I believe I saw an ad for a Mantua 2-6-6-2 mallet, DCC w/sound..They look very good in print..Anyone own one yet ? How is the price, running quality, sound, and is headlight strong ? Perfect type for my road..(if my landlord doesn't force its demolition, as he wishes, to redo flooring I don't want if it means this)...Several of you have been very supportive of my predicament..It's a rare non-modular/perminant, HO, duplex apartment layout. Ugh, what a drag this is on my hobby life at this time..Well, if he prevails I will carefully remove trackage (luckily not ballasted yet) and benchwork , hopefuly save horizontal grid sections and, rebuild it after his flooring job, being sure first he can't evict me for some other things he claims, while city housing Dept. authorities so far, reject them. Dang, he moved in right next door...I wish he'd live elsewhere and put a tenant in his place...3rd landlord, a yuppy who dreams of living in entire structure. Well, it's my own fault really, not getting ahead enough to own a house...Still, it could be allot worse, huh ? I could be Mitt Romney knowing I've blown it and wasted millions of dollars doing so...Well, he still doesn't ever have to worry about living space, like I...Sorry, just bleeding off some steam here...
Political BS There are lots of places I can go to hear partisans whine about how terrible things will be if [insert your favorite demon name here] is elected. One of the reasons I enjoy model railroading is it helps me remember a time when things weren't as harsh/mindless/uncaring as now. Please don't ruin this board with political nonsense, as so many others have been ruined.
I'll concur with X12Aesq, I'm here to get away from that garbage. No sympathy here. Anyhow, about the HO Mallet...I am looking at a picture from the Micro-mark website. I'm not blown away by it, but for the right price I would be interested, too. The wheels and running gear just don't look right. I've been keeping my eye on the Bachmann stuff, but their steam locomotives are more along the lines of what I might need.
There's nothing wrong with the Mantua articulated (it is not a Mallet type), it's a great runner and reliable. Sound? I don't know because I don't like sound effects. I would get the best price if possible but I know some operators who love the locos. Don't look right? Beauty is in the eyes...it looks like an articulated. Woodie
Just in case there's anyone out there who doesn't know the difference and is afraiid to ask, Mallets have very, very large forward cylinders and 'simple' articulated steamers do not (Mallets are also articulated, but 'compound steam'). Mallets also tend to have very large 'dry pipes' running between the rear and front cylinders, which are usually visible (generally just under the catwalks). Mallets are compounds, which means once the steam has expanded and pushed the pistons in the rear cylinders, it's piped to the forward cylinders and expands some more. There are other 'compound steam' engines that allow the steam to expand more than once before being exhausted through the smokebox, but they don't have the very long dry pipe between the cylinders as on a Mallet. Simple steam articulated engines send steam straight to each of the four cylinders, and each of the four cylinders exhausts straight to the smokebox. The UP Challenger, for example, is a simple, articulated engine. To the best of my knowledge, the fastest Mallets were the Santa Fe 4-4-6-2 passenger engines with 79" drivers. They were good for about 30 mph on the level, with a train or without. This was due to the back pressure in the long dry pipe; nonarticulated compound engines didn't have this handicap. The 4-4-6-2 types were cut in half in short order, resulting in a pair of conventional, but useful, Pacific types. So, if your articulated has much bigger front cylinders than rear cylinders, like many early versions on many roads and the N&W 2-8-8-2, keep the throttle well down low for realism. They very, very rarely ran at over 20 mph. And don't feel bad about calling simple articulated engines 'Mallets' (a French name actually pronounced 'mallay' by the French and 'mallie' by SP guys). Railheads (and even engine designers) used to do it all the time. /history lesson
The Norfolk & Western Y class Mallets were faster than 30 mph, but rarely exceeded 40 mph due to their thrashing the rails under them. Had you meant to post a faster speed...is that a typo, acptulsa? And I concur that we don't need partisan politics on this board, and it probably runs contrary to the Board policies for forum use...?
Not really. Thanks for that tidbit, I didn't know. I was unclear; I was talking about economical cruising speeds, and should have said so. No wonder the N&W was the last railroad to operate the things. They did some amazing things with steam engines. But those, like all mallets, worked harder and harder against themselves the faster they were run.
I have a similar Mautua if not quite the same. I bought it DCC ready and have the decoder but have not brought the 2 together in matrimony. It ran smooth with DC. The price was friendly, DCC ready. The decoder was under 25 bucks,IIRC......no sound. Note the large front cylinder & pipe to it.
I had to remove it as it wouldn't go through my tunnel portals......oops. It will be perfect for my switchbacks (I hope) if my other locos protest, thus not need to go through the tunnel.
I have to admit that I have been eyeing these engines for years. The price is very reasonable, and I have yet to read a disappointing assessment of them. With DCC and sound, one of these beauties would doubtlessly find lots of running room on my new layout.
Hi Mark, The original locos as produced by Mantua in New Jersey, were actually quite nice locomotives for their day, which was prior to DCC with sound. They do not have all wheel pickup, the front engine collects from one rail while the rear engine collects from the other. This is not a big issue if you keep your rails fairly clean. They ran pretty well, and some had open frame motors while the later ones were made with can motors. When Mantua got out of the train business, the tooling and production rights were sold to Model Power, who moved production to China, and made some changes to the design, like adding all wheel tender pickup (for those models having tenders) and adding a combination draw-bar/wire-connector, which made them more DCC friendly. Their chosen DCC & Sound system is MRC, which is not my favorite, but that is just my opinion. I have friends who use MRC decoders and like them. For the price MicroMark is asking, getting an articulated loco with DCC & sound seems like a pretty good deal. As for your landlord issues, I think you see that the handwriting is on the wall. He is not redoing the floors because he wants you to have better living quarters, he's doing it because he wants the changes himself, and likely also wants to use it as leverage to get you out, or else plans to raise the rent to cover his costs of making the improvements. If he pushes the issue, he should at least be liable for your expenses in dismantling and reassembling your layout, especially since it sounds like your layout was already there when he bought the building. Look at this as an opportunity to convert your layout to a modular or sectional design for when you eventually move. In any case, I would not recommend rebuilding your layout without making it modular or sectional in the process. If he refuses liability for any of your expenses due to his construction project, my advice would be to start looking around for a new place to move into when your lease expires. Good Luck, Bill in FtL
Hi Mark, I just got an email from MicroMark the other day, announcing a special 20% off sale for a limited time (to Oct. 30), so if you can swing it financially, now might be a good time to order. If you're interested and you didn't get MM's email annoucement, send me an email (wrangler at gate dot net) or PM with your address and I'll try to forward it to you. Bill in FtL
As a follow up. I swapped the decoder into the mallet. Since mine is without a tender the decoder goes into the pilot house and is visable. I do have a running problem at one TO ...a long curved one with an un powered frog. I can fix that. Other than the Mantua is a sweet runner & not slow but will creep along just fine, thanks and is happier doing that. For the price it's a slam dunk.
