How are the mechanisms on the Hallmark E5?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

So I recently scored a Hallmark E5A-B Set for less than $200 and I would like to know how good their mechanisms are.

2

According to the Spook Show site (see URL below), these are pretty bad units. They have a number of issues that caused him to rate them a “D”.

http://www.spookshow.net/loco/kumatae.html

Caldreamer

3

Isn’t most of that SpookShow stuff N scale? The OP doesn’t say but I assumed he meant HO.

BrassTrains rates them as running well but a little noisy. At least they have fully-enclosed axle gears, that’s a plus.

Good Luck, Ed

4

Several years ago, I purchased my Hallmark E5 A and B from an Ebay seller. The original drive had been removed and replaced with a Hobbytown drive. It works great on DC, but I never converted it to DCC after changing my layout to DCC.

5

But he also pointed out that effective fixes were easy and cheap, and once those were made he graded them B.

I would add that we now have a better choice of high-torque motors…