This weekend our NTrak club did a show for Dickens of a Christmas (Wellsboro, PA). I was struck that at one point we had two Big Boys, a 2-8-8-2, a 2-6-6-2, and a GS4 (all with sound except my 2-6-6-2) and one lonesome set of GP35's running at the same time. Two years ago, if we had one steamer on the layout at a time it was unusual. Definitely been a BIG improvement in N scale steam in a relatively short period of time!
I have to agree, N steam is amazing compared to what we used to have. Sadly I have to admit I am selling all of mine on ebay to pay bills. I will miss my Roundhouse connie and my Kato mikado and my Bachmann connie.
Indeed! I had 2 Bachmann northerns, a prairie, and Lifelike 0-6-0T from maybe ten years ago that just stopped running smoothly after a very short time. Since then I've only had diesels. But now, I'm selling several diesels to fund a Kato GS-4 which will be waiting under my christmas tree- and I couldn't be happier with the decision! I'm looking forward to having some steam on my layout.
The manufacturers are finally getting steam right. The Kato Mike is still my gold standard, but other manufacturers have figured this out finally. After an "iffy" first run with the 0-8-0's, Walthers' second run was excellent (and if you are industrious, you can add a micro-Tsunami and 15mm speaker to the tender and get both DCC and sound from this little engine). Both of Athearn's big articulateds are great runners and will pull 40 cars easily; my only objection is the MRC sound decoder, which is lousy for motor control and not great for sound. Easy fix: take off the tender shell and put in a micro-tsunami in its place. I don't yet own one of the new Walthers 2-8-8-2's, but by all accounts it is a terrific runner, pulls great, and has a superb QSI sound system. And let's not forget that Bachmann has a wonderful 2-8-0, a terrific J, and an excellent Heavy Mountain out there. All are smooth runners and good pullers (and from Bachmann, no less!). All are relatively easy to convert to DCC, and can be converted to sound without too much trouble. Now - bring on the Pennsy M1's; the C&O Allegheny's and T-1's (and other Texas types). And a new Berkshire that runs as well as the old LifeLike model but actually pulls a few cars would be welcome, too. John C.
There are bunches now. I know we have a favorite thread awhile back. But, Myself having a small layout, are limited to the smaller units.. My favs, in no particular order due to not sure which order they should go into for me. Kato Mike Spectrum Consolidation Roundhouse Mogul LOVES these units, and they are my best runners.
Years ago, our NTrak Group would have sessions of all steam, all freight diesel, all passenger consists, etc. Real eye catchers. We had a couple of guys who could really tune up steamers. Re-motor and all. We'd be running the old Rowa and MRC mallets, or Rapido Pacifics. That action thrashing past would really make the crowds happy. Boxcab E50
I don't know I just today recieved a Spectrum Connie and it is neat buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I like my diesels and they are "less" delicate, and easier to clean wheels....... etc!
Bob, I do like the big steam locos but the smaller one look better running on my layout. That is why I have been buying Japanese protoype locos and converting them to US looking locos. Since I run my own road name the locos do not have to match any particular prototype railroad. Here are a couple of locos that were originally Japanese. The 2-6-0 needs more work;
While I'm happy there are lots of new steamers coming out as it bodes well for the hobby I will be sticking to diesels for cost and reliability reasons.
There were always discussions with my ops group when we (finally) will be able to conduct steam-only operating sessions. Besides more practical matters like adding decoders to enough steam locos the overall picture is looking very encouraging. The big issue is of course how accurate we want our steam to be for a specific railroad. I model Northern Pacific in 1949, so we had a lokk as to what is available, what can be kitbashed and what can be used as stand-ins. Here is what we found so far: Swithers L-Class 060: Missing. The Bachman 060 could be made into a stand-in, but is probably not reliable enough G-Class 080: Walthers / LifeLike: Pulling Power not too good, but enough for my yard. Accurate for a NP G1 Branchline S-Class 460: Missing Y-Class 280: 2 options: Walthers for an early, low drivered engine, Bachman Spectrum for the later engines. Changes in cab, tender and a few boiler modifications yield a plusible engine Passengers Q-Class Light Pacifics: Model Power stand-in, needs a different cab and tender Q-Class Heavy Pacific: Rivarossi stand-in, needs new cab, tender and boiler modification A-Class Northerns: Difficult, as the ConCor and Bachman Northerns are very different to anything the NP had. Serious kitbashing required, so diesels will continue to pull the main passenger trains Freight W-class Light Mikes: Model Power as stand in, can be modified with cab, boiler and new tender W-class Heavy Mikes: Kato as stand in, can be made to an exact W3 with GHQ conversion kit Z1 - Z3 Mallets: Nothing available. LifeLike 2882 can be made into a stand-in for the Z3 with boiler mod, new cab and new tender Z4-Class 2882: Atlas 2882 is fairly accurate (for those willing to dice it out with that model...) Z5 Yellowstone: Nothing south of brass Z6-Z7 Challengers: Nothing south of brass, but stand-ins based on RR or Athearn Challengers are possible Z8 Challenger: GHQ conversion kit for RR chassis. Not sure if the kit can be used for an Athearn Challenger (but I plan to find out...) So the verdict is that it is possible to have a steam-only operating session with the exception of heavy passenger trains. For other railroads the picture might look comparable, so if you ever wanted to explore steam operation now might be the time to give it a shot. Cheers Dirk
A list like this could be made for most roads. For the Santa Fe we have: Walthers Y3 - very good model but only correct to use as a helper if you model Raton Pass during the last couple of years of the war. "Not a very useful engine" to quote the fat controller from Thomas the Tank Engine. Bachmann 4-8-4 - dubious quality depending on how old they are, would be nice to see them retool it to Spectrum quality. Spectrum 2-8-0 - a reasonable stand in for a few ex Kansas City, Mexico & Orient, ex NYC engines. That's three engines, two of them not typical Santa Fe and the other not good quality. There have been a few brass locos of varying quality and great price but nothing much available at the moment. Santa Fe steam was too distinctive to be represented by the ubiquitous USRA locos made by Bachmann and Model Power. We need 2-10-2s, Hudsons, Pacifics, 2-10-4s, 2-8-2s, 2-8-0s, 2-6-2s, 4-4-2s, etc. Santa Fe used a lot of 2-8-0s and smaller 2-10-2s as switchers so I can do without 0-8-0s and 0-6-0s. In the meantime most of my steam is lettered for my own freelanced road, there is very good steam out there these days, just not if your favorite road never had USRA types.
"Santa Fe used a lot of 2-8-0s and smaller 2-10-2s as switchers so I can do without 0-8-0s..." Are you sure about that? Santa Fe had a fairly large number of 0-8-0s rebuilt from older 2-8-0s. Real beauties in many ways... http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?00000117+OP-117 http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?00000121+OP-121 http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?00000071+OP-71 If I can ever get my hands on some Minitrix 0-6-0 boilers 0-8-0s like these, as well as some 2-8-0s and possibly 4-6-0s, will be joining my roster.
