Hi everyone, I am cosidering buying the Atlas 2-6-0 Mogul for my layout. the layout is modeled after the old NYC "Peanut Line" that ran through Akron NY in the late 1800's. I was thinking of the Bachman 4-4-0 but heard good and bad things about it. Has anybody ran the Atlas 2-6-0 and how is the train. I want to keep with the era and either of these trains fit perfectly. Looknig for anyones thoughts??? Thanks Dave
I sure have no complaints with my Atlas Mogul. The Bachmann I can't speak about. The Model Power 4-4-0 is hit or mis. It runs okay at speed, but suffers at slow and doesn't pull as much as the Mogul. Jim
Here's Spookshow's review. It runs ok out of the box, better after some break-in time. One of it's issues is electrical pickup, which I've heard gets better when you hardwire the tender to the engine frames, as the spottiness comes from the uneven contact the two rods on the drawbar have with the pickup post on the loco. I haven't worked on mine yet (or added the details that come with it), so we'll see how it works. There's no room in the tender for a decoder (unless you want to take out the weight, which will reduce the pickup from the tender truck), but this dude shows how you can put one in the cab. Otherwise, Top Hobby offers an installation package that includes rear coupler (it comes with a Rapido) & wiring up the headlamp for DCC. It does look cool, though: nice & small as earlier steam should. A few tweeks and you're good to go. Hope this helps.
Yes, after doing more research and locating some other threads on the same topic everybody says the same. the contacts need to be adjusted and weight put in the tender, but for the most part a good engine. So i believe i will try and purchase one. Thanks
Just got my 2nd Atlas Mogul, runs only marginally better than the first (which was already a swiss watch!). Only steamer in my fleet I love more would be my NP Roundhouse 2-8-0, fantastic model there but notably bigger and more "modern". Of course, I want to try bullfrog snot to help these tiny things pull a bit better but out of the box they'll do a good 8-10 MT or similar cars (quality trucks/wheels) on 0% grade. Would be a killer candidate for a golden-spike train or something equally nostalgic on any transition-era or later layout! As far as comparing the Model Power 4-4-0? I'll tell ya- they look good at a steady speed, but without traction tires they're challenged by a couple heavyweights. I have two MP 440's that pull about 5-6 roundhouse overtons. Now my MP 2-6-0 with traction tires (and proper quartering) is a tenfold better loco, those I would buy again without hesitation..... but only mentioning those as a comparo. Cheers!
If you get the urge to kitbash, the chassis is great 'bones'. I've made an 0-6-4t out of one, and a modernized 2-6-0 with tender drive and a gearhead out of another. The 2-6-0 with tender drive is probably the finest performing small steam locomotive I've ever seen, hands down. So you start with a basically good locomotive that has the potential to become truly awesome if you want to take it there. And I'm not the only one that's done that. Chris333 paved the way with his scratchbuilt 2-6-2 with tender drive, Jerry DeBene has that one now. Bluntly, I don't know of another base chassis that is that readily available and that well made for its size that is worth that kind of investment in time and money to improve.
My Atlas Mogul actually surprised me how well it does pull. Keep in mind this is a tiny loco even for a Mogul and wouldn't pull a huge train in the real world. It is actually a MicroAce model of a US narrow gauge loco that was exported to Japan. Expecting it to pull 10 cars up a grade is probably more than the real train could muster, but it should do it. They come with a rubber traction tired axle already so adding snot is not going to improve them. Here is a clip from the MR review when they came out in 2004: I haven't pulled 40 cars with mine but it will pull a train that looks grossly out of size to the loco without a problem.
