Has anyone got experience with Mantau’s 2-6-6-2 articulated logger? How does it perform? What kind of radius and grade can it take? Has anyone converted one of these to DCC?
I owned one of these copies earlier this year. I paid about 120 for it and it arrived in a box from Mantua packed well and pretty complete.
Out of the box they ran somewhat tight and unbroken in. I expected the engine to be smoothed out once the gears were worn in. The forward driver set was articulated and I did not really worry about minimum radius on the LHS’s layout as it was 18" with a 15" curve. (I really did not attempt that one curve sorry)
I found the boiler to be like heavy plastic and little “Heft” to the engine. I expected it to be DCC ready but little room for speaker etc. It was well built and had great potential for being a sweet little critter.
I ended up selling the engine on ebay for a slight profit. I consider this to be a nice engine but it really did not “Fit” in with the rest of the stable of steam I have in my roster.
The Mantua steam engines are very well built, unlike some of the other stuff, which continually breaks down. No real design flaws. They do take a while to brake in due to the driver bearings being tight. The Model Power site states that the latest ones are DCC ready. Keep it oiled and it will run forever. Some guys, if they have large radius curves, will replace the center flangeless drivers to ones with flanges. This will help out with more pulling power. Try to get one with the latest motor / gearbox as they have been upgraded.
Jim
I have one that I got off E-BAY some time back,I added extria ele pick ups and am detailling it,I runs fine and has one traction wheel, pulls well.I’am sorry I dont have an picture right now,of the detail I’ve added,but is nice locomotive.OH! I replaced the open frame motor with an can motor.
JIM
picture of my 2-6-6-2 mantua logger
Hey oleirish… which can motor did you use?
MR had an article on improving the Mantua 2-6-6-2, see “Building a low-buck articulated in HO scale”, MR. October 1991, page 76
I have just purchased one and have these problems. There is a large radious on the inside of the pilot wheels - front and back - that caused a derail on every switch as the wheel followed the curved switch rail. I fixed this by changing the pilot wheel set with 33" freight car wheels. These wheels are narrower and do not derail.
My current problem is slow speed stalling on Atlas switch frogs. The stalling occures when the front right drivers and the rear left drivers are on the frog. Also, when running backwards on 22" radious right curving section track the rear drive wheel will derail to the inside of the curve.
When I figure out what is causing the frog stalling and what I have done wrong with my track, I will have a very good looking engine that I really like.
all rail frogs, dump the atlas plastic frogs…
LarrySmith:
Regarding the front wheel, I had the same problem as you. What I did to my Mikado may work. The stock Mantua pilot wheel would also derail at the switches. Played around with spring tension and got it a little better but I finally replaced the leading wheel with a wheel set from NWSL. Worked so well I did the trailing truck as well. An added benefit was I now had electrical pickup from 2 additional sources, as the stock Mantua wheels were plastic. This may also help with your stalling issue. My tender had plastic wheels in the center axle on both trucks. I replaced those with the same ones used on the outside axles of the trucks so the tender now has 6-wheel electrical pickup. I have heard of other guys using wipers on the insulated drivers to provide additional pickup so this may be an option if you have the model without the tender. The derail on curves does sound like uneven track, as this is a rigid loco.
Hope this helps,
Jim
I wish I could tell you what can motor I used but don’t know,It was one I had used in an MDC shay and is painted black,I think it was an mitusbshi(spelling)sorry about that!!
JIM[^][:(]
[^]The way I fixed the stalling problem is an extra set of wripers on both frount wheel set drivers and the the rear set of drivers,I only have one atlas switch with plastic frog but my logger runs fine on my 18" curves and the rest of the switches.
JIM[:)]
I beleive the most of the later Mantua engines (post 1990) had Mashima can motors installed, Mantua also offered retrofit kits to install can motors in earlier Mantua engines that didn’t have can motors.
i think you are right,my mantua logger was pre-90’s,it had an open frame motor in it,that is why I changed it out for an can motor,no problem with wheels yet.
JIM[^][:)]
I must have a pre-90 logger, because my motor is open-frame.
My question is, is there a u-joint upgrade for the connector between the driver sets? My original is gone.
If I could just get that little detail fixed, I’ll go with a can motor.
Thanks!
Dave