Well M.B. woo woo woo made my day with the sale they had at the end of the year. So I ordered the Concor 2-10-2 [Pennsy of course] along with some Atlas cars expecting to receive everything in the usual prompt manner. That didn't happen. I got the dreaded "waiting on stock" Email. Fortunately my wait was relatively short and I received my order on Tuesday [yesterday]. Could not wait to see if what everyone said ablout this bad boy was true or not so right after dinner I plopped an oval of Unitrack on the dinning room table, hooked up the electrical and cranked up the MRC. One word, NICE. Ran it for a while forward and reverse then hooked up a couple of cars. Got a Train Expo show in about three weeks and can't wait to put this puppy on the red line at our Ntrak layout.
The CC 2-10-2 will easily pull 40+ cars on level track. It is one of the most powerful N scale steam loco's available. Stay cool and run steam.....
I'm planning on increasing the boiler pressure, the cylinder sizes and adding an intercooled turbo to mine for even more power! It's a great loco. Dave
I received mine last week. Yes, it looks good and runs well. Made only a few test runs on the layout because I was real busy to finish the wiring. Testing will follow next weekend. Maybe I can make a picture of the USRA 2-10-2 versus the german 2-10-2, class 45. I bought that engine when I visited the LHS after christmas Christoph
Con_Cor hit a homerun with this steam loco. It is probably the best pulling U.S. steam loco in N scale. If you add weight to the tender, the tracking of the tender will be significantly be improved which will in term improve the performance of this steamer. Stay cool and run steam.....
Hopefully the Pennsy M1's from PCM will be every bit as nice as the 2-10-2 as far as running and tractive effort. They are promiosed for this year are they not?
Keep trying. I have luck every now and then. I think they go out and take a locomotive apart to send me parts sometimes just to get me off their back. I probably run up phone bill costs way more than I want to know but I usually get what I need. I sure miss the good old days when Charlie Vlk worked there. But I am sure he doesn't.
I have bought Con-Cor parts before with no problem, I even did it through E-mails and got my order. The problem now is that the "parts guy" quit so they have no one to work with you. I will keep trying. Fixing my 2-10-2's traction tire is the only thing left to get her running. I tried taking the rubber band off, but the groove left in the wheel catches on turnouts and curves. I don't know weather to order a new traction tired driver or replace it with a non-traction tired driver. If I get through I will order both. I'm impressed with the way it looks, well sort of, but it waddles all over down the track. I put the traction tired driver first instead of last and that calms down the waddling a little bit, but I want it perfect. (or close) About the looks, does anyone else think the boiler is too high? Like there is too much space between the boiler and drivers? Maybe it has to do with the smaller drivers they used. Anyways I can let that one slide and fill the space with details. But I HAD to fix the firebox. It flares out at the bottom and was the first thing that caught my eye when I opened the box. I filed down the frame and notched/sectioned the body so the fire box is now straight and square. I really don't know how to rate this locomotive. I can get cheaper locomotives that run much better, but none of those other locomotives are heavy USRA 2-10-2's. So I gotta get it running.
Chris, For your traction tire dilemma, try using heat shrink tubing. I have used it on a few old and oddball loco's with pretty good sucess. I had an old Atlas Rivarossi drive E8 that I replaced the tires on this way. It went from barely pulling itself around the track to pulling 15+ cars. Just make sure you get quality rubbery heat shrink, not that plasticy stuff that the discount stores sell. On the E8 it took 2 layers to build up to the right thickness. Best thing is, a little bit of heat and they shrink tight on the wheel, no slipping. Just be carefull with the heat around the drivers, I had a MP Mikado driver shrink on me when using a heat gun to close to it to shrink some tubing on the wires from the pickups to the tender. I had the heat up too high, fortunately, it was getting replaced with the traction tired driver anyhow.
Skipgear: That's a good idea to use the heat shrink tubing. You can also use some clear nail polish to hold the tubing in place on the driver instead of using heat. A thin layer of polish will hold the tubing in place. Stay cool and run steam.....
