I´m searching for good quality 4-4-0 American or 2-8-0 Consolidation Old Time steam locomotive types, which operational smoke and headlight. The best would be DCC so that I can run the loco at small speeds, and where I´m able to turn on/off the smoke or the headlight whenever I want.
Is there anything like that out on the HO market yet??
By the way: I´m also searching for beautiful Old Time passenger cars with open vestibules in HO, and I´m interested in the following 5 types: baggage, coach, sleeper, observation/business car and diner (I´m not quite sure if dining cars were already common on trains in the 1870´s and 1880´s).
If you could name me any manufacturer it would be great!
Bachman’s Spectrum Line the have good 4-4-0, 4-6-0, 2-8-0, 2-10-0, they come with MRC decoders, but i would go for tsunami decoders for sound they dont have smoke, the only smoking locos that i know are made by MTH and they make late steam era locos which are steam giants, athearn’s roundhouse product line has a good 4car set for for old time open vestibule cars; baggage combine, coach, business car, they come in 50’ or 34’ sets roundhouse also offers a 4-4-0, 2-6-0, 2-8-0, you can get these discounted at trainworld or micromark
You haven’t said what era you are interested in. The stock 4-4-0 Bachmann engines are typical of post WW1 engines, say post 1920’s, Roundhouse engines in their old time series are closer to 1880-1910 engines.
The best 1890’s era passenger cars are Central Valley’s wood kits. Then the Roundhouse 70 ft cars. are also good. For 1870’s the various Bachmann, Pocher and Mantua 40-50 ft cars are good. The 34 ft Roundhouse “Overton” cars were only used by one railroad in the US, a shortline in CA.
If you are looking for a decent quality HO scale 1870-1880 locomotive, the answer is there are none currently available from any manufacturer.
Bachmann does sell a train-set quality “golden spike” 4-4-0. If you are willing to scrounge the second-hand market there are other 1870-1880 locomotives to be found.
Sir, you are incorrect. They include a wings-clipped version of the Tsunami. They have fewer features than the regular ones, but the sound quality is the same. I happen to own the 2-8-0 with sound.
I’d suggest any roundhouse engine, they are nice looking and running old timers with MRC sound. They also make old time cars too. Only thing to be wary about would probably be the MRC decoder- not very high quality and some have reported it failing.
I have a Roundhouse 4-4-0, two 2-6-0s and one 2-8-0. The 4-4-0 comes only with the MRC decoder so far. The 2-6-0 and 2-8-0 come DCC ready. I put in my own Micro-Tsunami decoders and speaker.
Here is a photo of a Spectrum 4-4-0, (circa 1915 I think) and a Roundhouse 4-4-0 that is supposed to be about 1885 although most engines for that time had the air pump on the engineer’s side, not the fireman’s side. I also have the Spectrum 4-6-0 DCC ready. Maybe circa 1920. The 4-6-0 can be converted to Stephenson valve gear.
Spectrum 4-6-0
Spectrum 4-4-0 and Roundhouse 4-4-0
The Roundhouse 4-4-0, 2-6-0 and 2-8-0 are all the same size boiler and tender. Only difference are drivers and headlight.
The OP is asking for DCC, an operational headlight, and operational smoke. No one except the cheap Bachmann standard line products come with smoke, and it is not even DCC ready.
The one Bachmann Standard steam engine with smoke that I have runs too poorly to justify the cost and effort of installing a DCC decoder. The Bachmann smoke generator requires a rather high voltage running on DC before it begins to work, and the smoke fluid splatters out if it is ran too fast. Mine is several years old now, so they may have improved. I don’t think installing a DCC decoder would change the performance of the smoke, though, because the voltage would not be adjustable.
Your best hope would be to purchase one of the Bachmann Spectrum products and add a Seuth smoke generator if there’s room for one. The Bachmann Spectrum products run very smoothly, and you can get them with or without DCC, and with or without sound.
Micro-Mark sells Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0 and others with DCC and sound at very reasonable prices. Check their web site at http://www.micromark.com
The Athearn Roundhouse 4-4-0 uses an MRC sound decoder, which many people replace with something better such as a Micro Tsunami from SoundTraxx.
All of the models mentioned should have operational headlights since that seems to be fairly standard.
He might get a smoke generator in the Roundhouse and Spectrum 4-4-0 engine. The Spectrum 4-6-0 has no room. The Roundhouse smoke box front comes off fairly easily but not with the Spectrum. It will be a lot of work which ever way he goes.
Forget it with the old time 4-4-0 Bachmann’s. They are tender drive. The new old timers released about a year ago are better runners. I have one with a Lenz decoder I installed. Very tight fit in the tender. No sound.
Here is some more info for you: I want to model a 1880 to 1900 Old Time passenger train with a 4-4-0 or a 2-8-0 and open platform cars, but I still didn´t decide between the Rio Grande, the Southern Pacific or the Canadian Pacific. My dream however would be the 1886 Canadian Pacific “Pacific Express” (Montreal - Vancouver), but I know this is not possible (only If I would do everything by myself!).
