Hi friends The performance of the LL 2-8-8-2 has ben covered well but I would still like to add my thought's. The model comes in a box that up till now you only saw with brass model's. The locomotive is well protected and comes with loads of Y3 info and diagrams. You really can't compair this model to any other steamer made before because its in a class all by itself. Even the finest brass imports fall short of this model in many areas including detail and performance. The biggest thing I noticed right off is the slow, smooth flowing operation, its very impressive. The model will pull about 40 40' cars on level track, some have reported more and some have reported less but 40 seems to be the constant. LL had reported to me on the phone that a traction tire driver is in the works for this model and should be out early in 2003. I have found that this model runs well with the Kato 2-8-2, Bachmann 2-8-0 and the Imtermountain FT's, I have not tried it with anything alse. All the pickup from the locomotive comes from the drivers, the tender also have pickup on all 6 axles but this is for the tender light, there is no wired connection between the loco and tender but the locomotive doesn't need it, it has all the PU it will ever need. I have the ATSF version and the paint and lettering is shape and clear, the graphite color on the smokebox and fire box is also well done. One nice touch is on the tender, LL has made it easy to install MT couplers and when you remove the stock coupler and braket you will see a nice pocket and screw hole just waiting for the conversion, the pilot is setup similar Converting to DCC is easy and I covered this in another topic.
Bob, An excellent review, Life Like has come a long way in such a shor time. The level of detail looks great but more importantly the fact that the locomotive operates smoothly is a definate plus. Thanks for the review Bob, Does anymody else have one of these beauties on order?
Looks like a wonderful engine and wish it were mine, but due to budget constraints (getting the layout up) I will have to settle for looking at your picture. Thanks for the comments.
Hey Bob, get some weathering on that thing! The Santa Fe apparently only washed locomotives it liked, and the ex N&W hogs were not in that category! I was holding off getting any because the G&S really wants 2-6-6-2s, not 2-8-8-2s, but after seeing them I will have to pick a couple up to retire some of the Rivarossi Y-6bs. They are, like you said, in a class by themselves! Charlie
There is now way I could justify one of those on my layout, but by golly they are very tempting! It is wonderful to be getting such good quality steam locomotives in N scale these days. May there be many more! Well done Life-Like
Now's the time to get into n scale steam! I've been real lucky in that many of the latest releases can be adapted to the NP. Now if I was modeling SP, life would be just too darn good! I have to put a different tender on my 2-8-8-2, but I had picked some Kato tenders that can fit the bill.
Looks like Life-Like is learning quickly. The engine looks good. Glad to hear that it runs well also. I guess I'll have to get a couple of these steamers when possible. Hope you can convert the pilot mounted coupler to a MTL coupler with little or no trouble. A steamer without a working front coupler is very limited to what it will be able to do on the the INDIANA RAILWAY. Maybe somebody will make that 2-6-6-6 C & O, H-8 Allegheny yet. Hint--Hint KATO, BACHMANN
