Within the last month, reference was made to Bachmann’s coming out with an HO Climax. I think Bob Boudreau had information on this release and good prices for the loco at some discounter. Does anyone have one of these locos yet? If so, what do you think of it and where did you get it?
I got mine a few weeks back! Its a very nice loco.
Here are some of the nice features I’ve noticed.
Diecast Construction
Easy Access to Dcc board
Removable coal load
Crisp lettering
Sound Ready
prototype gearing
added on piping (not molded)
nice factory painting
EXCELLENT operation (much better then my brass)
good puller (mine pulled 7 Rivarossi log cars up 4% grade)
Spring couplers
Bell rope
Detailed cab interior
Can motor
Scale speed (Same as Shay)
good pick-up
Hope this helps! I would highly recommend this engine.
Mark,
Check about 3 lines under your post. Here’s the direct link:
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=28752
(Now that I’ve responded to the post its about 1/2 way down the page, as of 7:18 EST.)
From the photo, it looks very nice!
Tom
Very impressive little locomotive. If I had a stronger taste for logging, I’d probably get one. But, no dice. (for now)
MR & RMC have a 2 page ad this month that features the climax. Best price I’ve seen… $114.00,Also no shipping charge. Got mine the other day. Runs like a fine watch. Didn’t install the decoder yet. PS the company is Micro Mark
The Spectrum Climax is a fuzz slower than the Shay. It takes about ten laps around a 54 foot mainline for the Shay to lap the Climax, the speed difference is noticable but not too great.
As short as he is, he is a lot touchier about frogs and electrical problems at turnouts. I’ll have to piggyback some feeder wires to the short legs of turnouts that feed insulated spurs to maintain continuity for the Climax to traverse them well.
Like the Shay, I don’t have enough cars to see how many the Climax will pull up a 4.3% grade, the ones I have don’t even slow them down. The level of detail is incredible, to the point where both locomotives are hard to pick up safely, or get in and out of the box. I guess that’s a good thing. The Climax is a little quieter than the Shay, who probably needs a hot oil bath. He squeals a little at any throttle setting under 55%, which is way too fast to run these geared locomotives.
Something to look into if you like these two is the Spectrum 4-6-0. It’s modeled around 1900 to 1910 I think, close to the same vintage. Same level of detail, not as much pulling power obviously, the tender needed a little weight added to stay on track reliably, and the front truck spring was untensioned from the factory, one little bending adjustment to get a slight downward pressure onto the leading truck, and it tracks near perfectly now.
Very handy to have around a period layout, for those times when you simply don’t want to wait on the Shay or the Climax. They’re pretty, they’ll pull a tremendous load, they run smooth and mostly quiet, but fast they are not. I love watching them crawl, but others, including the kids, get bored watching them run, so having some normal speed but still prototypical equipment around is a good idea.