It is being reported on the Atlas forum that Lifelike will produce a 2-8-8-2 and scheduled for releasein October 2002. Retail price is said to be $275US. Not posted on Lifelike board yet. Supposedly will pull 60 cars with top speed of 60MPH (Hopefully that is scale mph) two road names ATSF and N&W + undec.
The top end of most 2-8-8-2's was 25 MPH. Most were never run over 15 MPH. Above 25 they tended to leave the drive rods alongside the track.
Sound's like their planning a reissue of the one from Atlas, and that one didn't have to good of a "track" record. I hope it is up to the standards that RoundHouse used for their consolidated.
I wasn't too impressed with the MDC Consolidation. It lacked the detail I would expect on an engine in its price range. The Spectrum Consolidation is a much nicer model in my opinion.
The Bachman is a later model than the MDC hence more appliances. But on a side-by-side comparison on performance, for me the MDC came out on top, smoother running, quiter operation, starts sooner,resonably good puller(yes it pulls less but so did the proto). The only draw back in my eyes is they used the wrong color of LED, it should be yellow and not blue(Kerosene does not burn blue). Even with all this said I'm still concidering the purchase of one because even it is still better than what was available just a few years ago.
I especially dislike the blind drivers in the middle. Neither Spectrum nor Kato sees a need for blind drivers, why should MDC?
The announcement is not on the LL website yet but you can get preliminary details here http://www.frontiernet.net/~noela/ll2882.htm WOO HOO (or should that be WOO WOO) eN(&W)joy
Okay, that says it's going to be availiable in N&W, and ATSF. Does anyone have any pictures of a N&W Mallet that I can compare to my pics of C&O H7's?
Isn't this the same engine LL did in HO last year or so. I doubt it's a re issue of something Atlas did. I don't thng the manufacturers are in the habit of lending each other their tooling.
I have the first run Atlas 2-8-8-2 as well as this ConCor model I bought a few years back. They are in PRR livery, of which PRR had only 6 running in their Western Divisions. I double head them on a 60 to 70 car coal drag. Both run well. Waiting to see the LL version and how much more detail it may be? The pics are the N-scale ConCor(RR,Minitrains,Made in Italy) model, the better looking of the two. ..Eddie
Blind (flangeless) drivers were sometimes found on 8-coupled (e.g. 2-8-2), 10-coupled (e.g. 2-10-2), and 12-coupled (e.g. 4-12-2) locomotives to allow them to negotiate sharper curves in terminal areas. To illustrate the point, Norfolk & Western was quite embarassed in 1982 when they derailed their newly restored Class J 4-8-4 on the turntable lead at the Lambert's Point engine terminal in Norfolk VA. Lots of flanged drivers means a very long wheelbase and also a very effective rail-straightener............... eN(&W)joy
Eddie, Those 2-8-8-2's look just like mini Rivarossi Y6b's! . Same tooling, same design, same everything but one thing, their scale! If I'm corrcet they were made by Rivarrosi (Arnold) or one of the family members in the Rivarrosi family..... I know they look identical... And the type plastic looks to be the same type, Rivarossi uses in their HO scale line...
