K4

The Bachmann trucks for the Minitrix K4 have been received and installed.

The slow speed performance is vastly improved, before the locomotive would stall repeatedly unless running at ludicrous speed and even then the headlight would flash like it was sending a message in Morse code. Now as you can see it runs smoothly (albeit noisily) at slow speeds, and I have clocked it at a scale 4mph.

I have a remotor kit on the way, hopefully it will improve the low speed running even further and reduce the noise as well. The remotor kit consists of a RE13 maxon motor (a 7 pole precicion coreless motor with precious metal brushes and commutator and Neodymium rare earth magnets) and a custom built compound gear to replace the single red gear, which should give me smoother operation and better gearing.

The GP7's got a new set of duds as well, they are now sporting Pennsy shells. That means I have a nicely detailed pair of Northern Alberta Railroad shells looking for a new purpose in life.

Additionally I have purchased some Kato Unitrack and some Rokuhan Z scale which will be used to create some T-Trak modules with an elevated Nn3 line. As far as I know this has not yet been done, so it should be a first. It is surprising to me that no one has done it yet, but it should be interesting.

Happy Railroading!

DCC

The local model railroad club, which I joined recently, is a DCC only club. So if I wanted to bring locomotives to play on the display layouts they have to be DCC equipped.

Currently I have a pair of Bachmann GP7's that came from the factory with DCC decoders, but that was all. I decided to go ahead and convert a few. First I selected my Bachmann J class only to find out the wiring going between the tender and locomotive was shot. I have an Email to Bachmann about repairing it, but I've ordered the wiring harness in case I don't get an answer. Their customer service tends to suck a bit.

Next I decided to tackle the LifeLike SD9 that I run on my home layout. Following these instructions (with the exception of completely disassembling the shell, not necessary since it comes off in one piece) I first modified the trucks for improved pickup...which I highly recommend, if you have this locomotive...and then following these instructions (with the exception of modifying the rear weight as described in these instructions) I installed the decoder.

It was then I screwed up. I didn't test it on DC as the Digitrax instructions say to do, I just put it on the programming track and attempted to program it. The system couldn't find the decoder, all it did was blink the lights. The instructions say this is A Bad Thing, so I took the power off immediately. I then tried to run the loco on DC and the lights would just flash once when I turned the throttle up.

I tried disconnecting the motor and then the newly installed LED lights one at a time to no avail, so then I just connected the power wires to alligator clips and connected the decoder directly to the programming track. The system could still not detect the decoder, so either the decoder was bad from the factory or somehow I fried it. Fortunately Digitrax will replace it free, even if I screwed it up. Now THAT is customer service!

So then I turned to my newly acquired Model Power Pacific. It ran great on DC, so why not. Installing a decoder in a Model Power Pacific is a dead simple task as long as you aren't trying to hook the headlights up, and it only took a little time to do. The loco ran forward and backwards with no problems on an oval powered by a cheap train set power pack, so off to the programming track it went!

The programming went smoothly and soon I was happily running the locomotive around the track. The problem is it won't run on DC now. Whenever I try to run it on DC it surges; full power, down to a crawl, then back to full power. My layout DC is a PWM throttle so that may have something to do with it, but it is disappointing to say the least.

And now my best running Pacific on DC is once again the ancient Atlas.

As a side note, I also acquired a new Pennsy locomotive, a Minitrix K4.

I am disappointed to say that it runs just as poorly as Spookshow says it does (I have the one with the red gear, of course), mostly because the two drivers on the fireman's side that are wired for pickup have traction tires on them (!!! Really? You couldn't have put the traction tires on the middle drivers, neither of which are wired for pickup???), but fortunately I found some instructions to make it run better.

I have the Bachmann trucks on order (along with the J class wiring and a couple of Pennsy shells for my GP7s) and as soon as they get here I will install them and hopefully overcome it's power pick up problems. Hopefully the Motorman will return my email and tell me the good news that he has a motor upgrade kit for it as well.

So kind of a mixed bag lately railroad wise, but all in all not too bad.

Recently

So I bought another Model Power Pacific.

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.

K4

Remember when I said I wished Bachmann would do a 4-6-2? Well, they did, and not only did they do a 4-6-2, they did a Pennsylvania RR K4 in several different varieties.

Bachmann stock photo, pre-war K4 in Brunswick Green with red and gold striping

It's a bit pricy with an MSRP of $399.00, but most of the retail outlets I've seen have them for $299 or less. It comes equipped with DCC and sound, two things that I really don't need that undoubtedly run up the cost, but that's the wave of the future and one day I'm sure I will upgrade to DCC myself.

Bachmann stock photo, post-war K4 with modern pilot

These look to be very nice locomotives, and I certainly hope Bachmann takes this opportunity to put the chassis under other road names as well. There is, after all, a large hole in the market to be filled with a decent running Pacific in N scale.

I'm saving my nickels and dimes for one now.

MP part 2

I just got in the other Pacific I ordered, from another vendor.

