Looking to add this to my small roster. I’m back in the hobby after 25 a year hiatus. Here’s what I have:
BLI 0-6-0 Paragon 4
BLI 4-4-2 P4
BLI 2-8-0 P3
BLI 2-8-2 ESU LokSound
BLI 2-8-2 ESU LokSound (just starting this one)
Bachmann Shay ESU LokSound (just finished new NWSL gears - Ugh)
MDC Shay ESU LokSound (runs surprisingly well)
As you can see, ESU is my decoder choice. I have an ESU Programer and tester.
I’m looking at Athearn, but just not sure.
Bill
I bought a couple of the Bachmann moguls and found they ran very well.
Here is the stock engine:
For some reason, Bachmann chose a prototype from a relatively obscure Midwestern line rather than a better known prototype. I never could get friendly with the appearance of this engine as it’s delivered. I found the headlight to be much too small, the tender is a goofy one of a kind prototype that I think it looks funny, the bell is an extremely crude casting, the Whistle is extremely undersized, and the Cab window is a single sheet of glass that would never last a day on a real Railroad.
I fixed all of that on one of my engines and this is how it came out:
Much, much better!
The tender is one intended for the Bachmann tin Wheeler that may still be in the Bachmann Parts store. I bought three or four of them while I was at it because those things have a way of going away and never coming back. All of my engines are being converted to oil burners, and the bunker on that one is a spare part from a spectrum Richmond 4-4-0 back in the days when Bachmann actually did stuff like that.
As you are building your roster, I was wondering if you could tell us if you were thinking of a specific prototype road, and what kind of traffic you’d be handling.
It appears that you’re getting a few Pennsy engines.
I use a different decoder than you have. I’m not very familiar with ESU, but we all have our preferences and it appears that must be the one that does what you need.
Athearn just did a new run last year. They come in DCC Reday or DCC Sound versions…
Some locos were deals. I wanted the Consolidation, and the 2-8-2s were thrown in as non-working. I don’t know if I will keep them, they just (ha!) needed new decoders.
Mythical branch line that acquired castoffs from other railroads. I’m not a stickler for time period or locational details, other than its early 1900s.
I’m more interested in structures frankly.
Mostly looking for a good runner that looks decent. LED lights would be bonus, so I don’t have to require them. Decoder and speaker wiring is no big deal.
I love the 4-4-0 Americans and the 2-6-0 Moguls. I have both, One is Bachmann and the other is Athearn. They are both DCC equipped and pull my SINH (Steam into History) trains…
I have two 2-6-0 Alcos from Bachmann. They run very well.
Simon
Thanks all! I bought a new Athearn. Waiting on a sound decoder and speakers from Scale Sound Systems.
I strongly considered a Bachman. But installation of a decoder and then gear replacement (almost finished) on a Bachmann Shay has me gunshy.
The Bachmann 2-6-0 is very good, and won’t have the same problems as your shay, as Bachmann has changed their gear plastic, which no longer creates problems with them breaking (the shays also had their own problem with the gears). Most of the ALCo 2-6-0s are DCC sound equipped, or at the very least DCC-ready, so decoder installation wouldn’t be hard at all.
Yeah, “DCC Ready” as I’ve seen, isn’t always what it’s supposed to be. But it’s worth a look. Bachmann doesn’t have new ones. I can find some that are in orange boxes, and have DCC and Sound. Are those the ones I’m looking for? Are they the latest offering from Bachmann? If so, can I swap out the decoder for an ESU Loksound decoder?
the red-orange boxed ones are DCC sound, the ones in blue boxes are DCC-ready, the ALCo 2-6-0 is a relatively recent model, so there aren’t any differences between the oldest ones (around 9 years ago) and the ones produced most recently. I wouldn’t see why not in terms of swapping the decoder from the diagrams of it. The DCC-ready versions are actually DCC-ready with an 8-pin socket in the tender if you want to go that way.
Ok, I’ll think about it. My Bachmann Shay was “DCC Ready” with an 8 pin connector, and it was nightmarish. I ended up tearing everything out and rewiring it. Many hours.
My only locomotive is a 2-6-0. Mine is a brass import by Overland.
I would look for a good brass model. The prices for standard gauge HO brass moguls are comparable to the plastic models mentioned, and the brass models look much better.
Would you consider brass? If not, why not?
Doc,
I actually have considered brass. Again, I am recently back in the hobby, after being out for about 25-30 years. My recollection about brass is that earlier models had open frame motors, can motors were better, but it’s hard to tell looking at pictures how they will run. It’s really a crapshoot. Second, I’m either installing sound and DCC, or I’m buying them installed. I’m not a fan of manufacturer’s sound, except that BLI’s Paragon 4 is pretty good. That means installing DCC and sound, from scratch. It also means headlights and rear lights have to be installed or reinstalled (LED). It’s cumbersome, having done a few now.
I have 8 steamers now. For a bedroom layout that I just got the mainline up and running on. I like the Athearn Mogul, I’m waiting on a sound card for it. Should be good from there for a bit.
I have many brass engines. Installed DCC in all of them. In all cases except one, they all ran reasonably well in DC when I bought them. Conversion was extremely easy in some cases, complicated in others. The easiest ones are those that have a rubber tube serving as a shaft between the motor and the transfer gear. The motors are easy to change and isolate because of the simplicity of the rubber tube power train. Some brass engine conversion involved complications that turned out to be significant challenges. In only a few cases I was not able to fix the problems. So in the vast majority of cases, the result was very satisfying. I have no doubt that most of these engines will outlast me.
I must admit, however, that I would not go to that much trouble for a Mogul. It just would not get a lot of mileage on my layout. And frankly, the Bachmann model is hard to beat in terms of smoothness. And the economics don’t work very well either when you consider the cost of a sound decoder. The sound decoder of the Bachmann Alco Mogul is pretty basic in terms of CVs, but the sound quality is good. And I’m confident that the Athearn Mogul will run well out of the box.
Simon
In my opinion, any model with an open-frame motor would benefit from the NiB-plus-shim magnet replacement. Even motors with comparatively crude bearings will run at lower (perhaps much lower) amperage for an applied control voltage.
I would also think that a little Kapton tape, if necessary to isolate the motor from the frame, would be a worthwhile investment if you want to install DCC equipment after checking amp draw of the demagnetized motor…
That’s generally what “DCC Ready” means; it’s got an eight-pin DCC plug and in fairly recent steam engines, an opening in the tender floor for a 1" speaker. ESU does make a sort-of eight-pin decoder, but it’s not like most other manufacturers where the decoder is fairly small and has a nine-pin receptacle for a 9 to 8 pin harness of the length you need.
I have one of the 2-6-0s and it does run very well. I have the 4-4-0 which also is very nice but does ‘hunt’ side to side quite a bit; haven’t quite worked out how to stop that yet. However, both are small and light so are limited in how many cars they can haul.
p.s. the “relatively obscure Midwestern line” is the Wisconsin Central. Although the engine may at first appear to be a 19th century engine, the engines it is based on were built for WC in the 1920s.
Another supporter of the Bachmann 2-6-0. It is a nice little engine. It is DCC ready, with an 8 pin board comes with a jumper board. Pull that out, swap out the pig tailed variety of choice and Bob’s your uncle.
An update. I bought an Athearn Mogul, DCC ready with a 21 pin socket. Put an ESU LokSound card in it, a round and a rectangular speaker fro JT at Scale Sound Systems and holy carp it sound better than any of the rest of my locos. It was a piece of cake to install, and it runs decently. It likes to pick a “new” style Kato #6 turnout on occasion.
Post a picture! Are you saying that the front truck derails on the turnout?
Simon
