wasn't another problem. My front trucks flip all around quite loosely but as of yet I haven't had any want to come off and the bottom plate that retains everything seems to be a very good snug fit on both of mine. As far as my testing the tractive effort for them I am impressed with the pulling power and the addition of a small bit of Tungsten putty in front of the cab would add just a bit over that rear driver and can only improve it a little more. I am glad to see that some others are getting the same amount of cars behind the loco as I am so the performance seems to be consistant in that area. Any build up of a fuel load, whether to hide a decoder, or just to add a little weight under it to the tender cannot help but to increase the pick-up some although I didn't experience any issues. As to comments on period cars to go behind this loco I also would like to see Atlas produce some in both freight and passenger. It seems as if everybody else has stopped making them from Athearn to Bachmann, and Republic Lomotive Works kits and the gentleman on Shapeways seem to be the only game in town at this time.
Yes, thank you Mr. Graf! I ordered 10 from BLW and as Pete does not ship to Europe he sent it to a friend in IN. He tested each of them and reports: " all run great, the NH is a little stiffer and the SF slightly stiffer, all others extremely smooth". I was very pleased to hear that. Me too I hope that these locos will be a big success and that we will see other locomotives (2-8-0 & 4-6-0). Franz
Thanks for the tips Randgust. I ordered some Republic cars and I am eagerly awaiting the MT cars that are supposed to be coming out soon. I can't wait to see how the hook and pin couplers on them work. As for Atlas making old time cars, well I am just a long-time fan of Atlas and would love to see them in the market.
Here, let's have a little mood music for this thread..... [video=youtube;y9g_cpiiktg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9g_cpiiktg[/video] There's also video out there of it handling 3-car trains at IRM, but not at that speed!
In regards to Randgust's video, and the restoration of the CP's Leviathan (http://www.leviathan63.com), I may have to buy one of these just to letter it LEVIATHAN. One of my favorite Metal albums ever, by the iconic group MASTODON. Funny, I listen to their stuff while I work on locos pretty much every week! Nice tie-in! For you fellow Metal-heads; [video=youtube;sulY3bixDxI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sulY3bixDxI[/video]
My LHS just sent me a message today indicating that my unlettered version is in-stock, and that it has been test-run in the shop and it works well. I don't doubt that because he doesn't ever sell me junk pretending that it's good stuff. I'll check it out on the test track and then put my thinking cap on about how to make it DCC. Adam
I am hoping I can make mine look "close enough" to any of the five or six classes of 4-4-0 locomotives that SP&S had. They only had a handful, and most if not all of them were inherited from predecessors or purchased used, as SP&S came about after the prime of the 4-4-0 era.
Hi Adam, It would be great if you can make a photo documentation on the DCC installation so we can all learn from you, thanks. Is sound decoder out of question on this small loco? Spencer
I have been looking around and I haven't found a tutorial yet on this so maybe I'll blaze this path. I don't have mine in hand, yet, but judging from the space that appears to be available I am not sure that sound would be viable unless put into a boxcar behind the tender. The tender on this is full of the motor, so that eliminates that usual placement.
Just curious -- has anyone measured the new Atlas 4-4-0? Not too long ago I put a micrometer on the Bachmann 4-4-0:
I just picked up mine today. My first impression is that this is a very nice little model, espeically for the price point compared to other prices of locos these days. Mine ran just fine on the LHS test track. I want to take it up to the club and try running it on more complicated situations than a test track. This one is likely going to take some surgery to install DCC. I have a TCS Z2 decoder, which is the smallest available of course before jumping up in price point to the even smaller Lenz Gold Mini. This one should be small enough to show somewhere. Initial thoughts include making either the tender or fuel load a little taller and shoving it in there, or hiding it in the cab. There does not appear to be a light in this thing, so I have to decide if I want to bother installing one. THe Atlas site says that these do have headlights, so maybe I just couldn't see it on the DC test track. I debated which one to pre-order way back when as I couldn't decide which stack to go for. I eventually picked the unlettered version. I was pleasantly surprised to see it come with the flared stack installed and a straight stack included as an optional detail alternative. Now I can take my time deciding. Adam
There is a light in there but about the dimmest one I've seen. I at first thought mine was defunct but when I turned out the room lights and had the power up about halfway there was a dim glow that finally increased as I ramped the power up full throttle. At between 3 and 6 volts it is hard to tell it is there and it was that way on both of mine. Now I know this is supposed to be an oil lamp but even an oil lamp has more light than these. Problem is I can't find the light board on the parts schematic but I know it is routed up through the base of the stack into the light similar to two other locos I have. I figure it is a small board mounted LED just inside the smokebox. The other locos that have this system all have brighter lights at lower voltages than these. I took a moment to look at Mark's (Spookshow) site and his pictures show the board where I thought it was and the clear plastic wedge at the headlight base that goes into the stack base should be letting enough light through. That is unless there is paint on it or a blob of glue. Something I will have to look at later.
Look at the Astoria & Columbia River 4-4-0s. Carried the low 50s numbers when acquired by SP&S. Last one made it until about 1930 on the SP&S. Two ways to go in modeling them. As A&CR they started as wood burners and link and pin. Under SP&S they were converted to oil burners by 1910-11 had couplers on the front pilots, the oil light was still there now converted to electric, with a Pyle generator in front of the steam dome. and a single lung air compressor mounted on the boiler above the walkway in front of the engineer's front cab door. Only major difference I can see between this model and them is the pilot had horizontal iron straps versus vertical staves. Danged near look alikes for the woodburning link and pin versions.
John, Are you talking about the to ex-A&CR locomotives in class L-5? I was kind of thinking about those, too. It'll mean some re-detailing, but nothing major like shortening the boiler massively or changing out lots of wheels. The oil bunker means I will have a place to hide a decoder, so that's a plus. My book on the SP&S locos that includes these shows all of them converted to oil by about 1910 if not before.