I have to take the tender apart tomorrow to repair the drawbar connection. Just as well I suppose since I have to replace the coupler anyway.

I am now 3 for 3 on Model Power Pacifics, I have three and none of them were ready to run when I got them. The first one was from a private owner, so I bought someone elses problem, but the last two were straight from dealers stock.

My statements concerning Model Power still stand.

Model Power

The buzz is all about Model Power going out of business. I've seen on the trainboards and such all sorts of excuses and blame passed around; some say the banks, some say the business practices, some say suppliers, a soft market, etc etc etc, but I can say I know exactly what it was...hit or miss product and poor to non-existent quality control.

I have two MP Pacifics (and one on the way) and so far neither one of them have been good performers out of the box. The only reason I even have them is because they are the only manufacturer that currently offers a USRA Pacific, and now that they are gone it leaves a hole in the N scale steam lineup.

The first one, which now serves as spare parts for the other two, had a gear train that never did mesh correctly and no amount of tweaking and tuning would ever make the motor gear stay in contact with the drive gear. I tried several times before giving it up as a bad idea; taking the darn thing apart is an exercise in frustration, every time you move something you pull another wire loose and the running gear has been accurately described as a "Chinese puzzle box" which, if you ever need to take it apart, is almost impossible to put back together.

The second one, which arrived just this afternoon, looked great but as soon as I took it out of the box I found the drawbar was disconnected from the tender. It is usually held on by a plastic stud that is melted down to hold the drawbar, the mushroomed end had broken off of the stud and there wasn't enough left of it to reconnect the drawbar. So, I had to take the tender shell off, dig around in my parts box to find a suitable screw, drill a hole and reattach the drawbar. In the meantime the smokebox front fell off and had to be glued back on, and of course one of the wires broke loose in the tender and had to be reconnected. This was, I reiterate, a brand new right out of the box locomotive; besides the hobby shop I purchased it from I am the first and only owner of said loco.

I also purchased a Model Power Mikado, mostly to compare it to the Kato and Atlas locos, and it was a good trouble-free runner right out of the box. Spookshow says the Mikado suffers from the same QC issues as the Pacific so it looks like I just lucked out and got a good one. The gold standard for Mikados continues to be the now-discontinued Kato of course, hopefully they will resume production for at least another run or two sometime in the future. I have two of the Katos, one with the GHQ Pennsylvania L1 conversion (and the other one will get it as soon as I get around to it), and they are phenomenal runners; all the hype is true.

One last thing...Rapido couplers with no knuckle coupler offered? Seriously? In this day and age?

So to recap - hit or miss products, seemingly non-existent quality control, and little to no apparent effort to improve either one. Bachmann, on the other hand, has steadily improved in both quality of product and consistency. If you would like to see how to do it...or how not to...these two companies are good (and bad) examples to follow. Yeah, good riddance Model Power.

It sure would be nice to have a quality Pacific from Bachmann or Kato, the Bachmann Spectrum line would benefit from another offering and Kato already makes a suitable chassis for it in their JNR models. For that matter, whoever owns the toolings now from the old Ted Brandon designed Rivarrosi Mikado and Pacific steamers that have been distributed by Atlas and ConCor, now would be a good time to bring both of them back with improved materials for the frames and better motors, maybe gearmotors to improve the low speed performance. One can dream at least.

And finally, for those of us who have been in N scale for a while, how odd is it to say "Gosh, I wish Bachmann would make a 4-6-2 steam locomotive!"

Updates

The National Narrow Gauge Convention in Hickory NC has come and gone.

I didn't attend, no good reason just other things came along.

I never got my Saltillo modules done, so I guess it really doesn't matter anyway.

Another Atlas Pacific has joined the ever-growing standard gauge fleet, and three little Z scale Mikados arrived last week to begin their transformation.  I
have RLW parts for the pilots and cylinders and I have Bachmann 0-6-0 shells, but I could really use one more.

I'm trying a little something different with tenders this time around, I have an RLW K36 tender that I am going to put together as a temporary stand-in until I am able to afford the EBT Mikado kits. I think it will do OK, if I like it I will get two more.

And now I'm saving my nickels and dimes and writing letters to Santa for three Republic Locomotive Works EBT Mikado kits.

I would say something about benchwork, but alas I have made absolutely no progress. I have this convertible Mustang you see, and the days have been warm and sunny...

Top picture, from left to right; scratchbuilt tender Bachmann shell, completed locomotive; K37 tender, Bachmann shell, newly started locomotive; RLW EBT Mikado kit, completed locomotive.  The next two pictures show the tenders in the same order. The K37 tender needs to have its upper flange repaired, I broke it off when I was examining it.

I have two other Mikados to transform besides the one pictured, so that will bring me up to a grand total of five Mikados, one Mogul and an American. I have enough rolling stock for a rock train, two TOC coal trains (one for the Mogul and one for the American) and a passenger train. I really need one more bobber and one more eight-wheeled EBT caboose, and then I need to start acquiring and building coal hoppers. I also need to add a good number of boxcars and flatcars to the mix as well. As it is I will end up having more locomotives than trains.

