just got an athearn challenger 3985, wow beautiful! excellent detail , smooth running quality with great pulling power. the remote controller interests me a lot , never have i seen any ho loco can be controlled like that , the only one thing that i dont like is the cylinder rod is made of plastic . i used a flashlight to see the cab inside , nicely detailed !! you can see the gauges are printed with color.
when i took out the engine from the box , it gave me a startle, the pilot truck and a small part already came off, so i screw up the pilot truck and mounted that small part on , everything seems well.
oh one thing i forgot to write, its curve tolerance is so good, it can handle sharp curves beautifully.
Congratulations On the Challanger!. Guess the small repairs goes with the teritory of steam .Always maintanace to be done .i know on mine .i have to turn the screw back in the wheels at times.
Have Fun and good Luck
Carl.
I am pleased to hear of a success story, Martin. For both of you, if the pilot truck is prone to coming loose due to the retaining screw backing out, you can buy a Loctite glue that will hold it in place and still allow you to loosen it when you want to. Otherwise, you can use plain old white glue.
I look forward to hearing about your future decoder issues…congrats on a good looking engine.
David B
I’ve had my Challenger for about 2 years - runs & sounds good - despite what some will say about them!! Good luck with yours![8D]