I was considering to buy such an engine, but the large number of them showing up (and cheap) on ebay let me wonder if they have some flaw… .
And are they good runners? And how will they score on ‘not so well maintained’ (=laid) track ?
call me a ‘burned child’, as I wasn’t very lucky with steam engines up to now… my SPECTRUM HO 4-6-0 engine had the cables between tender and engine touch the ties and derailing on every switch and the Athearn’s Mikado tender is too light so that the too rigid cables throw it from the track in curves.
Only my almost toy like IHC run well!
I too was burned by earlier Riv steam models
I did own the new 20 oz HW Bachmann Spectrum with C & O vandy tender, nice weight, but sold it and moved up to the new Riv FEF-3
See MR Oct 2003. Trainworld use to carry these for $112.00 + shipping.
I’m not DCC but I did hear of some complications because Bachmann has to deal with European RFI/EMI restrictions by installing hash filters in the motor leads that effects decoder interpretations.
I would consider buying it again. for DC operation.
I did the testing for our review. (Andy wrote the history section.) I didn’t put a lot of miles on our sample before we returned it, but it ran very smoothly, and it pulled well. Our sample did have some cosmetic details installed incorrectly, but we haven’t heard from others who have seen the same problem, so it may just have been a problem with our sample. I’d recommend looking at the model (or photos of that specific model) closely before buying it just to be sure, but it’s a strong and smooth-running locomotive.
Of course, I wish it had been a New York Central Mohawk rather than a USRA heavy, but that’s just me!
I owned the engine for a period of time. I found it to be a smooth runner. I never really had the chance to really run it because the BLI M1a was the favored engine for the running at the time.
I did sell the unit on ebay for a small sum in line with the other heavy mountains and placed the money towards a order that is due early this year… literally a better engine with QSI and Sound. Mountains I have plenty of, it’s mallets I want.
I own the 4-6-0 also and wont part with it. The cables between the cab and tender is a problem I try to pull them deeper into the tender and split the wires down both sides of the draw bar. That engine will be pulling a future set of 5 Overton cars and a small freight of 5 cars also.
The prices on ebay reflect current trends and dont mean that the model itself is “Junk”… with the large numbers of DCC engines with sound hitting the market… it is my theory that people are selling the Analog stuff to put the money towards future orders before the value of the Analog (DC) drops too sharply.
With a little work, the Bachmann heavies will make great L1a models. I’ve got one just for that reason (I’m modeling the P&E, which didn’t have the fancy new stuff!), considering no one’s ever come out with an early Mowhawk, not even in brass! They also bash up into respectable IC 2600-series Mountains (I’m about 1/2 done with that conversion).
I’m sure I had a fluke,
But I had several problems with my Bachmann 4-8-2 Heavy right out of the box including:
Bent downward cow catch that caused derailment/stalls
1 broken and 3 incorrectly bent pickup brushes on the drive wheels.
White paint on rear inside truck wheel where there should be none.
Minor rough metal spurs on the drive wheel flanges.
I’ve had Silver Bachmann switcher that ran like a swiss watch at low speeds.
I shipped the 4-8-2 back to Bachmann two weeks ago for repair. I’ll let everyone know how it goes in a followup post on customer service. So far it’s been good. From what I’ve been told it’s about a month turn around.
I’ve got the C&O version with the flying pumps and the Vandy tender and I’ve had it over a year now, and it runs just fine. I did have a little problem with one of the driver pickups, but that was cured very rapidly by just a little pressure with a screwdriver. The drivers are not sprung or equalized, so I can’t say how it would do on roughly laid track (does ANY steamer do well on roughly laid track?), but it handles my 2% grades very well. The only complaint I have is that the headlight LED is bright blue, instead of yellow, but–oh, well–
Tom
I hope it’s a good runner i’ve been trying to track down an undec one for some cosmetic surgery to a CN U2 class. I’ve got two of the 2-8-0’s and i’m more than happy with them and the ten wheelers are aslogood runners so here’s hoping BTW anyone wishing to part with one drop me an e-mail! TB
I don’t know about the Heavy Mountain, but I do own a Spectrum Light Mountain, basically the same as the Heavy Mountain only with a smaller tender. It runs very well, though the axles sure seem to make a lot of noise. I’ve had if for a year and no serious problems have developed. There was one electrical pick up wiper that was bent out of place, so when the loco ran it went “click, click click”. Took me until a few days ago to figure out that problem!
I believe the Bachmann 4-8-2 heavy is an excellent model, but be advised you may have to fool with the cables between the engine and tender a little.
On your Athearn, cut that dumb plastic sleeve off the cable/wires and that should cure your problem.