Anyone have a pic of what’s under the shell? I’m curious about the teeny little mechanism…
Couldn’t have said it better…
Here is an example:
These two are from Lommedalsbanen, a 600mm decauville type railroad.
Here is another one:
Critter Owners… Have any of you experienced any “whumping” noises and behavior with your critter(s)? Brought mine home today from my LHS and it runs smoothly except for a “whum-whum-whum-whum” noise accompanied by a surging down the track.
I sure hope this can be fixed…perhaps it’s my power pack…my LHS only had one and I know they’re on back order with ehobbies so not sure how Horizon plans to handle future production/sales of the critter and I don’t want to wait around too long if I have to send it back for repair.
The only problem I’ve encountered is that they tend to stall out over the frog on a switch. I’m considering hand laying turnouts in the areas where my critters will be working. On the other hand, double heading them solkves the problem and they look really cool together. No noises or surging, whether double headed or alone.
Tom
I WANT ONE ~RUNS OFF TO HIS LOCAL HOBBY SHOP~
Thanks Tom…perhaps I should have had the LHS owner run it for me first. However, I had heard such good reviews from this list and other websites that I was encouraged to consider buying one without fear. I did alot of research before dashing off to buy one since my hobby budget is limited.
This loco is replacing an aging first-gen Spectrum GE 44 tonner. Its motors have begun to die and have gotten out of sync. It whumps along, surging away, but that phenomenon is well documented on other lists. Apparantly the new single motor model corrects that deficiency. But boy, that sucker could sure crawl. One of my best locos, hated to see it suffer.
So when I got my critter home and it began surging along in time with the whumping noise my joy turned quickly into frustration. I had bought what I intended to replace! [:(!] The surging becomes really apparant with a short string of cars as they join in the crazy surging dance moving down the track.
As for stalling on frogs, are your frogs live? The switching module I’m running the critter on is handlaid track with live frogs and it seems to do fine (except where the guage is a bit tight, but I’m working on that…this was my first hand-layed track).
Can anybody else comment on the performance of their critter? If this is an isolated event I may handle it differently than if several others are having the same difficulty.
Ocalicreek -
You’re right, the frogs are not powered. How old is your Critter? Can you take it back to the lhs and see if it runs that way on their track? Or do you have access to another layout where you can test it?
I don’t think it’s your power pack unless it has built-in momentum or braking. If it does, there may be a component failing in the power pack. I’m sure you’ve already done this but did you make sure the track is clean?
If you run it on another track and it still performs the same way, I would contact Horizon.
Good luck.
Tom
Mine seems to run very well. It will drag 10 ore cars around my Improbabilium Mining Co. yard.with no trouble. And these are the old die-cast Varney cars.I managed to squeeze a TCS mc1 decoder into the thing by removing the stock circuit board and hardwiring the decoder. It will crawl along very slowly,but is susceptible to stalls on dirty track at low speed.
I may have to install some track contacts. All in all, I like it!
here are some more shots of my SP critter… and a shot of the guts.
you can see the circuit board on top. the 4 pin black plug is for the LED lights. it also had a plug for a DCC decoder. my critter runs fine. no surging or anything. I would try running yours with a different power pack and see what happens.
Thanks to everyone who chimed in on my critter surging problem. I did return it to my LHS, and Horizon happened to have some in stock so he ordered a couple more so I could exchanged mine.
Well, wouldn’t you know, the first one he pulled out showed minor surging and didn’t sit on all fours! A slight rocking from corner to corner. So I’m guessing there must be a bad batch with a minor flaw in casting the side frames or assembly somehow.
Doesn’t really matter much anymore as the second one he pulled out ran just fine. Now I’m a very happy model railroader. Been doing a bit of web research on the remaining prototypes and other pictures to get ideas for a bit of detailing. Nightcrawler’s SP job is a real inspiration. And that lash-up is great.
It may be a while before I get around to it but when I do I’ll be sure to share.
Thanks again,
Galen
I have looked all over for the “Critter” with no luck, please let me know where my dealer can get me one!
I got mine from trainworld, $49.99. http://www.trainworld.com/
Bob Boudreau
I just got mine, I got it online new of of e-bay but strangly only one side of the locomotive was lettered (mine was naturally US ARMY)
Lots of companies make critters, not just Roundhouse. LGB, Arista Craft, Bachmann, Boulder Valley Models, Grandt Line, Backwoods Miniatures…I know there are more, but my mind is drawing a blank. Here’s Backwoods Miniatures version of a steam critter:
I’m in the process of bashing a Bachmann On30 gas side rod critter into something like what’s above. Critters rule.