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Athearn N scale Big Boy
WoW!, Its so tempting it could call for a layout review.
Kudos to Athearn for their efforts on the behalf of N scalers. I have purchased two of their Challengers in DGRW livery and I’m very impressed with them. They perform very realistically, lacking smoke and steam, of course, but hey, “we got sound” and power. One of them failed during it’s second showing and I’m still holding my breath on factory warranty. Looking forward to my Challenger in spite of this.
This is an awesome locomotive!!
Too Bad I’m SP in the 90’s…Love models like this in “N” but have no place for them on my My SP Layout. I have some pictures of the layout up at www.global-hobbies.com it’s still under construction…user name is AzBaja
I love this steam-engine, just like MR says it is finely detailed and has crisp printing. The BigBoy looks and runs great!! The sounds are great although they are the same as the challenger’s, but fortunatly there are several whistle types and plenty of sounds only the “all aboard” is a little out of place. The only drawback (for me although) is that I cannot program it’s CV’s due to a to weak dcc set, people with a stronger and/or newer set will probable have no problem at all. And there are booster in the market that should solve this problem they say
I love my N scale Big Boy built by Athearn. It is the most finely detailed N scale steamer that I have. Only one complaint so far. When following the programming instructions in DC mode, step 10 says to turn the power on, when the power is already on. It should read…" to reset the loco and lock in your programming, turn the power off and then on again. One other point. I have a few pictures of the Big Boy prototypes and the only ones that have after cooler piping under the pilot handrails are 4000, 4001, 4002.
Neet wish i hac one
an unbeleivable N-scale loco, pulls 50 athern coal without a problem, even at 1 on my digitrax dcc.
Can’t wait to see one up close.
I cannot see the physical dimensions anywhere in this article, or have I just missed them?
a very good writeup. Would like to have one but concerned as I have some 9 radius turnouts.
this is one of the best locomotives I have ever owned, better than the challenger even, I am waiting with baited breath for Athearn to announce the FEFs in N, and maybe if we bug them enough the aux. water tenders.
I purchase one of these locomotives to go along with the two Athearn Challenger locomotives I already owned. I found the sound system (especially the whistle) in the Big Boy to be more true to life than that of its sister Challenger’s. This locomotive pulls extremely well on the 2% grades on my layout and looks very impressive with a string of 40’ reefers in tow. Anyone who is a fan of big steam will get great pleasure from owning and operating this impressive locomotive.
Spot on review from Dana! My Athearn Big Boy has certainly impressed me both in looks and performance. I wonder if the default whistle sound is correct for the prototype, as it doesn’t sound much like most of the Big Boy videos that I’ve seen, accepting that some of those have dubbed on sound?
Forty-plus years with MR and your product continues to define excellence. Recently I started an N-scale layout with my grandson, and cannot remember where I saw your formula for proper length-to-weight targets for N-scale rolling stock. Can you remind what back issue to consult ?
I don’t think the screw in the front stack should be an issue. Most folks will paint this out? Since that’s the inside of the stack I’d bank that would be more black and grim then not. Even with cleaning. RJ
Disappointing that no mention was made of the MRC decoders still being used despite the high failure rates of these decoders in the Challengers. My two Challengers have been through 5 decoders so far. Every time I run one of them now I expect the decoder to fail. (Not having any other decoder problems with any other manufacturers). Reluctant to purchase one of these due to the MRC decoders. A non decoder version that would have a connector for another decoder (Tsunami Heavy Steam) would be a nice option with a lower price point.
An excellent review of an excellent model. I appreciate the overview of the prototype as well as the review of the model. I would like to own a Big Boy but with 9 & 1/2 inch radius curves and some not real even, I think I need to stay with small locos and short wagons. I rarely run four axle (bogie) wagons the short ones look so much better.
12 inch radius track is 1 foot. In “N” scale that is 160 foot radius. 9 inches is 0.75 of 12 inches. 0.75 of 160 feet is 120 feet. I can NOT imagine a BIGBOY on that tight of a radius. I climbed on a BIGBOY at STEAM TOWN when it was in Bellows Falls, Vt. I walked around a fenced in BIGBOY in Omaha, NB. Try this link http://www.uphs.org/4023move.html