There are quite a few of these on ebay going for $149.
Anyone have one?
Are they any good?
Its suposed to work on DC as well, and the sound goes too, the bell can be activated with the direction switch, etc.
just not sure if they are good or not
Will they navigate 18"radi and go through standard atlas turnouts, #4’s i believe.
Thanks
Kevin
Good price.
Nope; I have five: three USRA heavies and two USRA lights.
That’s a bit subjective, but overall, yes. The detailing isn’t up to Bachmann Spectrum or Life Like Heritage standards (most of the piping is cast on), but it measures out correctly. Their slow speed control and overally running abilities are very good (once you follow the instructions and lube them), and the sound is really cool!
Yup.
Yes, but like any other 8-coupled or larger steamer, they work better with wider radii curves and longer switches. With a relatively large steamer like this, make sure your track is perfect before you decide to buy. If you’ve cheated on your curves or have rough track, you’ll have lots of front truck derailing issues. Don’t blame it on the engine if you do; 85% of the time, derailing is caused by poor trackwork.
thanks for the insight.
Kevin
Kevin, I still had an older DC controller when I picked up my BLI Hudson, and I found exactly as Ray stated. If your points are nice and thin, and well aligned with the diverging tracks, should you run your loco into them, you will have no problems. Also, transitions will make for a much happier loco; move into rises and falls gradually, and use easements where possible. Finally, flicking the reversing button gets old pretty quickly after the novelty of the loco wears a bit. You may want to plan to make your next purchase a starter set in DCC. Check ebay.
I like my BLI Mikado, also picked up on eBay for about $150. It runs good on the club layout and pulls much better than my Athearn Genesis 2-8-2. My best pulling steamers are my Bachmann Spectrum 4-8-2 with my Rivarossi Berk (2-8-4) a close second.
Bob DeWoody
Mine will pull 15 cars up a 3% and run pretty well.
I purchased a Genesis Mike and it runs very well but switchers out pull it so I disposed of it on ebay and paid for the BLI mike.
I might get a few more of those BLI mikes. WITH FRONT COUPLERS DURN IT!!!
I got one of those… in 6 weeks (surface transatlantic is slow…) I will tell you how they fare on bad tracks, I have enought of them!!!
sebastiano
Not running standard DC but in my yard, which is the only place I’ve tested my Wabash one on, I’m happy with it… At least the sound anyway… Layout is undergoing a transition (to put in the transitions I should have when I built it the first time) so I can’t tell you how it behaves on the mainline… The turnouts in the yard are all code 70 #5 (hand spiked) and it handles those just fine. Atlas #4 turnouts are actually 4 1/2 (unless you are using the Snap switches)… I would suspect you’ll be okay… but steamers Always do like wider curves… Just the little that I’ve run it, I would have to agree, it’ll outperfom the Genesis 2-8-2 any day…
Mine did come from an ebay seller btw, price was $139 plus shipping…
Good luck,
Jeff
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