Bob Morris, Thank you for the review. I am interested in hearing how the second one works. I hope that such a nice looking engine doesn't have so many problems as your first one. Adam
Oh no, sounds like another case of cheap Chinese production and quality control ruining what could otherwise be the best N scale steamer yet. Kato could clean up the competition if they put out a range of US steam. We look forward to hearing how the second loco runs, hope its just an unfortunate isolated case.
After spending 20 mins. trying to get the screw/washer to line up to connect the tender to the loco, I'm giving up for the night and will try again tomorrow night after I get home from an out of town trip. Grrrrrrr.....
This is starting to look like a typical US prototype N scale steam loco after all. It seems like the only way to get a good engine other than only buy Kato is to let some other poor suckers buy the first run and find all the faults then wait a year or two for the second or third run to come out.
Bob, Doesn't it run without the tender? My LL Berkshire would run without stalling with no tender at all. My 0-8-0 should be here any day now.
Chris, the loco won't run without the tender. The circuit board is in the tender as is the electrical connection (a very nice true plug and play set up for the right DCC decoder). So I'm afraid further reports from me will have to wait until I can get it put together later this evening :-(
I can identify with the issues with this locomotive. I also knocked off a pipe, plus a siderod and stripped the screw for the drawbar. Now I'm trying to find the optivisor to do the repairs and a tap to clean out the hole. Any guesses as to the thread pitch? For those looking for a decoder, forget the DN143IP. Even after removing the weight under the coal load, the shell will not seat on the base with the decoder installed. My first impression is that Walthers should have went with a different package and did the tender drawbar install at the factory. Otherwise with the extremely fragile details, we are guaranteed to screw something up before it makes it to the layout. Bob
Chris, I don't think it will be that big of a deal to ditch the board in the tender and lose the umbilical cord. It is just a matter of tracing, connecting and hiding the existing umbilical in the cab or boiler. Worst case may be dealing with a SMD resistor and diode for the LED headlight. The drawbar already looks like they had planned to have a whisker wiper setup like Kato and Bachmann so that could be utilized to make the tender a simpler connection. You would however still need to hardware the drawbar to the loco. I may bring an Erie home this week because the C&O's aren't due till next year and I am impatient. If I do I will disect it farther and post pictures.
Based on input here and elsewhere I placed an order for and undec with front ladders from the 2nd run - to kitbash into an N&W S1 0-8-0.
Yeah I need the ladder version too for the Erie, but I was greedy and wanted to get my fat fingers on one. So I ordered the current ones.
Well, I got the tender on and tried this one. The tender light and headlight came on at the same time (uh, oh). It did run beautifully though about 1/2 way around my layout and then started stalling. My Zephyr unit showed intermittent shorting. This one is going back tomorrow and I'll get a refund. O for 2 indicates this loco is not yet ready for prime time. I'm thinking I add Walthers to my "don't buy" list. Sad because the engine and tender LOOK beautiful! :-(
Bob, Were you running this DC on a Zephyr or did you install a decoder??? If running it DC, that is why both lights came on and also probably why you experienced the short detection. The AC background signal on the track for the DCC signal will light both LED's regardless of direction and the other components on the lightboard for DC operation may be the cause of the intermittent short. Try running it on a pure DC transformer or putting a decoder in it before you decide there is something wrong with the loco. I never trust a loco test running it in DC mode on a DCC system.
I think that Walthers paid attention to the issues other manufacturers had with their releases. The drawbar is not connected? Sounds to me they remebered that Kato had big issues with the Mike's drawbars breaking during transit. I had 3 Mikes arriving here in Germany with damaged drawbars due to rough handling. Yes, the downside is that the modeller needs to attach it to the engine. I have not received mine (NP. of course), so I do not know yet how difficult that will be. But it sounds like the chances of a damaged drawbar are greatly reduced... Cheers Dirk
Skipgear, you sir are correct! I run DCC and DC on my layout. Unlike all my other locos, steam and diesel, this one won't run on DC with my Digitrax Zephyr unit. HOWEVER, running on the DC section it runs like a top! Great slow speed w/out any break-in, runs very smoothly and should be a super engine for my yard switching. Unfortunately my yard is in the DCC section of my layout, so until I get a decoder installed, I won't be able to use it as intended :-( Not a big deal though as I was planning on running this primarily DCC and was going to be looking for a decoder anyway. Thanks VERY MUCH for the tip Skipgear, and hopefully this will save others some headaches as well!
One final note. After a couple hours of running, I was ready to hook the engine up to some cars and see it's ability to move some strings of hoppers. Long story short (literally) it would pull exactly four unloaded 33' hoppers up my 3% grades without slipping. Fortunately it will be used for only switching duties in my flat yards and it's fine moving 10 cars on the flat. I must say, it's a beautiful little engine, and with a decoder will probably work just fine for what I intended (anyone know what decoder will interface to the (very convenient) plug?. I'm a little underwhelmed though, by its incompatibility to run through a Digitrax system in DC, its poor pulling power, and my first example that wouldn't run forward on DC or DCC.
Someone over on the Atlas board also reported less than stellar pulling abillity. It seems like this loco should pull better than this, it has all the right parts. I wonder if the umbilical cord may be stiff and lifting weight from the rear of the loco. When I put ours on the test track, I had to pre-flex the harness a bit to allow the pair to set evenly on the track. The umbilical cord may the the achillies heel of the loco.
Still don't have my loco, but yes it should pull at least what a B-mann 2-8-0 does (a lot) My first order of business will be fixing that.
I'm hoping the early reports of only 10 cars on level track are not representative. Otherwise I'll need to triple head them to shove a cut of hoppers!