I also need to dig into the new Atlas and find out why it all of a sudden just stopped running. I think I have enough rolling stock to keep most of my standard gauge locos gainfully employed, and I'm hoping the new Atlas will double-head with the Model Power Pacific.

I really need to get started on benchwork now. Winter is coming, so progress should be made sometime soon (I hope).

Motive Power, Part 3

It has been a long time since I have updated the site.

The Pennsy L1 is done, the paint just went on it this last weekend. It is a beautiful loco and a strong puller. It won't stay on my current horrible trackwork, but all of that will change when I get the new layout up and running.

Speaking of the new layout, I have finalized the plan for the PRR portion of the Path Valley. The PRR portion is just a double loop that incorporates an interchange with the SR&W at Duncannon PA, not prototypical at all but it will suit my needs. It will be built on a 3x7 door. I'm hoping to have construction started soon, but I have been hoping to have construction started for quite some time now.

The Atlas locos have both been re-motored and they are running fine. The Mikado does not like my trackwork any better than the Kato, but the Pacific does just fine. Both of these have to be run on a transistorized throttle that I built from an MRC unit, they ramp to full speed and don't have any fine control on a rheostat throttle. Just as well, I suppose, since I was planning on building more transistorized throttles anyway.

I picked up an Arnold Pacific as well, so now I have three Pacifics and two Mikados. The train set Consolidations have been shipped off to a new home where hopefully they are providing their new owners with good service and much enjoyment.

The train table has been cleared of trains and the track is being pulled up a little at a time. When the track is all up I will dismantle the table and hopefully be able to use it's pieces for the new benchwork. I don't know what I will end up doing with the roundhouse and turntable, but they will be stored away for future use or sale depending on what happens.

I also picked up another J class, but it is the older model and does not run. I am investigating the possibility of sending it to Bachmann for replacement, we will see how the warranty goes with the new warranty policy.

Three Little Locos

The L1 lacks only paint and finish. It doesn't like the tight corners, but should run OK on a 15" minimum radius. I modified the drawbar connection by removing it from the locomotive and attaching it to the tender, it now hooks downward into the trailing truck to prevent contact between the loco's metal frame and the brass hook. I also hard-wired the tender to the LED light board in the locomotive, so it picks up on both sides from both locomotive and tender. The tender now needs a little weight to improve the contact, but this locomotive is as stall-free as the Bachmann Spectrum F-7's are.

The Atlas Mikado and Pacific have both received new gearmotors. They run well, but because they only pick up on one side of the locomotive chassis they can be a bit balky over turnouts. There doesn't seem to be any way to fix this, the original design had the tender picking up on one side and the loco on the other. The Bachmann tenders allow pickup on both sides, but since the Atlas frames still only pick up on one side of the locomotive a stall can occur if both tender trucks hit the same dead spot. Fortunately that doesn't happen often, and when it does a bit of track cleaning has so far taken care of it.

The Atlas locomotives run well with each other, but due to gearing differences they are both slower than the Kato mechanism under the L1. I haven't tried double-heading the Pacifics, but I will be surprised if the Model Power runs at the same speed as the remotored Atlas. The remotored Mikado isn't a very good puller when compared to the Kato, but that is no doubt due to the heavy pewter shell of the L1.

The Class J, by the way, has had it's drawbar shortened as well. Turns out that Bachmann supplied two holes to attach locomotive to tender, and it was at the furthest hole. The fix was to simply attach the locomotive to the closer of the two connecting holes.

So at this point the Atlas locomotives are complete and ready for service, and the L1 shell and tender will be painted as soon as I have time off from work to do them, along with the white metal bits on tender and loco mechanism. The Class J was ready to go from the time it came out of the box, but has now had it's minor quibble repaired. All of these locomotives have received Micro-Trains couplers on their tenders and all but the Class J has a Z scale Micro-Trains coupler in it's pilot. The fleet grows (but will soon contract by two train-set Northerns and two train-set Consolidations), so it's about time to give them a place to run.

I have ordered a new shed to be built and brought to the house, this will give me the much-needed storage space to de-clutter my "train room" and so give me the room I need to start building the new layout. First things first, the carpeting will come out and be replaced with a hard-surfaced floor of some sort. I have stick-on simulated wood strips that I will use if I have enough of them, and if not I'll see if I can find some more. If not once again, I'll look into some engineered wood floors.

I have also obligated myself to building a pair of Nn3 modules based on the East Broad Top Railroad's operations in Saltillo PA for the National Narrow Gauge Convention to be held next September in Hickory NC. To that end I have ordered the Fast Tracks Nn3 turnout kit for a #6 turnout, so I'll get to try my hand at building turnouts. If all goes well I'll get one for the standard gauge as well, and maybe I'll get crazy enough to get the ones for dual gauge. On top of that, I am trying to finish the dollhouse for the granddaughter before Christmas.

All in all I will be very busy for the next year.