I know I said I would not buy the Model Power 4-6-2 Pacific, but I had pre-ordered a year and a half ago. Before Christmas I had sent 2 e-mails to BLW to cancel my Model Power orders, partly because I was unemployed, and mostly because everyone said they run terrible. Well, lo and behold, BLW did not cancel my order and last month they shipped me a Northern Pacific Pacific, and today I finally got around to running it. It ran fine at first, but I took off the rear truck to convert it to Microtrains couplers, and it ran terrible afterwards. I determined that there is no way I can get the wiper strips to work reliabily, so I embarked on a tender upgrade. At first I was going to use a Kato tender, (I bought 4 of them for spares last year) but decided to try and do it with just the trucks. I had to dremel 4 slots in the underbody for the truck contacts to fit up through. I used a .175" flat bottom router bit by hand to counter sink the bottom of the Kato Truck Holes so I could ust the Model Power truck screws. I took out just enough material to allow the head of the screw to fit flush inside the truck. The Kato trucks are different front and back, and I had to snip the top of one of the trucks to be the same height as the other truck. When the trucks sat at the correct height, I was able to tighten the Model Power screws tight, and still have just enough play for the trucks to turn and slightly tilt. The correct height will leave the Kato Truck Contacts flush protuding through to the topside of the tender floor. At that height a 1015/16 MT body mounted coupler is to the height standard. Well, I got impatient and slapped it all back together to test, and it is a 100% improvement, even without the weight in the tender. I still need to file a couple grouves to clear the wires from the weight so i'll do that tomorrow. I need the weight because the tender has 4 wires tucked into the drawbar, and it makes movement kinda stiff around tight radiuses, but as for electrical pickup goes. This unit now runs better than a Bachmann Consolidation, but not quite as good as the Kato Mikado.
Just to let you know how it turned out, Fantastic! I added several ounces of sheet lead (the kind used for soldering new home rain gutters), about 1/4" x 1/2" x 1.5" worth. The weight made the tender heavy enough to make a good contact with the wheels, and keep the tender on the track even though there are 4 wires built into the drawbar. I went to the Kato site to check availability of Mikado Tender trucks, but they are sold out of the front truck, so I ordered 2 rear trucks w/coupler for replacements. I also ordered a set of caboose trucks, which also have power pickups. All in all, I would say this locomotive runs pretty good, and I might buy another down the road. It sure looks good, being the only steam loco I own that came painted for Northern Pacific. It has nice white tires too!
Robert- Interesting to read this. I'd backed away when I heard a few others speak of performance somewhat less than they'd desired. Just curious- Are there any additional details you've considered adding, to make this loco appear more NP specific? Boxcab E50
Well... It's a faithfull USRA model, so it don't look too far from a Q-6 Class NP, but it's a lot better than the ConCor "Abomination" series of Northern Pacific GS-4 cowled 4-8-4's To fix it, I will have to grind off the sand dome and put on a better one, move the bell between the steam abd sand domes, extend the length of the smokebox a little, put a nicer cowcatcher on, put steam number boards on, and make a taller coal bin on the tender. The problem with NP steamers versus most other roads steamers, was NP had lousy rosebud coal, so needed to burn more of it to do the same job as good coal. This always manifest itself as a longer smokebox, and firebox, than other railroads steamers. The MP NP model is labeled a Q-6 Class, which was a wise choice, as the earlier Q Class locos looked noticeably different than this model. However, they numbered it for a Q-4 Class, which looks quite a bit different to me. I also have 2 of the Marklin Z Scale Q-6 Class Pacific's painted for NP, and they look real close to the Model Power.