I must say that the Bachmann 4-4-0 is by far more beautiful than the Roundhouse 4-4-0. But in reviews I read now that the Roundhouse engine pulls and runs much better than the Bachmann one, which made my eyes turn over to Roundhouse, since a beautifully detailed loco is nothing worth in my eyes if she can´t run and pull properly. Smoke is a must for me, and I think that it will be easier to install a smoke generator in the Roundhouse 4-4-0 or 2-8-0 than in the Bachmann 4-4-0. Especially the last post has influenced my decision a lot, since I really want the smoke and since I also hate tender drives.
As far as the Old Time passenger cars are concerned, I was totally surprised by the Labelle models! They have a nice collection of Old Time open platform cars, and I think that the wooden kits make those models so much authentic. If the models are so far complete that I only need trucks and couplers to round them off, it´s really cool. Coloring shouldn´t be a problem with the right colors, only the decals maybe (I don´t know if there are special decals for wood or so…). The Roundhouse models seem to be very nice too, but are they only sold in 4-packs (baggage, combine, coach, business) ? My train should have 9 cars, and therefore I will need 5 more coaches, that are sold seperately (which I don´t know in the case of Roundhouse).
And is it possible to install interior lightning inside these Old Timers from Roundhouse and Labelle?
PS: I didn´t find any rolling stock at Central Valley! Maybe the production is discontinued…
Here is an interior shot of the Roundhouse Loco smoke box. The LED wiring has been removed temporarily. As I said in a previous post, the 4-4-0, 2-6-0, 2-8-0 use the same boiler. The inside of the boiler is open right into the drive area. Plenty easy to run wires.
The Roundhouse steamers use traction tires on one pair of drivers.
The Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0 with Tsunami sound does NOT have the drive in the tender. Only the really cheap, standard line Bachmann old timer is built that way. Whether there is room for a Seuthe smoke generator though, I have no idea.
Since you sound like you “might” go for the Roundhouse loco, here are a few photos.
The first is the 4-4-0 with factory MRC decoder.
The second is the tender that comes with DCC ready 2-6-0 and 2-8-0. Both identical tenders
With Micro-Tsunami. I soldered the wires directly to the PC board.
I have seen the new Roundhouse Overland 50’ cars up close they are beautiful but “some” are being discontinued right now as the 34’ Overton are going to become available.That is the problem with these locos and rolling stock being produced in China.
If you really want a challenge, look at the below link.
I think it will be difficult to install the smoke unit, but it seems quite possible, since there is right enough space for it. As far as the decoder is concerned, I don´t need a Tsunami. I think I will be quite content with the “normal” sound.
And yes, the link you posted is a real challenge! But it´s a very cool engine after, the most beautiful of them all, with the right functions…
I have both the Roundhouse 4-4-0 with the MRC decoder with sound, and the Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 with the factory installed Tsunami. Both are fine looking engines. The Roundhouse with the MRC decoder is more “finicky” than the Bachmann. It likes very, very, clean track and spotless pickups to fun very well. But when it does, it’s alot of fun. I’ve been very unlucky adjusting CV’s on the MRC decoder. And the sound is not the same quality of the Tsunami. A small piece of tape over the speaker has helped reduce the volume of the MRC. I cannot speak highly enough of the 2-8-0 Connie though. That is a fine runner and always a hit at the club. I also have the aforementioned 50’ Overland cars by Roundhouse. They are very nice and could only be improved with some interior lighting and details. But that should not scare you away. For around $50 you’ll get 4 cars that look great. The only thing I plan to change, someday, is the sound decoder in the Roundhouse. I would recommend either finding one dcc ready ( I think they can be ) or plan to replace the decoder. Best of luck.
As of right now, the 4-4-0 does not come DCC ready, only DCC with sound. Maybe that will change. The present 4-4-0 PC board is all for the MRC decoder, no NMRA connector.
If you’re still looking for “old time” coaches (1870 >1890) and want to spend the time building kits, you might check out the Labelle Woodworking kits on their web-site. These are real wood kits sans trucks and couplers. I’m assembling an 1886 wood combine and expect good results for my labor. I’ll use Kadee couplers and Precision Scale trucks on this model. They do require adding weights however, so check out the NMRA web-site to insure proper weighting. If you want RTR items, then some of those previously recommended are good choices.
As for engines you may have choices between “balloon” stacks and straight stacks depending upon the specific line you’re replicating. If you’re creating your own line then you can do as you please. Smoke and sound have not yet been combined in any HO scale engines I know of.
thanks for the info. The La Belle cars are really beautiful. The Roundhouse RTR cars are also very finde, but the wood of the La Belle products ads more authenticy to the cars. Wood is wood.
By the way: what would you use as car interiors? Even the RTR Roundhouse cars don´t feature car interors, so it would be interesting for me to know if there are fitting interiors for both manufacturers Old Time cars. (Well, I need 4 different interior types: 1. the baggage, 2. the combine, 3. the coach and 4. the business car)
I’m just going to chime in for the Roundhouse 4-6-0 and others in that line, I have one (no sound, but want to add it) and it’s a great little engine, it doesn’t pull a ton of cars, but again, neither did the prototype, and I also don’t think it had to deal with the trackwork that my club layout has.
