I got an alert from a model RR group on the Book of Faces about a great deal through Amazon (this is the loco but it is almost 3x the price I paid for it) and since MP's operations have been taken over by MRC I thought maybe, just maybe, MRC has rectified (SWIDT?) some of their QC issues. At any rate, I thought I would give them another chance.
The loco arrived in Amazon fashion, nicely packaged and undamaged. Upon unpacking the loco I was pleasantly surprised to see a knuckle coupler on the tender, which was actually firmly attached to the locomotive. Two points ahead, and this just from opening the box, so apparently MRC has done them some good anyway.
The locomotive went on the track and much to my happy surprise ran all the way around my 11" curves without even once lifting up its front set of drivers (the other two will pop up as soon as they enter the curves). A careful examination of all three locomotives does not reveal any differences in the way they are set up, the drivers seem to move an equal amount on each one and all drivers on all locos are in gauge as measured by a MicroTrains N scale wheel gauge, so I cannot explain why the Lackawanna loco does not lift while the B&O and Chicago & Northwestern ones do.
I put all three locos on the tracks and the Lackawanna loco runs dead even with the B&O (and they both run faster than the Chicago & Northwestern), but it is a bit noisier; I can hear gear whine out of it that is not present on the other two.
After running it in for an hour (30 min frontwards and 30 min backwards, no problems) it was time to see what it would do. This is when I ran into my first issue. The McHenry coupler, which I am not really crazy about because the shank is too long, refuses to couple automatically with the MicroTrains coupler on the front of my Bachmann shorty combine. No matter what I do it will not just back in and couple, I have to twist and wiggle the car and tender to get them to couple.
Once the cars are coupled, however, the loco pulls the entire 6 car string effortlessly. I haven't tried them on my 5 car string of Rivarrosis, this would be a tougher pull since those cars do not roll as freely as the Bachmanns do, but it runs along happily just as it should.
I experimented a bit with replacing couplers and discovered that the MicroTrains Z scale coupler goes right into the pocket vacated by the McHenry, and the screw goes right into the hole as well. Unfortunately the MT Z scale coupler has to be shimmed up to mate, but once done it works great. I don't have a short shank N scale MicroTrains coupler at the moment (one is on the list for the next train shop visit) but as soon as I do I will see if it installs just as easily. For now though the McHenry will do the job.
Since Lackawanna is not one of the roads I model it is not likely that this loco will see much use on my layout for the time being, but of course this may change if I decide to paint over the green on the semi-streamlined running boards and tender. It runs so nicely it would be a shame not to use it, after all.
So in conclusion, yay for knuckle couplers and attached tenders, not so much for noise, nice running and a big YAY for not lifting the front set of drivers on the 11" radius curves. My best running Pacific is no longer an ancient out of production Atlas (although the Atlas is my second best running Pacific).
Because of this locomotive my opinion of Model Power has been upgraded from "meh to negative" to "meh to positive" and I have a feeling that the more I run it the more I will end up liking it. Well done Model Power and MRC, may your partnership continue to pay off.
