Hello one and all,
I have seen CAZEPHYR’s post on his problems with the Intermountain AC12. My question to anyone else who has bought it is how is it’s running qualities, performance etc? I am thinking of getting one but the aforementioned post and it’s replies have left me wondering if these are “isolated” early production glitches or are these wide spread problems before I ante up the bucks for the locomotive. Thank you in advance for any replies. Andrew
Berk-fan284
The web site below is a good review of the AC-12 with pictures. My thoughts on the model are it is a nice looking model that is not ready for prime time on a layout. If you read the review, you will find the drivers were out of gauge and could be moved out of quarter. This is a serious problem that I did not find with my engine, but the top speed of less than 30mph does not set well with me. The motor noise can be heard above the sound also, which is not great.
Even with all of its flaws, I will keep it.
From what I have read, it seems like a very expensive paperweight. I can’t believe Intermountain released something like this.
I’m having difficulty getting mine to run on my 16.5 inch radius curves. This is an enormous engine compared to my other motive power; HO must stand for Horribly Oversized!
I think I’m with you–especially if this is the ‘general’ run of these locos. I don’t mind un-sprung drivers–I’ve got plenty of brass articulateds (including a couple of AC’s) and they all track well on my layout. But wheel guage and quartering problems sound like just plain sloppy manufacturing to me. Which surprises me, since Intermountain always seems to have held to a high standard in their products–at least the ones that I’ve purchased before. And obviously the motor is mis-matched to the gear ratio–25smph max for one of these guys when they were capable of almost passenger train speeds? Hey, these AC’s could TRAVEL, guys, they weren’t sloggers!. Three of them could haul a reefer extra over Donner Pass at 40mph on 2.4% grades and not even strain. I used to watch them.
I really hope that feedback on these models will cause Intermountain to do some serious re-thinking on future runs of this loco–better gauging of the drivers, fixing the quartering problems–either reducing the gear ratio or putting in more powerful motors. The photos I’ve seen of them make me salivate, they’re so handsome. But until these problems can be solved, I’m sticking to my old Akanes and my Max Gray, thank you.
Tom
Here is a quick (maybe not so quick) review based on my experience running one that I borrowed from a friend. I ran it on the layout for a couple of weeks. This was a non-sound version from one of the early runs.
First I have to say that the detailing is excellent and far exceeds the BLI releases of a few years ago. Beautiful Locomotive!! The piping and other details are very good.
Intermountain made a nod towards the prototype modelers by making the rear set of drivers rigid to the frame like the prototype. This let them add more piping detail and other goodies down in the running gear area. This may also account for most of the problems people are experiencing with the loco in terms of tracking, etc. BLI and Rivarossi have both driver sets pivot. This allows for better tracking but allows for less detail and other compromises in looks to make the mechanics work correctly
My layout has 30” minimum radius curves and no 6. turnouts. Turnouts are ME, Shinohara, Peco, Railway Engineering, BK and Hand laid (codes 100, 83 and 70). All of my other locos (BLI Cab Forwards, Spectrum 2-8-0s, Brass 2-8-0s, 2-6-0s, P2k 2-8-8-2s etc) all run flawlessly on my track work.
The loco ran well without a load. Very smooth and no running gear issues (no clicks or hitches). I used a lenz decoder with BEMF turned down but not off.
Performance under load was a different story: As soon as I hooked up a string of reefers the loco started derailing on all kinds of track work. Upon careful inspection and trial and error, I discovered that it would run fine in one direction but not in the other (isn’t that the way) It is especially sensitive to small vertical differences say on a duck-und
Guy
A sufficient amount of weight cannot be added inside to cure the problem. I agree if it had more weight, it would pull and track better. It is still a nice model that is very detailed and looks very nice overall. I like the opening hatches on the water portion of the tender, but my Overland has that too. If you added more weight, the out of quarter p