After aquiring some older issues of Model Railroader I have this burning (no pun intended) desire to backdate my layout even more than I already have. I was researching N scale steam and came across this model. Does anyone have any experience with it? Is it a worthwhile investment, or would my modeling dollar be better spent elsewhere? What would one of these sell for today? Thanks for the help!
The Atlas 2-8-8-2 was made by Samhongsa in Korea. A number of the models had defects. The principal defects were tender trucks that were not properly aligned with the tender body so that the tender "crabbed" down the track, or worse, would not stay on the track. This required replacement of the brass tender underframe. The other defect was a tendency of the rods and valve gear screws or rivets to work loose. Since the model has been out of production for quite a while, I would make very sure any I purchased did not have these problems. They have been selling for $175.00 to $250.00 on eBay.
This will in no doubt cause a commotion here but I'm going to post it anyway. Concor imported articulated steam locomotives from Rivarossi in the past. Now we all have heard the horror stories about Concor and their promises made-promises never delivered. And we all know about the recent sale of Rivarossi and the turmoil there. But Concor does state on their new website that they are "in negotiations with Rivarossi to rerun a few of the articulated steamers for possible release later in 2001." Frankly in the past Concor has been noted for its "vaporware" and many will say this is more of the same. I will believe it when I see it myself. If my memory serves me right didn't Concor say they were doing the S2 with Rivarossi then move the production to China? And before that whemn the subject of articulated steam came up didn't they say that Rivarossi wanted them to commit to a minimum of 5000 units of the articulateds which Concor said was more than they could sell?
The Atlas 2-8-8-2 was totally unrelated to the Rivarossi 2-8-8-2. It shared no common parts nor the same prototype. The Rivarossi (Con-Cor) and MRC (Rowa) engines were models of the Y6b, a 1940's era locomotive used on one railroad, while the Atlas engine was a model of the USRA design from 1918 used by a number of railroads.
One of the other problems encountered with the Atlas Mallet was it's tendency to destroy it's gears, I know of more than one in this condition just in my neck-of-the-woods. The other one being the coverplates under the engines dragging across turnouts and shorting out the railroad.
<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Gregg Mahlkov: The Atlas 2-8-8-2 was totally unrelated to the Rivarossi 2-8-8-2. It shared no common parts nor the same prototype. The Rivarossi (Con-Cor) and MRC (Rowa) engines were models of the Y6b, a 1940's era locomotive used on one railroad, while the Atlas engine was a model of the USRA design from 1918 used by a number of railroads. <hr></blockquote> Gregg, I realize what you said is true but I interpreted the original post in a broader context that he was interested in articulated steam with the Atlas 2-8-8-2 as an example. Nowhere did I state that the Atlas and Concor models were the same engines. But if the Concor page is correct ( I'll leave that up to you) then it would seem that chances of getting a new articulated would be the Concor model. Again with Concor's history vaporware that is debatable. But we shall see.
For all the reasons mentioned above and several more, I am in total agreement that the ATLAS Mallet produced by Samhongsa was a piece of #@*& and the only reason you should seek one out is if you are a collector and the model will sit on the shelf. If you are in need of a Mallet it would be better to seek out a CON-COR (Rivarossi made) Mallet. This is the less of the two evils. The best stategy would be to wait and see if CON-COR releases a new run as Inkaneer stated above. It's hard to believe that I acutally agree with something Inkaneer said. Scary . . . very scary. [ 21 August 2001: Message edited by: swissrhb ]</p>
I will agree some of the Atlas/Samhongsa Mallets were POS BUT with some loving care (and luck) they can be great runners, evidenced by the two on my layout (they were mostly luck buy 4 keep 2 kinda thing). I have however had much better luck with the Rowa/MRC/RR/ConCor version. MIne are all the earlier MRC version and all 3 run nearly as well as a Kato save a relatively high starting speed. Given the fact its a Y6b proto it is really only accurate for the NW or SF (SF purchased them from the NW) BUT given the general availablity, cheaper price and better chance at getting a decent runner AND the general need for compromise in N scale steam I vote for the Y6b Mallet. Plus if CC turns out to be right you may have a chance to buy new ones BUT expect the price to be high and certainly don't expect the rerun this year as mentioned by CC. Vandy
The Y6b was strictly a Norfolk & Western loocomotive. During World War II, N&W sold some surplus Y3's, which were much closer to the USRA design than to a Y6b, to ATSF, UP, RF&P and PRR. The biggest differences were in the tender, cab, firebox size, inboard vs. outboard lead and trailing trucks, and feedwater heater system. Life-Like is making the Y3 in HO - one can always hope that they will follow with the same model in N, as they have done with their Diesels! [ 21 August 2001: Message edited by: Gregg Mahlkov ]</p>
Yeah those Atlas 2-8-8-2 were mostly dogs, and that is saying it nice. My bigest problem is the #@%&!?** cover plates dragging on every frog and grade crossing. I removed the plates and filed down the thickness of each plate. I have three of them. Two run okay, after a lot of work, one runs just fine as a pusher, it tracks good, and draws very little power(HINT: remove the motor). Several of the members of my NTRAK club had the 2-8-8-2's but the engines were returned to ATLAS after one session on our club layout. People didn't want to done all the work required to get the darn things running just so-so.
