Going to be getting my Gs-6 soon. I just wanted to know how the 4’s did (pull up a hill with a full train) and if anyone got pic’s of them.
Thanks
I asked MTH about it and this was their answer:
Hello. Thank you for contacting MTH Electric Trains. We appreciate
your interest in our products. The HO BNSF GS-4s are currently en
route to MTH from overseas. These engines are due to arrive on or
about the 30th of this month. After testing and inspection the
engines will be shipped to retailers; I would expect your retailer to
have the engine by early to mid August. Please let me know if you
have any other questions.
Thank you,
MTH Electric Trains
I got the same thing said for my GS-6, but the hobby shop I orderd from had had a few Gs-4’s last month (and it was vary nice on the little test track they had, I was sold) I was hopeing someone had gotten a Gs-4 and took some pic’s or maybe a vid or somthing.
Good luck with your BNSF hope they make the Axu. tender to go along with them. Tell me how you like it when you get it.
Thank’s
I got mine…It sounds good, looks good and excellent detail. Though do not believe it will run a 22" raduis. It will need much larger radius. I have run eveything from N &W J types to big boys and challenger with no issues. But this one has my work cut out for me. I will have a major heart to heart with my track work to run this engine. I will take it to the club and run it on 28" radius turns. If it does not work there then MTH is getting a phone call. The first set of 4 wheels has no clearance to turn. So i will test tomorrow and rethink my raduis since I do have room to work with but cannot see how a J-type is flawless but this engine will not do much but derail. I have nothing but large steam and have no issues with my radius. Maybe i am missing something, insructions do not say much so I am alone on this one. I hope someone else had better luck than i.
I got my MTH GS-4 in the mail today and it works fine on the 22 inch radius curves on my layout. The front trucks are a little low though but that didn’t cause any problems going into turns or over switches. It runs very well and quiet but the DCS thing that MTH has is not working quite well with my digitrax DCC setup. In fact it acts crazy and unresponsive to all the functions and I don’t get it. Sometimes the sound comes on, sometimes it doesn’t. I saw it smoke, but then it stopped and wouldn’t come on again. Hopefully I get some quality time with it and work out the kinks. It sure looks great though and I have high hopes for it…
Its me and my shotty track work. I will double my efforts. This engine is awesome! Best I have seem.
The Aux tender is only proper for the excursion version since 1984. The GS4’s in their era’s did not use an Aux tender.
Someone will probably make the aux tender for today’s excursion trains, but MTH did not announce it.
Hi Louis31,
I have one of the GS-4’s on order, but naturally mine is in the one paint scheme that has yet to ship[sigh]. However, I do have a fair bit of experience running a couple other MTH engines with Digitrax. If the sounds come on as soon as track power is applied it means the engine didn’t recognize the DCC signal right away. When it recognizes the DCC signal properly the sounds should stay off until you press F6.
If the smoke isn’t coming on you need to check a few things. First, make sure the smoke switch is on. On my other MTH engines the switch is under a tender hatch or the coal pile. If the switch is on, press F8 with your ear close to the smoke stack (you might want to turn down the volume on the sounds). You should be able to hear the smoke unit fan whiring. If you hear the fan running but still don’t have smoke you need to TURN THE SMOKE UNIT OFF and add smoke fluid. Never add fluid with the unit running or the fan will splatter it back up the stack. The other possibility if you have a system with an F17 you can cycle between low/med/high on the smoke unit output.
Hope that helps.
Well after some fooling around, it runs just fine on my Digitrax. The problem was that there was a loose connection in the tender where all the speakers, circuit boards, and other junk are. I took off the tender’s shell and jiggled the wires and that’s how I discovered the problem.
I was also able to change the address to 4449 from 03, so that’s cool. All the most important functions work 0-12 and I am very satisfied with the engine. It does not derail on my layout which has all of 22 and 24 inch radius curves and it is not exactly great track work to begin with. I can’t wait for the cars to come out next spring…
Well I have taken it to the club layout with the 28" radius turns it seems the front truck on the tender is binding on something internally. If you place the tender on the track with no loco and push it very lightly with your finger and it will derail as soon as the turn starts. We ran over 20 different steamers of all sizes today. Even Decapods! The MTH was the only one that failed. [V] gosh. I thought it was my track work but the layout at the club is 48’ x 12’. We run bigboys and and the works through the rails and its flawless. Something is not right with mine. I have sent my service request to MTH. I do not know what else to do. [|(][|(][|(][|(]
The Aux tender is only proper for the excursion version since 1984. The GS4’s in their era’s did not use an Aux tender.
Ya I know that its just with excursions, but when I first saw the 4449 in 99’ or 00’ it had it with her. And ever sents then I dont know how put it but it just made it bigger and it has alway stuck in my mind that thats how she should look, Idk how to put it.
Am vary happy that most of you have good things to say and you cant help but have a few bugs in the 1st run stuff, but all this talk is making me want to run mine more and more but I got to wait till Saturday to pick it up[:(!]
Thank you all for you input
Zane
Mine was sent back to MTH, it would not work on a 22" radius on a flat 8x11 layout. MTH thinks it may have had a bent draw bar or something. They will return it in two weeks. If it does not work than off to ebay it goes. I have no time to run items that are overly priced and not reliable. I hope everyone gets to enjoy theirs as i get allot of nothing for $400. Of course MTH and all the skeptics will say it is my fault and my track work. Though I can run everything else with no issues.
I tried to run my GS-6 on Dcc but the sound would not work it ran but no sound, yet the sound works on dc. the lead truck on the tender go’s off on some turns and the pilot truck dose not like 22" (i can blam that on my track but when you run it backwords its fine). other then that it looks and pulls good. Any ideas on how to fix the tender or the sound?
For sound you have to use the startup sequence before mving. I think it’s F3. Not sure about the tender.
Mine barely stays on the track for tight turns. It seems there are very tight tolerances with these engines. On the other hand my brass 4-8-4s can barley handle 36r and even then only at a snails pace. My MTH engine seemed to get better after running it more as it seemed stiff at first. Especially the tender trucks. Good luck. MTH should send you a new one that works.
I got a GS-4 when it was first released. It is a great engine. A small problem was lack of pulling power until I realized that the spring on the trailing truck was too strong and lifted the rear drivers (the ones with the traction tires) off the rails. I cut the spring in half and traction increased tremendously. The engine still tracks well with the reduced spring tension on the trailing truck. The engine looks, sounds and runs exceptionally well. I recommend it.
I ran it on a friends Digitrax’s Zephyr starter DCC thing its the one that looks like an old DC power pack more then anything, but all it had was 1-9 buttons (I think it was 1-9 I cant remember) but it had no F buttons (F1, F2 or F3… ect) the book let tells you to push 3 (defalt eng #) then push F3… but it had no F3, so maybe the sytem is just to basic to run I dont know. But running this thing on my Dc with 40 car PFE block looks perfect.
be sure to check out the review in this months Model Railroad News, a review that actually discuses flaws and issues, as well as the high points, not just a page and a half of brown nosing.
Yeah I will read it, I sent mine to MTH and even gave them a CD with pics showing the issue plain as day. Hopefully they will fix it, if not Paragan 2 here I come. [8D]
One of the local clubs just bought a GS-6.
It has the problem that the two middle drivers are lower then the front and rear drivers.
If you place it on a sheet of glass you can clearly see that the flanges of driver 1 and 4 are not touching the glass.
In service the flange on the front driver will ride up and derail the locomotive.
E-Mail from MTH suggested a drawbar problem, clearly this is a problem with the frame or springs.
I hope that MTH has a good fix for this.