Just bought 1 of these, and it is slow as a snail at full speed, when compared to my 5 other loco`s(3 bachmann diesels,mantua goat,bli cabforward) all DCC.
It does say under product description “scale speed gearing”…
So, is this normal? anybody got one?
Don`t hear any bad noise from it,guess i was expecting it to go a little faster though
Thanks
Hi shahomy,
I don’t have a Climax but I do know that the real ones were not built for speed. Quite the opposite. They were designed to pull heavy loads on steep grades around tight corners on tenuous track. They also had to contend with innumerable drive shafts and gears, all of which would probably have destroyed themselves at high rpms. The last thing the operators wanted was speed.
I’m afraid your model is rather prototypical.
Dave
thanks for the reply
as long as its not broken, i can live with slow.
i new the real mcCoys were not meant for speed, but wasn`t expecting this slow…
I believe that most “Geared” locomotive’s only had a top speed of 12 MPH. ( At least that’s as fast as a Shay could go anyway’s .)
But, they “Sounded” like they were doing 90 MPH !
Nice, that the manufacturer built in the “Prototipical” speed.
Fast is not in the 1:1 Builder’s discription, the Bachmann 50 tonner is right up there in speed with those MDC Roundhouse boxcabs and that strange looking Climax thing from the same manufacturer of ages ago. Sometimes you get tired of waiting for the things to get where there going.
They look way better when running on track with lots of curves as opposed to track that is straight.
Scale top speed of around 15 mph or less is to be expected.
FYI –
The 50-Ton 2-Truck Climax has a plastic gears splitting issue. Because of the split gear problem, Bachmann started producing the Climax with metal gears. Using the Bachmann Product Item Number, look it up to determine if your Climax has metal gears. If it does not have metal gears, order them from Bachmann Parts while they are available.
RR Baron
They’re geared so they run slowly but with a lot of “pull”. I’m sure most log train runs would be at single-digit speeds.
Durbin Rocket:
Google should be your best friend. The answer is in the link.
I have the MDC Climax. I set it to run at ten mph with a Tsunami Micro which might have been fast. Boring on the layout.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geared_steam_locomotive
Rich